St. Patty's Day Comes to F.C. in a Big Way

The tale about driving out the snakes may just be a myth, but celebrations honoring Ireland’s greatest citizen aren’t. Spurred by waves of Irish immigrants to the United States, this country now celebrates March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, as if it were a national holiday.

For bars and restaurants, it’s one of the busiest days of the year and it’s the Super Bowl Sunday for Irish bars like Falls Church’s Ireland’s Four Provinces. Arguably the city’s most popular establishment, the “Four P’s” has a full schedule for the week leading up to next Wednesday.

Starting this Sunday, the Four P’s will feature live music all week long, including “Ireland’s Favorite Son,” singer/songwriter Noel Sweeny, Brook Yoder, and the popular Irish group Cara (to perform outdoors on March 17) and traditional Irish music inside every day from now until March 17—including Sunday.

The ever popular Pub Quiz, normally held on Wednesday nights, has been moved to Monday. (at 9 p.m.) On the actually “holiday,” the Four Provinces will have an outdoor tent all day long and live music will go on both inside and outside. See the ad in this week’s News-Press for more information.

“Almost as soon as the day after the new year, we were getting calls for reservations,” said manager Patrick Giamatti.

“St. Patty’s Day has become more popular in America than it ever was in Ireland,” said Emmet Gallagher, another manager at the restaurant. Gallagher should know, as he is one of eight current employees actually from Ireland.

“Over there,” he said, “families go to church and maybe stop off at the pub for a drink or two, but everyone goes home because they’ve got to get up and work the next day.”

Work hardly gets in the way of revelers on this side of the Atlantic. The U.S. Census bureau reports that on St. Patrick’s Day, Americans consume more beer per capita on that day than any other. That’s certainly a boon to the restaurant and bar business.

Boston wasn’t the first place to dye its waters green—that idea came from Dublin. But Beantown was the first city in America to celebrate St. Patrick’s day with, among other things, a parade. Now parades take place in over 500 cities in the United States. The annual parade in Washington, DC will take place this Sunday, March 14 at 12 noon.

Giamatti and Gallagher both expect lots of customers to come filing in following the parade.

“I don’t really know what people did [in Falls Church] before we opened,” Giamatti said. “There really wasn’t a whole lot around seven years ago.” (Ireland’s Four Provinces opened in 1997.)

“Our celebration was modest at the time, but we’ve really grown in popularity since then,” Giamatti added.

The Four P’s prides itself as being an “authentic and traditional” Irish establishment and you won’t find many gimmicks Americans associate with St. Patrick’s Day.

“No shamrocks all over the place and definitely no green beer,” said Gallagher. If you’re lucky, a talented bartender may add a shamrock atop your beer with the foam.

The day honors the patron saint of Ireland, Patrick, and is recognized by the Catholic Church as a feast day. Like fellow saints Nicholas and Valentine, Patrick has been able to make the difficult crossover leap to popular culture. His feast day has evolved into, sometimes, a week-long celebration of all things Irish.

Giamatti and Gallagher expect over 1,000 customers on the actual day, many of whom will be Irish expatriates and Irish-American in descent. But for the day, all are encouraged to become Irish.