An Irish New Year

By Charly SHELTON

A few years ago, my family stumbled onto a New Year’s Eve tradition – celebrating the Irish New Year. My mother, Mary O’Keefe, raised good Irish children who all bear her clan as our middle names. So going to our favorite pub in Long Beach, the Auld Dubliner, is a regular outing for the family. On New Year’s Eve, the pub celebrates the ball drop on Dublin time, eight hours ahead of LA. So at 4 p.m., everyone in the pub counts down from 10 to one then raises a glass and toasts the New Year as it arrives back in the ancestral country. But this is more than just another party.

By 4 p.m. the pub is full, and I mean full. So we arrive around 11 a.m. and hang out, drink Guinness, listen to Ken O’Malley (one of the greatest Irish musicians living) playing classic Irish music and get ready for the celebration. With everyone having their own lives and their own social engagements on New Year’s Eve, it’s nice to spend time together before all the nighttime parties start and being in the pub is like being home. It’s a great way to start the New Year and, even though everyone else waits until midnight LA time, 2019 started for my family at 4 p.m. on Dec 31, 2018.

An Irish Family New Year

By Mary O’KEEFE

It is not often that kids, especially young adults, want to spend New Year’s Eve with their parents but with the Irish New Year celebration at Auld Dubliner in Long Beach things are a wee bit different. Every St. Patrick’s Day my family goes to an Irish pub, no matter where we are at the time, and lifts a glass to my dad. Mom was from an Irish family too, but Dad was the louder Irish side by far. So going to Irish pubs is a natural thing for my family and me.

I remember going to the pub when I was a kid, listening to music and having a great time. It wasn’t about getting drunk; it was about laughing, dancing and listening to amazing music. At Auld Dubliner that is exactly what happens. There are tables of seniors who are celebrating their 90th New Year, and tables of those who are celebrating their seventh. Each year we meet the most amazing people, some of Irish descent and some not, but all are so nice and happy to be there.

This year we met a family. Dad was born and raised in Ireland; his kids were born there, but raised in San Pedro. They quickly became fast friends with my kids and another Irish kid – Matthew Bannon McGrath Goldsworthy. The new friends did an Irish jig as the talented Ken O’Malley played the mandolin. There was so much laughter – not fueled by drink but by a type of happiness that is found in family – and what better way to begin a New Year?

  Charly Shelton, Mary Okeefe