2. Drink a Pint at NYC’s Oldest Irish Pubs
New York City has no shortage of Irish pubs both new and old where you can toast to St. Patrick’s Day. The oldest Irish pub you can visit is McSorley’s Old Alde House in the East Village. Order up some corned beef and wash it down with light or dark ale. Founded around 1854, the pub is covered in photographs, news clippings, and other collectibles, much of it hanging on the walls since 1910.
The Ear Inn is another historic bar option. Originally the James Brown House built in 1817, it was turned into a bar for sailors by Irishman Thomas Cloke. Molly’s Pub and Restaurant Sheeben calls itself “the most traditional Irish bar in New York.” Founded in 1895, the establishment cycled through multiple iterations as a bar, grocery, and rooming house under a variety of names over the years before becoming Molly’s in the 1960s when it was purchased by the Purfield family from Dublin and Galway. Other Irish bars with a dash of history include The Landmark Tavern in Hell’s Kitchen, The Dead Rabbit in Lower Manhattan, and Peter McManus Cafe in Chelsea. There are also many authentic Irish pubs in New York’s Little Ireland section of Woodlawn in the Bronx.
