Saint Patrick’s Day is one of the most exciting days of the year, celebrating the death of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
Whether you’re fully Irish, half Irish or completely unrelated, Saint Patrick’s Day is a great excuse to celebrate with plenty of booze, fun and the colour green.
The celebration takes place every year on the 17th of March and is big in the UK, USA and of course, Ireland.
While most people like to spend Saint Patrick’s Day in the pub with friends, there are plenty of other ways you can enjoy this special day.
Traditionally, the day has involved a feast between families where Irish food is enjoyed, such as soda bread, corned beef and cabbage plus Shepard’s pie.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Saint Patrick’s Day without a few pints of Guinness too!
Guinness is certainly an acquired taste and not for everyone, but the drink is traditionally enjoyed on St Patrick’s day due to its heavy association with Ireland.
Outside of food, you can also organise a special St. Patrick’s Day bingo game with all your friends.
Just like regulation bingo, this can be a lot of fun and is an excellent way to celebrate, especially after a nice meal and with plenty of drinks available.
If you want to join in the St Patrick’s Day bingo fun and organise your own party with friends, we’ve included a full guide below.
St. Patrick’s Day Bingo Party
A good St Patrick’s Day bingo party should have the right mixture of food, friends, drinks and music.
You’ll also want to make sure everyone is wearing something green, as it wouldn’t be a proper St Patrick’s day without it!
You can even implement a dress code as a rule, making it so that anyone who wears something green gets one free number on their bingo ticket.
If you want this to be a really authentic Irish St. Patrick’s Day party, you might want to consider preparing some traditional food, such as Shepard’s pie, cabbage and corned beef or soda bread.
It’s not required, of course, but it does make things much more fun.
If you’re not in the mood to cook, you can always find some Irish-themed food at your local supermarket. Perhaps some cookies in the shape of green shamrocks or failing that, lots of green snacks and foods such as green M&Ms.
For a lot of people, St. Patrick’s Day is a chance to get well and truly drunk, so preparing drinks is essential (drink carefully).
Guinness might not be to everyone’s taste, but you can prepare shots such as Baby Guinness instead.
This is a delicious mix of Baileys and Tia Maria, which, if made correctly, looks just like a mini pint of Guinness!
For a successful party, you’ll want to make sure that everyone takes a drink whenever someone gets a bingo.
No party is complete without some music, and it’s always a good idea to play something with an Irish theme.
You can go for traditional Irish folk music, or if you prefer, there are plenty of excellent contemporary Irish bands and artists, including U2, the Cranberries, Westlife, Sinead O’Connor and many more.
St. Patrick’s Day Bingo Cards
If you want to host your own bingo night, you’re going to need a set of bingo cards as well as a way to select numbers at random.
For the bingo cards, we’ve included some custom-made cards below for you to print off and hand out to your friends.
Make sure you print St Patrick’s Day bingo cards for everyone! For selecting numbers, you can get your own bingo ball set or for a simpler option, just use a random number generator online.
This way, you can ensure that the game is completely fair, and everyone has an equal chance of winning.
St. Patrick’s Day Bingo Game
Now you’ve got the food, drinks, music and bingo tickets sorted. It’s time to get on with the game!
St. Patrick’s Day bingo is played with similar rules to 75-ball bingo, with each card having 25 numbers and one free space.
Don’t forget to include your free number somewhere on your card if you followed the dress code of wearing green.
The host will take the lead as the bingo caller for the first time.
They won’t be able to play that round because they’ll be shouting out the numbers, but they can still join in the fun of taking a drink when bingo is called.
For extra fun, the caller can be made to don a funny looking leprechaun hat. A scorecard and daubers should be available to everyone else.
The Rules
There are 25 squares on each bingo ticket, divided into five rows of five squares, with a free space in the centre and the word “LUCKY” across the top.
The caller will select a number at random (from a hat, a bingo spinner or a random number generator) and announce it.
So, if someone says “5”, you check to see if you have the number five on your ticket. Daub it off if you do.
The goal is to cover five squares in a row, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. If you do, you’ve won!
If you cover five squares in a row, shout out “Bingo!” before anyone else can in order to seal your win.
When bingo is called, everyone has to take a drink, and the winner then takes over as the next caller, putting on the funny hat before starting a new game.
Don’t forget to include any free numbers and to also make sure everyone has new tickets and enough drinks.
How to Play Irish Bingo?
Irish bingo is played much in the same way as it is anywhere else in the world.
Both 75 ball and 90 ball variations of the game are popular, and if you want to learn how to play bingo, we have plenty of guides to help you.
Before you start playing Irish bingo or bingo online, you might want to brush up on bingo strategies to improve your chances and help you have more fun.
The basic premise of Irish bingo is simple: Each player has a bingo ticket that contains between 15 and 25 numbers.
Once all the players have their tickets and are ready to play, the bingo caller picks numbered bingo balls at random and calls out the number.
Players need to match the numbers on their ticket to those that are called out, daubing them off. To win, a player will need to create a single or double line or get a full house by daubing off all of the numbers.
You can play online bingo by choosing one of our bingo rooms, or you can organise your own bingo night with friends thanks to our printable St. Patrick’s Day bingo game.
However you choose to play, we’re sure you’re going to love the Irish St. Patrick’s Day Bingo.
