‘Everyone here is family’: Halifax celebrates St. Patrick’s Day

Many were celebrating St. Patrick's Day in the Maritimes before the sun came up.

People in Halifax lined up outside Irish pubs bright and early on St. Patrick’s Day.

“It’s tradition. It’s just good and the lineup itself is its own little tradition,” says Matthew, a Halifax man who was at the Old Triangle at 4 a.m. Monday.

“The Mondays and the Tuesdays are always the best days because only the people that really wanna be here for the right reasons – the music and the people – will be here,” says David, who accompanied Matthew.

It’s the busiest day of the year for Durty Nelly’s in downtown Halifax. Their lineups started at 4:30am.

“By the time were opened up at 7 a.m., I’d say we had anywhere from 250 to 300 people lined up,” says manager Niall McGuinness, who expected things to stay busy all day. “People always wanna come down to an Irish pub to celebrate and I think we are going to be full all day.”

Jay Gorman spent the morning at Durty Nelly’s. He is born and raised Irish and says he’s been coming to this pub since it opened in 2009.

“The feel that you get at an Irish pub on St. Patrick’s Day is electric. Everyone in here is family,” says Jay Gorman.

Over at Celtic Corner, it was a busy weekend that rolled into a packed Monday.

“It’s a celebration of Irish culture and there are so many people in Nova Scotia that have a connection to the old country so a lot of them come down and we got some Irish dancing, with the Rising Tide group coming in and we may have some pipers,” says owner Jeff Mclathy.

“There’s people trying to make it to the East Enders who are going to close the place out, so could be 2 p.m., could be 2 a.m.,” says Gwen Pinch.

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