Killarney Rose on Pearl Street

A man walks into a bar.

It's a few days before St. Patrick's Day, and Ryan's Sports Bar on Gold Street is having a dry run of sorts for the upcoming holiday. The bar is serving free plates of corned beef, cabbage and boiled potatoes. The place is pretty full, but to be perfectly honest, there aren't that many takers.

That will almost certainly change come Monday, when Ryan's (along with every other Irish bar downtown, of which there are many) will feature the traditional fare of Ireland. In addition to the ever so popular corned beef and cabbage, menus at various establishments will feature beef and lamb stew, shepherd's pie, bangers and mashed (sausages and potatoes), even chicken curry.

Inside a Lower Manhattan pub

"Everyone's looking for the Irish soda bread," says Tommy Byrne of T.J. Byrne's, on Fulton Street. "They'll be all Irish that day."

It's all part of what is the biggest day of the year for the City's Irish bars. 

"New York is the best place for St. Patrick's Day in the world," said Ronan Downs, the owner of Beckett's Bar & Grill.

This will come as little surprise to anyone familiar with the great number of Irish bars in the City. And if it's possible, they seem to be even more ubiquitous downtown. You can start out at A.J. Kelly's on Stone Street, for instance, before making your way over to Beckett's on Pearl Street. Head north on Pearl and you'll soon spot, across the street from each other, the Killarney Rose and the Mercantile Grill, Irish flag flying. The proximity is no accident -- they're owned by the Morans, father and son, respectively.

The Full Shilling, shipped over from Ireland piece by piece

There are a number of Irish bars elsewhere in Lower Manhattan as well. In addition to hosting St. Patrick's Day celebrations on Monday, some are featuring special promotions on Friday night as well. The Full Shilling, for instance, has engaged what the manager calls 'a vertically challenged person' to dress as a leprechaun, as well as an Irish bagpiper. But promotion or no, all of them expect big crowds.

"It's the biggest day of the year for us," says Downs of Beckett's. Danny, of the Killarney Rose, concurs: "We always get extra people…. We always have a good day down here."

Each Irish bar has its own personality, but if you visit several in quick succession you'll pick up on certain similarities.  For one, the bartenders and waiters tend to be Irish. Over at the Killarney Rose, for example, bartender Danny is from Kilkenney, and Pat is from Galway. Two guys named Pat and Danny working at an Irish bar?  "Yeah, imagine that," Danny says.

The décor varies, but whether the bar is upscale, casual or somewhere in between, there is usually tucked away somewhere a decorative plaque, glass or mirror with Irish proverbs or greetings, like "Cead mile failte" -- meaning '100,000 welcomes.'

And then, of course, there's the alcohol: the Irish whiskey, Jameson's and Bushmill's, ciders like Magner's and Woodpecker, Harp beer. The bars serve more than this, of course, with their full liquor shelves and their (gasp!) Coors Light, too, but it's the Guinness that is plainly the thing.

The St. Patrick's Day drink of choice

For the record, according to Guinness, "the perfect pint of Guinness Draught should be served using a 'two-part' pour. First, the glass is tilted to a neat 45 degrees and the Guinness stout poured until the glass is three quarters full. Once the surge has settled, the glass is then filled to the brim. It takes about 119.5 seconds to pour the perfect pint." A bit more complicated than popping the top off a bottle of Budweiser.

So much is made of bar-hopping here in New York that it comes as a shock to learn that until the 1970s, bars in Ireland weren't even open on St. Patrick's Day.  Over there, it turns out, the celebration of the holiday is very different than in the United States.

"It's a churchgoing day in Ireland," explaines Byrne. Mick O'Sullivan, a manager at the Full Shilling, echoes the sentiment.  "It's more of a family day back home," he says. "Here it's more commercial."

However uniquely American it may be, all are looking for the boost.

"It's a big day for the Irish here," says O'Sullivan. "Customers [at the Full Shilling] get pretty wild. Even though it's downtown, it is a very local bar, with a lot of regulars. It's like their living room. They like the freedom to let their hair down, so to speak."

"It's usually a big day," concurs manager John Barry of Ryan McGuire's. "I hope it's going to be that way this year," he says, wondering whether world events and the possibility of imminent war will have an effect. Perhaps, he suggests, all the uncertainty will motivate patrons to put their problems aside for a night and just enjoy themselves.

Barry also clarifies a point that may be unclear to the newcomer: there will be no green beer. "They [presumably the board of health] don't allow it any more," he says. "It's been banned for years."

At many of these bars, the decorations are already up: shamrocks, leprechauns, pots of gold. Think about it -- the corned beef and cabbage, the Irish music, the crowds of people knocking back beer after beer -- it's hokey, really -- isn't it?

The Full Shilling's O'Sullivan concedes the point, at least in part. But at the end of the day in Lower Manhattan, St. Patrick's Day isn't just good fun; it's good business. "It is a cliché, very much," O'Sullivan says, "but you run with it."