St. Patrick’s Day: Irish Pubs in Cary

/7 Comments/in , , , , /by

irish-pubs-cary

Cary, NC – When you come from New York City, you think that St. Patrick’s Day is a crazy celebration with public drunkenness and a parade through town that leaves the average worker vowing to stay inside for lunch on March 17. But here in Cary, the revelry is decidedly more civilized. Look for these local pubs to fix you up with some excellent grub, fine Irish entertainment and a pint or two.

The Pubs

There are lots of fine pubs, taverns and brew houses in Cary. But these three have a specifically Irish flavor and will be celebrating the Green this weekend.

Hibernian
1144 Kildaire Farm Rd, Cary, NC 27511 (919) 467-9000

All weekend the restaurant will be celebrating St Patrick’s Day. On Saturday, they’ll have their first parking lot party of the year with live music and Irish drink and food specials. On Sunday, they will have traditional Irish music and much more.

Mahoney’s
6490 Tryon Rd  Cary, NC 27518 (919) 322-2509

Opened about a year ago at the corner of SW Cary Parkway and Tryon Rd in a location that has been several other restaurants in the past. The pub will have plenty going on all weekend long including authentic bagpipe playing by The Chucktown Piper  during the day and live entertainment from Eire Lingus and Shanachie  beginning  at 7:00 PM on Saturday evening and at 6:00 PM on Sunday. Plenty of Irish specialties on the menu, as well as American favorites.

Doherty’s
1917 High House Rd, Cary, NC 27513 (919) 388-9930

Located in the former Connelly’s spot in Cornerstone and run by many of the same folks the pub has been open for several months. With Irish pub ownership in his blood, Michael Doherty opened Tir Na Nog, then Connelly’s and now Doherty’s. The St Paddys Outdoor Party Weekend gets started this Friday, March 15 and continues all weekend with plenty of fine entertainment. Live music starts at 10pm Friday with Peter O’ Dea.  Saturday the party starts up in the parking lot at 3pm with Finally Friday and Three Beer Sally. DJ George plays the after party inside at 10pm. Sunday gets rolling at 2pm with Kevin Kendall, Dublin Down and Barleycorn & Rye, finishing with Rockzilla at 8pm. The event is free (pay for drinks and food) and includes bagpipes and Irish dancing.

Other Pubs

Most pubs, taverns, alehouses and bars will have something on for St. Patrick’s Day including RallyPoint, Corner Tavern, Mac’s Tavern, Carolina Ale House,  Spirits Pub & Grub, MacGregor Draft House, Abbey Road, Train Station Pub and Tribeca Tavern. Town founder Frank Page would be so proud.

St Patrick

And in case you didn’t know- St. Patricks’ day is always March 17. Why do the Irish get so crazy about this day? It is a decidedly American Holiday, for the Irish to celebrate their roots. Their patron Saint (Patrick) reportedly drove all the snakes out of Ireland into the sea. He was a Catholic Bishop orginally from Wales or Scotland who lived in the later 5th century AD. His life’s work was spreading his faith and Christainity and converted many to Catholicism.

The shamrock was used as a symbol of the holy Trinity in his teachings, and later adopted as a symbol for the Irish. St Patrick’s Day is celebrated on the anniversary of his death.

So wear the green and celebrate with the Irish this weekend. Sláinte!

——————————————————————-

Photo by LenDog64.

7 replies
  1. Brent
    Brent says:

    I’ve also heard that Samuel Fenton Cary made a swing through this area…but I have not yet found reliable documentation to support that.

    In any case, I think that the Pages and Mr. Cary would be proud of what our community is today.

    Now, to take us off on a real tangent,I’ll note that Mr. Cary hailed from Cincinnati, Ohio (where my lovely wife spent a few years of her life, and the area when several of my in-laws live today).

    • Hal Goodtree
      Hal Goodtree says:

      It was meant as “insider irony.” Since you got it, that makes you an insider.

      • Brent
        Brent says:

        Well, we all know that Doc is an insider. :-) But anyone else could learn that Mr. Page’s “most cherished abomination was alcoholic beverages” just by clicking on the link. :-)

        Of course, to take this a step further, Frank Page was so committed to that cause that he named our town for Samuel Fenton Cary, “a national temperance leader and politician from Ohio”.

        So either I’m an insider or I clicked on the link :-D

        And with apologies to Mssrs. Page and Cary, I prefer a pale ale to something dark like Guinness.

        • Hal Goodtree
          Hal Goodtree says:

          Brent – as a consummate insider (and acting president of the Friends of Page-Walker), maybe you can answer a question that’s always tugged at me. Was Walter Page (son of Frank, founder of the N&O, the Atlantic, Doubleday-Page and ambassador to Great Britain) also a teetotaler? I have never read such to be true, but touching any alcoholic beverages would have been a pretty big abandonment of Frank’s ideals.

          • Brent
            Brent says:

            Hal,

            The short and factual answer is “I don’t know”. Perhaps someone else knows more.

            The longer inferred answer is that evidence seems to indicate that Walter Hines Page was probably of a similar mind as his father Frank.

            In what I have read that was written about WHP and by WHP, I have yet to come across a direct declaration about his views on temperance. However, his writings, when he addresses the topic, tend to favor temperance. They generally seem to assume that liquor is undesirable. Some of his writings chronicle drinking in the military and they generally seem to connote that not drinking is good. One of his letters discusses a study about prohibition laws that generally concludes that such laws, to be effective, must be “hyper-local” (there’s a term you’ll like! :-) ). His letter seems to assume that pursuing such laws is desirable; it doesn’t address whether or not such laws are a good idea, but rather just whether or not they work.

            Finally, WHP was a Methodist, and Methodism, especially at that time, discouraged drink. The Methodist Church of WHP’s time was active in the Temperance movement.

            Having said all that, I found one obscure reference in which WHP purportedly says that he and another man would “drink a glass of wine”.

            But the preponderance of evidence seems to indicate that Walter (“Wat”, as he was called when he was younger) apparently didn’t stray far from the views of his father Frank (actually Allison Francis).

            I’m wondering if this is what you envisioned as the type of comments that would be posted on CaryCitizen? :-D

            Finally, if someone else knows more, we’d love to hear about it. And then I would really like to know if anyone can address another mystery: the question of whether or not Samuel Fenton Cary ever actually visited Cary or this region? ;-)

Comments are closed.