Jimma, Ethiopia, New Year 2007 (11th September 2014)

New Year in Ethiopia and it’s a public holiday. Jimma is a regional town of around 120,000 people in the south west of the country. A generally poor town with unfinished buildings, unpaved streets and many people living in shacks. It nevertheless has a bustling local economy and a vibrant social life.

The Central Hotel is the prime accommodation and venue in the town, and the only Jimma location listed on TripAdvisor. It is a walled compound with a block of accommodation overlooking a junction of two busy main roads and the main bus station. On the far side of the compound are guest lodges (4 to a block), a swimming pool, small children’s play area and a poolside café / restaurant.

Its 4.00pm and there is a large middle class crowd in for the New Year. Children are at play in the pool. From the dress styles you would guess it is mainly a Christian crowd, although the town is roughly a 50/50 Christian / Muslim split. There are groups of men drinking. Families sit together, men drinking beer or wine, women mostly have soft drinks. The beer is mostly local (Bedele, Meta, St George) the soft drinks Sprite, Coke, Mirinda, etc.  Plenty of local food. People are dressed up, especially young women and girls in a mixture of traditional and western clothes. Many smartphones on display. There is loud Ethiopian music being pumped out and the DJ is setting up, although the hectic music sits at odds with the laid back crowd. Later some young women start dancing. As the event draws to a close young men with plenty of alcohol dominate the dance floor as the families drift away.

This is a secure space isolated from the life of the majority of residents going on around it. It’s a hybrid scene of Ethiopia  (dress, food, music) and western influence (dress, drink) and aspiration. A symbolic event of a country in the process of change, although this change in Jimma at least is limited to a small percentage of the population.

Central Cafe

Facing out onto the street opposite the bus station is the Central Café, a semi restricted space where people with apparently lower disposable income enjoy a similar New Year event. Many more children in their best clothes milling around. Different food, no DJ or pool, but still a desirable place to be for Jimma residents.

Finn McCool's Irish Pub, New Orleans

Finn McCool's is set in a long single story wooden building in the heart of the Mid City residential neighbourhood of New Orleans, a couple of miles from the tourist hive of the French Quarter. The walls are covered in random pieces of Irish memorabilia and related paraphernalia. However, it's main claim to fame is that it is the premier pub in the city for English and Scottish football and home venue for local Celtic fans. McCool's also offers darts and scrabble nights, and a range of Irish beers and ciders (Pear Magners anyone?)

We visited on a Wednesday afternoon for a Celtic Champions league qualifying match. Only 12 people in the bar as everyone else who might have come was working. It didn't feel like we were in Ireland, but it didn't feel like we were in the USA either: rather some undefined location of postmodern sampling, both familiar and disconnecting at the same time.

Their website describe the history of the bar: 

We were born in Belfast and arrived in New Orleans in the ’90’s. The culture of New Orleans, with it’s love of food, music and family, really welcomed us and reminded us of home. In 2002 we took the plunge, bought a worn-out old bar and turned it into Finn McCool’s Irish Pub. We were slowly building a neglected part of Mid City when Hurricane Katrina hit. After returning from evacuation and taking 6 months to rebuild, with the help of our customers and friends, we reopened the doors on St Patrick’s Day 2006. Since then, the bar has become a major part of the Mid City community and won awards for “Best Bartender in New Orleans” every year since re-opening along with“Best Neighborhood Bar.” We host a variety of fund raising activities and sponsor many sports teams, including the world famous Finn McCool’s FC.

We named the Pub after Finn McCool, the legendary giant of Irish folklore, so no matter what part of the world you’re from, you’ll always find a warm welcome at Finn McCool’s

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