Almost everyone aches to have some link with Ireland. Even if your wife’s friend’s therapist’s tennis partner has a cat with a distant cousin in Dublin, that’s more than enough. It’s a weird phenomena, but a wonderful one to be sure, to be sure.
And why not. The country itself is stunningly beautiful, its identity is unique and long-established and elements of the culture can be found just about everywhere. In the USA, many of the working class settlers that migrated across the Pond ended up establishing much of the commonplace infrastructure that we take for granted today. Cities up and down the East Coast still cling to their Irish connections and we celebrate these every March, on St. Patrick’s Day.
On March 17, anyone with even the most tenuous of Irish connections and just about everyone else as well, finds an excuse to drink a pint of stout, wear whatever green clothing you might own and generally just sing, dance and make merry. In Chicago of course, the river is temporarily dyed green and a huge parade is held.
Despite being 5,115 miles away from Santa Monica, you can still find a taste of Ireland here in our sun-drenched city. Because unlike any other culture in the whole wide world, every single city on the planet has an Irish bar. In fact, when astronauts finally visit Mars, chances are they’ll find an Irish pub there, somewhere.
Each Irish bar is like a teeny-tiny oasis; a safe haven where you know exactly what to expect inside. And if you’ve ever found yourself in a foreign country, far, far away, with a less-than-fluent grasp of the local language, spying an Irish bar on the horizon means you can probably find a little taste of something familiar.
Santa Monica has two Irish pubs and a sports bar that’s Irish in name only: O’Briens Irish Pub (2226 Wilshire Blvd), Sonny McLean’s Irish Pub (2615 Wilshire Blvd) plus Jameson’s Pub (2702 Main St). Thankfully, they all survived the pandemic, because not every bar or restaurant did.
Both Sonny McLean’s, O’Briens will have live music, dancing, traditional Irish food and drinks together with gazebos for the outdoor dining and patio areas, should the heaven’s decide to open at any time on Sunday.
"It seems to get bigger every year," Jimmy Stone, bartender at O’Briens said, adding, "Since we got the patios outside, we seem to draw an even bigger crowd every year. We have an outdoor bar that we’re going to be installing, so it should be a fun night. It feels like Christmas around these parts."
"This isn’t our first rodeo," laughs Grant Woods, owner of Sonny McLean’s Irish Pub. "We’ve set up the back patio with a beer trailer and a bar and we’ll open at 8am and then if it stays the same as usual, it’ll be nice and comfortable until early afternoon. And then the mayhem breaks out."
Woods says that they have a group of local teenagers performing traditional Irish dancing plus live music from a local band. Both Sonny McLean’s and O’Briens will be serving a St Patrick’s Day menu that contains, among old school favorites like wings and burgers, other customary dishes like corned beef and cabbage, bangers and mash and shepherd’s pie. Jameson’s is more of a standard issue sports bar — with an insane number of televisions screens — and significantly less of an Irish pub, so it’s business as usual.
The day before St Patrick’s Day this year, Saturday March 16, will see the last three games of this year’s Six Nations rugby tournament. So, by the time Sunday rolls around, Ireland will know if they’ve won the title. The Green Machine seemed all but unstoppable…until last Saturday, when England beat them by one point, in the final minute in what was undoubtedly the most nail-biting game in this year’s already gripping competition.
Ireland play Scotland on Saturday and they have to win, but Scotland’s performance, much like Italy’s, is improving every single year. Second placed England play France…but without their legendary Scrum Half, Antoine Dupont, they’re suffering.
