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JESSICA FINCH Associate Editor

+ UPSIDEDOWN LIGHT - St. Patrick's Day is obviously a big holiday for many Western New Yorkers, but having spent a lot of time in Syracuse I learned that city is equally as celebratory.

In fact, Syracuse has proved how proud its Irish population is. On Tipperary Hill hangs the only upside-down traffic signal - the lights, from top to bottom, are green, yellow, red.

As the story goes, in the 1820s, when the Erie Canal was built from Albany to Buffalo, the Irish were the chief laborers. When the canal was finished, many of the Irish settled west of Syracuse on a hill overlooking the canal. This area became known as Tipperary Hill.

When the city began installing traffic signal lights in the 1920s it put one at a major intersection on Tipperary Hill. Some Irish youths, incensed that anyone would dare to put the "British" red above the "Irish" green, broke the light. The city replaced it, but the Irish broke the replacement. After a few rounds of this the city decided that if there was going to be a light at that intersection, workers had better invert it, and so they did.

+ BETTER NOW THAN MY BIRTHDAY - For the past three years, my birthday, April 2, has fallen on daylight saving weekend - thus I would lose an hour of partying. I often felt slighted, and tired, the following morning. But with "springing ahead" taking place this past Sunday I won't lose an hour on my birthday weekend. While telling this story

this past Saturday I found the second person who can understand my situation, as his birthday is also April 2. The last time that happened was on Halloween, when we gained an hour, and I met another girl who shares my birthday, born just hours after me.

+ ST. PAT'S PARTY - The Amherst Gaelic League will host the 35th annual Irish American Cocktail Party, to benefit the Belfast Summer Relief Program, from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m. Friday, March 16 at the Hearthstone Manor, 333 Dick Road, Depew. The AGL's Irishman of the Year, Mike Flynn, will be honored. The AGL has contributed to the Belfast Summer Relief Program for more than 10 years and has been the largest financial provider in bringing more than 1,200 children from Northern Ireland for a six-week trip to Western New York. Tickets cost $25 presale and $35 at the door and include open bar, hors d'oeuvres and entertainment by the Celtic band, "Penny Whiskey," the Rince na Tiarna Irish dancers, and traditional bagpipers. For tickets call 834-9510 or 835-7638.