The $100 per person and $900 per table Friendly Sons of St. Patrick affair scheduled for next week at the Encore Hotel and Casino has been cancelled.
The tendency right now is for large affairs of that kind to be put off or cancelled entirely because of the rising fear of the possible spread of the coronavirus.
In Boston, that city’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade has been called off, as well as many of the typical St. Paddy’s Days celebrations.
Also called off are large gatherings of all kinds from medical symposiums to some high school sporting events.
Friendly Sons event organizers had appeared to be stumbling along, somewhat paralyzed by the poor prospects for a big turnout or of a turnout of any kind worth noting because of the potential coronavirus implications.
With news of the event’s cancellation Tuesday afternoon, all of us, those of us who are invited to the Friendly Sons as well as those of us who are not welcome there, will be eating our annual homage to the Irish epic celebration meal – corned beef and cabbage, potato and turnip, the gravy and all the fixings – inside our own homes without venturing outside.
And we won’t need to spend anywhere near $100 to pay for it.
This year’s Friendly Sons dinner is now a postscript to a holiday celebration consumed by worry over the coronavirus.
The situation locally could change overnight.
Everything that is open today could be closed by next week and all of us will be hiding behind closed doors in our own homes or apartments. Be prepared, buy corned beef and cabbage soon just in case the Friendly Sons is cancellation is just the beginning of much worse things to come.