People began lining up along Main Street in downtown Bangor well before dawn on Thursday so they could be the first to walk through the doors at Paddy Murphy’s, the Irish pub that opens at 6 a.m. every St. Patrick’s Day for an all-day party that’s now in its 16th year.
When the clock struck 6 a.m., the doors opened and green-clad people flooded in, filling each booth and clamoring to order their Guinness and whiskey, as fiddler Gus LaCasse played reels and jigs. Some were veterans of the early-morning party; others had made it out for the first time.
“We met at Paddy Murphy’s nine years ago, but this is our first time coming for 6 a.m.,” said Bangor resident Katie Fazio, who sat at the bar with her husband, John. “It just feels good to be out again.”
A little more than two years ago, Paddy’s owner John Dobbs was getting his bar’s signature event ready, as he and his staff do every year. But as everyone knows, nothing much was going to happen in March 2020 — not least St. Patrick’s Day, which at that time was the first holiday to happen after Maine recorded its first COVID-19 case on March 12, 2020.
“You were watching cases start to happen, and the alarm bells were just getting stronger and stronger,” Dobbs said. “It was a no-brainer that we had to close for St. Patrick’s Day, obviously, but nobody really knew what was happening then. We had no idea what we were in for.”
Two years later, only a handful of people packed into Paddy’s on Thursday morning were wearing masks — and for staff and customers alike, it was a welcome return to normal. After all the loss, uncertainty and tedium of the pandemic, the resiliency and joy of the Irish and their millions of descendents in the U.S. meant even more to people this year.
“It feels awesome to be back,” longtime Paddy’s bartender Jenn Ghergia said. “This is our big day and we’ve been waiting for it for two years. It’s tradition.”
Early morning patrons enjoy the St. Patrick’s Day festivities at Paddy Murphy’s Pub in Bangor. Credit: Sawyer Loftus / BDN
Bangor resident Shelley Sund and her friends were the first to arrive that morning, and were thrilled to get back to their annual 6 a.m. tradition at Paddy’s, which they’ve done for years now.
“When I walked out of my job two years ago on March 16, we thought we’d be out for a couple weeks, and yeah, we were sad to miss St. Patrick’s Day. But we thought it would be a blip,” Sund said. “This feels like we’re actually going to live our lives again. This feels right.”
