Five legendary Irish pubs

On Sunday, St. Patrick's Day will be celebrated by the Irish, and Irish lovers, around the world. While parades, wearing green and donning shamrocks are a few of the rituals associated with St. Patrick's Day, the travel experts at cheapflights.com.au, the online leader in finding and publishing travel deals, decided to explore another important tradition — a good pub and a pint of beer.

Below are the first five legendary Irish pubs to make the list:

The Tipperary, London – 66 Fleet St., London, Greater London EC4Y 1HT: Standing on legendary Fleet Street, The Tipperary is London's oldest Irish pub. While the pub dates back to 1605 it's only been "Irish" since 1700 when the S. G. Mooney & Son Brewery chain of Dublin, Ireland purchased what was then known as The Boar's Head. The pub was the first outside Ireland to sell bottled — and draught — Guinness. Its name comes not from any family link to Tipperary but from the Great War. Newspaper printers who had fought during the war and had sung the song in the trenches "It's a long way… (to Tipperary)" had the name changed. Oh, and it's small inside. People were shorter in the 17th century. 


McSorley's Old Ale House, New York, U.S.A. – 15 East Seventh St., New York, NY 10003: The oldest continuously operated saloon in New York has welcomed some very famous guests in its 159-year history. Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Boss Tweed, Woody Guthrie, Brendan Behan and e.e. cummings all had a drink or two here. One of McSorley's mottos is "We were here before you were born" and, if you gaze around at the sawdust-strewn floor, the memento-encrusted bar displays and the wishbones that hang from an old gas lamp above the bar, there's little doubt that's true. It's said that no piece of memorabilia has been removed from McSorley's walls since 1910.  The biggest change to this pub was the admission of women.  That happened as a result of a court case; it took McSorley's 16 years to install ladies' toilets.

Patrick's of Pratt Street, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A – 934 W. Pratt St., Baltimore, Md. 21223: This is the oldest Irish pub in America. At this location since 1863, it has, amazingly, been owned and operated by the same family since 1847. Patrick's was known first as Patrick Healy's, then Nolan's and at the start of the 20th century as Rowley's. Hard to imagine that any Irish pub would have been shut on St. Patrick's Day, but Rowley's never opened on St. Patrick's Day as the proprietors didn't like to see the Irish "making fools of themselves on a Holy Day." It's been in the hands of Patrick and Anne Rowley since 1999 and is loved by regulars — and visitors — as a pub with history and heart. Oh, and it will be open on March 17 this year.

Le Vieux Dublin Pub & Restaurant, Montréal, Quebec, Canada – 636 Rue Cathcart, Montréal, Quebec H3B 3C4: Le Vieux Dublin (The Old Dublin) is the oldest pub in a city of many great Irish pubs. It's little surprise. The Irish were one of the four founding ethnic groups that made up the population of Montreal in the 19th century and its St. Patrick's Parade has run every year since 1824. Found on Rue Cathcart, the Vieux Dublin serves a wide selection of beers (Guinness, Kilkenny, Harp, Smithwick's and Murphy's), dozens of types of whiskey (and whiskey) and has live music nightly. 


The Mercantile Hotel, The Rocks, Sydney, Australia – 25 George Street, The Rocks NSW 2000: Australia's longest-running Irish pub can be found in The Rocks, that historic part of Sydney where the first European settlers (the convicts and their guards) built their camp. The Rocks was also known as "Little Ireland" due to the huge number of Irish in the area (descendants of the settlers). So impeccable are its "Irish" credentials, U2 held a press conference in the pub in 1989 to promote their "Rattle & Hum" tour. The Mercantile Hotel was built in 1914 (when the Mercantile Rowing Club Hotel was demolished) and is a wonderful example of the architecture of the time. Despite its location in a major tourist magnet (the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and City Centre are just minutes away), it's a local pub popular with locals that serves draught Guinness, hosts Irish bands and serves a mean full Irish breakfast. 


Rounding out the list of longstanding Irish pubs from around the globe are: Rosie's Irish Pub, New Plymouth, New Zealand; O'Malley's, Shanghai, China; Paddy Whelan's, Riga, Latvia; Fiddler's Elbow, Rome, Italy; andKitty O'Shea's, Paris, France.

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Alison Carmichael-Rulten

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