If you happened to be driving by the Greater Danbury Irish Cultural Center on St. Patrick's Day, you may have noticed the smell of corned beef and cabbage filling the air.

Now that may not seem that unusual for a St. Patrick's Day, but the Irish have had it rough this year with the coronavirus pandemic.

First, their Irish Heritage Day was canceled, then the virus wiped out the parade, and they even had to close their club and pub. That's right, can you imagine not being able to have a drink at your own cultural center on St. Patrick's Day? Now all that's bad enough, but since restaurants were all ordered to close, they had an even bigger problem -- what to do with five hundred pounds of corned beef?

Now everyone, even if you're not Irish, knows that you can't hold the Irish down. They are going to find a way to celebrate the biggest day on their calendar, and believe it or not, they did.

According to newstimes.com, volunteers sprung into action and put on their cooking aprons to prepare a St. Patrick's Day feast that they could serve curbside.

After a busy day in the kitchen, the curbside corned beef seemed to lift spirits and bring a small sense of normality to all the craziness that's going on.

The corned beef sold for just $8 dollars a sandwich, but was well worth it just to keep the spirit of the day alive.

Don Bickelhaupt, the club's bar manager told newstimes.com just how the day went.

After the governor said everything had to close, we were just trying to follow the rules as people in SUVs pulled around to the back door of the club, where their corned beef orders were brought to their cars. It’s tough for them and it’s tough for us — and we are a small, little private club, we are just doing the best we can.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton was also part of the celebration, but now in the new norm he kept his social distance and offered up a virtual St. Patrick's Day toast via Facebook.

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