St.Patrick's Day 2014

The pan-Celtic parade in Munich took place in a city which yesterday did not have the wonderful blue skies and mild temperatures of last week (and of today!) and those of us traditionally kilted froze our arses as we processed from Schwabing to Odeonsplatz.

Pipes skirled and a chilly breeze blew strongly but somehow I suppose it was all worth it. It was also the day of local elections in Bavaria and the question of whether the city will still have a Social Democrat as Lord Mayor will not be resolved finally until there is a run-off ballot in a fortnight's time.

On the square in front of the Feldherrnhalle... a location where flags of many kinds have been boldly displayed in the past... the one on the left caught my eye. It cleverly combines the Scottish and Bavarian heraldic devices and the motto reads 'We are always thirsty'.

Guinness flowed at Odeonsplatz sufficient to quench any thirsts. And yet I was unable to shake off the thought that in the Crimea on this very day there were ballots being cast as well. There no question of combining a provincial and a national identity... the thirst on the peninsula is for something both wildly intoxicating and essentially toxic.

On Friday morning, 9 November 1923, the Feldherrnhalle was the scene of a confrontation between the Bavarian State Police and an illegally organized march by the followers of Adolf Hitler. When ordered to stop the marchers continued; the State Police felt threatened and opened fire. The sixteen marchers who were killed were honoured as martyrs when the Nazis finally came to power a decade later.

In Munich it is difficult to evade reminders of history In the Crimea, too, one might hope.