THIS morning the Irish are a race joined together by a love of decaff, rich roast and mild blend.
As part of the fourth annual Irish Hospice Foundation Coffee Morning, people from Montreal to Monasterevin, Tokyo to Toomevara, will be raising their cups in aid of more than 30 hospice groups around Ireland.
The idea for the coffee morning came after Ms Una Larkin, a director of the foundation, saw a similar event in England, where the MacMillan Nurses have been holding the world's biggest coffee morning for a number of years.
Since its inception in 1993, the Irish event has continued to grow. Last year, up to 400,000 people drank coffee for the foundation, raising £600,000. This year, the organisers hope to increase this to £700,000, aided and abetted by coffee drinkers around the world.
In Boston, supporters at Tufts University and Harvard will unite five hours after their Irish colleagues for their contribution to the coffee morning. "This will be the first year", says Ms Deirdre Shalloe, who is originally from Cork and now works in Harvard's business school.
Meanwhile, Bewley's restaurant in Tokyo wished its customers a hearty yokoso irasshaimashita, or welcome, in the early hours of this morning as part of the restaurant chain's contribution to the day. Irish embassies around the world are also taking time off to raise a cup to those at home.
At home, coffee mornings are being held in thousands of private houses as well as in Garda and fire stations, offices and workplaces.
The biggest coffee morning has traditionally been hosted by Aer Rianta in Dublin Airport, where £6,500 was raised last year from passengers, visitors and staff. "It's not only Aer Rianta but our agents, our airlines and the businesses in the airport," says Ms Bridie Fahey of Aer Rianta. "There's an element of competition to see who can collect the most."
On a more terrestrial level, at the CIE workshops in Inchicore the traditional mid morning break is expected to attract 800 people.
Government representatives will be sipping a cup or two in the Dail restaurant. The Progressive Democrats are hosting their own annual session for staff, constituents and the public at their headquarters in Dublin's South Frederick Street.
The most celebrity strewn event is being held at Fitzer's Restaurant in the RDS in Dublin, from 9.30 a.m.-11.30 a.m., hosted by the IHF director Marie Donnelly, Eithne Fitzpatrick of Fitzers and Robert O'Byrne of The Irish Times. Passers by who drop in can expect to be served by Shay Healy, Boyzone supremos Louis Walsh and John Reynolds and members of the pop group Who's Eddie.