- April 19, 2025
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Olivia Bewley, 10, offers a dance performance. with Kavanagh Porter Academy. The Sarasota branch of the Irish dance school was celebrating its first St. Patrick's Day.
Photo by Ian SwabyMax Perritt, 17, and Talula Perritt, 13, offer a dance performance with Kavanagh Porter Academy. The Sarasota branch of the Irish dance school was celebrating its first St. Patrick's Day.
Photo by Ian SwabyGuests fill Shamrock Pub on St. Patrick's Day.
Photo by Ian SwabyJeff Berman and Bonnie Seguin
Photo by Ian SwabyKevin Berry, Lisa Petri, Irene Shuster, Kevin Berry's wife Heidi Berry, and Melissa Berry and her husband Kent Berry.
Photo by Ian SwabyTodd Morton, Jerome Kempton and his son Jack Kempton.
Photo by Ian SwabyAnsley Elwell, 13, Shai Mitzafon, 14, Olivia Bewley, 10 and Talula Perritt, 13, offer a dance performance. with Kavanagh Porter Academy. The Sarasota branch of the Irish dance school was celebrating its first St. Patrick's Day.
Photo by Ian SwabyEmma Bewley, 8, and Celtlan Bolin, 5, offer a dance performance. with Kavanagh Porter Academy. The Sarasota branch of the Irish dance school was celebrating its first St. Patrick's Day.
Photo by Ian SwabyCeltlan Bolin, 5, offers a dance performance. with Kavanagh Porter Academy. The Sarasota branch of the Irish dance school was celebrating its first St. Patrick's Day.
Photo by Ian SwabyJane Early watches the dancers with her parents Libby Howe and Kent Early.
Photo by Ian SwabyPatrick Dinneen
Photo by Ian Swaby
Jack Corcoran, his cousin Leo Martinez, and Jas Sawyer and Luci Duke, fellow New College students of Corcoran. "We love this bar. It's one of our favorites," Corcoran said.
Photo by Ian SwabyJustin McFarling and Rachael Decoursey brought their German Shepherds Coda and Luca.
Photo by Ian SwabyPatrick Dinneen moved to Sarasota four years ago from Melrose, Iowa, known as “Iowa’s Little Ireland.”
On Saint Patrick’s Day, he headed to Shamrock Pub, an Irish-themed establishment and a popular spot for celebrating the occasion.
“It means a lot for tradition for me, because I’ve got such Irish roots…” he said of the holiday, noting his grandparents came from Ireland. “I always celebrate this day. Now that I’m here, I miss celebrating it back home in Melrose.”
The pub’s owner, Derek Anderson, said as of last year, he decided to downsize and not hold the large block parties he had in the past, despite a positive relationship with the City of Sarasota.
However, he said this year’s four-day party, which started Friday and continued into Monday, which was St. Patrick’s Day, was the longest in Sarasota. He said the scaling down of the party has resulted in a different experience.
“It’s more intimate, more local, we get a little more one on one with our customers,” he said.
The party kicked off Friday and featured dancers from the Irish dance school Kavanagh Porter Academy on three out of four days, as well as musicians, bagpipe players and a limerick contest.
“Everyone makes a pilgrimage, everyone’s Irish for a day,” Anderson said. “Some customers I see only once a year, and that’s on Saint Paddy’s Day.”
