Sydneysiders, get ready as everything is about to be painted green with Irish pride for St Patrick’s Day!
You now face two choices: will you go to the annual Parade on the Sunday or save your pennies until Tuesday for the official St Patricks Day festivities? The answer is clear, do as the Irish do and celebrate all week!
The annual Parade will be held on Sunday the 15th and will weave its way through George Street, Park Street and Elizabeth to the Family Day festivities at North Hyde Park. The shamrocks, green hats, face paint and costumes will flow like a river through the city with lots of Irish entertainment to enjoy.
Despite the fact that St Patrick’s Day falls on a Tuesday this year, our Irish pubs are bringing out the traditional breakfasts and enough Guinness to make Ireland blush. It’s time to get out the few pieces of green clothing you own, throw it all on and get yourself to a pub for a pint of Guinness.
Let us tip our green hats to Ireland and celebrate...
with Bia Maith, Fion Maith, Ceol Maith (good food, good wine and good music)!
In true Irish style, the Mercantile will be celebrating St Patrick’s Day from 7am on the 17th and will continue on well into the next day. To begin the festivities, there will be a hefty traditional Irish buffet. With a price of $40pp expect to see a whole lot of pudding and flowing beer for all. There will be Irish entertainment all day with performances from Blackwater, Claddagh, Sindig, Shaylee Wilde and the Currie-Henderson Academy of Irish Dancing!
Mercantile Hotel, 25 George Street, The Rocks +61 2 9247 3570
Renowned craft beer pub, Dove & Olive are putting on a weekend of Irish stouts and dark beers. Ireland’s top stouts will sit side by side with some Aussie favourites, featuring the likes of Grifter’s Omen Oatmeal Stout, 4 Pines’ Space Beer and Artic Fox’s Chocolate Stout. The smooth black liquid will transform your weekend and get you in the mood for green hats and pub sing-a-longs.
Down your pint with a Dublin coddle; made up of sausages bacon, potato, peas and cabbage served with garlic soda bread. The weekly trivia will also be served with an Irish twisted, hosted by Nick Nolan from 6:30pm. Oh, did I mention there will be Guinness?
Dove & Olive, 156 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills +61 2 9699 6001
Firstly you can win Guinness and Magners hats and T-Shirts! Secondly, there are pubs in Moore Park, Paddington, CBD and Circular Quay. PJ’s will have Irish bands on stage and dancers for entertainment in each location. All Day Irish Breakfasts will be sold with a Black Velvet Cocktail or pint of Black Guinness for just twenty bucks. If you were thinking the day couldn’t get much more Irish, there will also be slow braised Cape Grim beef cheek, colcannon, picked baby radish and Jameson jus. PJ Gallaghers Jackson on George gets a honourable mention, as they will be hosting the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade Official Afterparty on Sunday the 15th from 4pm!
PJ Gallaghers individual locations and contact details can be found at www.pjgallaghers.com.au
Sitting smack bam in the centre of Bondi Junction, the cheers and diddys coming from this Irish pub are hard to miss. Prepare yourselves for free hair spraying, a tonne of green face paint and giddy Irish dancers. There will be 18 hours of entertainment with bands and DJ’s from 8am. If you were planning an Irish Breakfast, the Cock ‘N’ Bull have you covered for $20 with a free Bulmers and Cock ‘N’ Bull T-Shirt.
Cock ‘N’ Bull, 89 Ebley Street, Bondi Junction +61 2 9389 3004
For those who have donned the green hats and come before, you will remember that Scruffy Murphy’s is not a formal affair. The lighting is not so much dim as it is murky, it hasn’t been refurbished, it’s not a modern take on Ireland, it’s your old traditional Irish pub with Guinness on tap year round. To celebrate there will be free hats, DJ’s and live bands, Såsta and Blackwater, from the 13th- 17th March.
Scruffy Murpys, 43-49 Goulburn Street, Sydney +61 2 9211 2002
