Happy St. Patrick’s Day! In celebration of the Irish holiday, please enjoy these stories and photos we’ve collected from North Shore Bank employees.

SVP HR/compliance Molly Schissler is lucky enough to have visited Ireland six times to date; she took these photos on her most recent trip, in 2019. “And yes,” she notes, “I have Irish in my blood — one of my great-great-grandfathers was from County Clare.”

Molly first went to Ireland with one of her sisters. “We had an amazing time,” she says. “The second time, we each brought one of our sons as part of a visit of the Milwaukee Hurling Club’s youth teams, which met up with various hurling clubs around Ireland.” The ancient Irish sport involves using “an ash wood stick called a hurley to hit a small ball called a sliotar between the opponent’s goalposts,” according to Wikipedia.

On the third and fourth trips, Molly and her sister attended the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship. “Think of it like our Super Bowl — it’s a huge event and very difficult to get tickets to,” she says. Her two most recent trips were with husband Jeff and other family and friends. “Because of Milwaukee’s Irish Fest, I’ve also gotten to know a number of folks from Ireland and have then visited with them when we’ve gone there.”

VP information systems Dana Scherff has visited Ireland three times and will return again in September. “It’s a beautiful country rich in history with the most wonderful people,” she says. “We absolutely love it.”

“The Irish are incredibly friendly and forthright,” Dana says, offering a story from her first trip as an example. “My husband and I took an overnight flight, which is very common. After we landed early in the morning, we picked up our rental car and spent the first day exploring. We were tired from the flight, but just too excited not to get out there and start our Irish adventure. When we finally arrived at our B&B in the early evening, we were greeted by our host, Liam. He was very kind, taking us directly to our room after greetings were exchanged.”

She continues: “As I mentioned, we were tired. Both of us just wanted to take a hot shower, grab a bite, and hit the pillow. As we were getting organized, Liam knocked on our door to inform us that his wife wanted to offer us a larger room. I quote — insert Irish accent here — ‘My wife said I can’t put the large man in the wee room.’”

Both confused and amused, Dana and Rick allowed Liam to show them the other room, but thanked him and didn’t switch. “After we closed the door, we started laughing!” she says. “My husband isn’t what I’d consider a ‘large man’ — he’s six foot and maybe 200 pounds. Well, for Liam and his wife he was a ‘large man,’ and for the remainder of the vacation and still to this day, he gets teased about it. On our second trip over, we were in a pub watching the Packers game — yes, we found the Packers! — when a local said to him, ‘You’re a big man. Do you play?’ We both cracked up again. He’s not this big guy. He’s certainly not playing in the NFL! But apparently to the Irish he is, and they don’t see anything offensive in mentioning it. The classic Irish frankness on display.”

“The pubs in Ireland are truly social meeting places,” Dana says. “They are a lot of fun and a great place to meet locals.” One night at a pub in Clifden while she and her fellow travelers were listening to a live band, an Irish man approached their table and asked one of them to move his chair in. “The pub was packed, and there really wasn’t much room to move, but my friend tried. It wasn’t enough and the Irish man asked again if he could move in. My friend tried again. The Irish man got a little frustrated and said something like, ‘He needs room to stomp the mahogany, don’t you know!’”

Dana’s friend managed to scoot over maybe another inch. “After that another man walked into the pub carrying a 4-by-4-foot piece of mahogany wood, placed it on the floor, and began to dance on it,” she says. “He was greeted by lots of whooping and applause — it was obvious he was well known in the community. We heard ‘Stomp the mahogany, Derry!’ over and over. When Derry was done dancing, he picked up his mahogany board and walked it out of the pub. It was so much fun to witness! It’s very common for locals to sing a song or dance while the band is playing.”

And accounting supervisor Julia Peters’s St. Patrick’s Day tradition with her husband involves less travel, but they’ve been keeping it alive for over 20 years.

“We’re not Irish, but we are movie buffs,” she says. “So every St. Patty’s Day, we watch The Quiet Man, starring John Wayne.” The romantic comedy/drama sees Wayne’s retired Irish boxer return from Pittsburgh to his birthplace on Innisfree, in County Sligo, where he falls in love with a native played by Maureen O’Hara. It won John Ford his record-setting fourth Academy Award for Best Director.

“It is always on cable stations the week of St. Patrick’s Day,” says Julia, who shares a lifelong love of John Wayne with her husband.

“We do not go out and party on holidays, so we just sort of fell into picking our favorite movie for the particular holiday and making an evening of it,” she says. “I always make Irish stew for dinner, and of course I dye my husband’s beer and my wine green. The Quiet Man is a romance, but with a great old-fashioned brawl in it. It has comedy, family values, and living life the best you can. Maureen O’Hara is such a strong woman, and the rest of the town characters are great, too. And of course John Wayne was great in all of his movies.”