Green Day AS the patrons at Murphy's and other watering holes around Hawaii and the world well know, St. Patrick's Day is the day nearly everyone seems motivated to celebrate, be they Irish or not.
The Irish way
By Dave Donnelly
Star-BulletinWhat they don't know is much about St. Patrick himself, except that he drove the snakes out of Ireland.
Wrong! A base canard. Various histories of the man, who was something of a ne'er-do-well and pagan until he was 16, will tell you he was born in A.D. 385 or 390 or thereabouts, in either Wales or Roman Britain.
My Irish bartender friend in San Francisco, Mike McCourt, brother of "Angela's Ashes" author Frank McCourt, will swear, "He was a Frog," insisting St. Patrick had emigrated from France. He died in A.D. 461 or 480 or 493, depending on your source, and had nothing at all to do with the fact that Ireland is snakeless.
Place: Murphy's Bar & Grill, 2 Merchant St. ST. PATRICK'S DAY CELEBRATION
Date: Starts 11 a.m. Saturday, with food and drink; bands perform on the streets 3-11 p.m.
Call: 531-0422
It's far easier to trace the history of St. Patrick's Day at Murphy's. Held on March 17, believed to be the day the patron saint died, the first celebration was held at Don Murphy's Bar & Grill in 1988 and extended onto Merchant Street, which was closed between Nuuanu and Bethel. There had been other parties in various saloons over the years, but the big day at Murphy's, tracked by a sign on the wall, "___ days until Paddy's Day," topped them all.
In 1999, the city allowed Murphy and Skip Naftel, who owns O'Toole's across the street -- making for an Irish Intersection -- to close Nuuanu between King and Merchant streets, extending the party from the usual block.
Last year, Marin Lane, leading from Smith into Nuuanu, was also closed. This year, those closures will again be in effect to help handle the crowd, and Nuuanu will be closed all the way to Nimitz. And if that weren't enough, Murphy is taking over the old Bank of Hawaii parking lot at Nuuanu and Nimitz and turning it into a kind of extension of his restaurant, complete with an oyster fest in which fresh oysters, about 3,000 of them, will be shucked and downed by revelers.It'll be patterned after the annual Galway Bay oyster fest which Murphy has attended twice, once just after his marriage at Ashford Castle to wife Marion. Incidentally, she's instrumental in the celebration, too, making Irish Whiskey Cakes all week long leading up to tomorrow's annual affair.
A thousand pounds of corned beef will be served Saturday alone, along with 100 pounds of lamb (for the Irish stew), 400 pounds of potatoes and 100 pounds of carrots. Murphy anticipates opening and pouring 150 kegs of Guinness and Harp, kept in a refrigerated truck until they're opened.
And, as usual, Murphy will hand out green lei (from Cindy's Lei Stand) to the first 100 women coming in for lunch. This is the 15th year he's done that, and there'll be a whole lot of kissin' goin' on.
There'll be some seven different bars throughout Murphy's alone, and seven food stations as well, with tables and chairs set up in the parking lot. No cars will be allowed for obvious reasons. The place will be filled with those partying in celebration of the saint nobody really knows much about.
Or cares.
Recovery takes a while. Murphy says his place will be closed both Sunday and Monday after Paddy's Day.
"No, not to count the money," he insists. It'll be a "big time" clean up. In more ways than one.
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