3 Irish pub staffers on working during St. Patrick's Day madness: 'It's a party all night long'

• St. Patrick's Day is one of the busiest days of the year for pubs across the US.
• 3 pub workers said it's a tiring but fun time to be on call.

This as-told-to article is based on transcribed conversations with three workers, whose words have been edited for length and clarity.

After more than two years since COVID-19 first hit, people are coming out for the holidays. And local watering holes and businesses are busier than ever — especially on a day like St. Patrick's Day.

Three pub employees around the United States spoke to Insider about what it was like to work on one of the busiest days for bars.

'It's shoulder to shoulder jam-packed all night long'

Maria McKevitt, 18, works as a waitress at Connolly's Pub & Restaurant in New York City.

It's shoulder to shoulder jam-packed all night long. You get to meet people from all over the world looking to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Mainly you're taking care of plenty of tables and serving plenty of Guinness. It's a party all night long. It's a lot of fun, and you really get the St. Paddy's Day experience in a bar.

It's not too bad — you just mainly take care of the people, what drinks and food they need. Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming because of how many people are here. For the most part, everyone is really easy to take care of.

It's definitely the busiest time of the year. It's a fun experience to come if you're looking to be at a bar at its highest point.

One of my favorite things is getting to speak to the people — also, when you have a great staff with a good coworker group that's kind of like family. It makes it easier and run smoothly.

People can tend to get a little rowdy. It can be a bit of a problem, because people get a little drunk and a little overexcited. Sometimes we might have to politely ask them to leave the bar. If it gets more serious, we have to call security to escort them out. Other than that, it's not a bad experience.

'This is the only day of the year that we have close to all the staff here at the restaurant. It's nice to be able to work with everyone.'

Bryce Pittman, 23, works at O'Toole's Restaurant & Pub in Richmond, Virginia, as a server and host.

Almost all of our staff works until we close at 10:30 p.m., but it's not unusual for us to stay late if we have the people. With the pandemic and everything, we're short-staffed, and most of our staff has been working double shifts these past few days. By the end of the day, we're all exhausted, but we usually end up hanging out and drinking afterwards anyways.

On a normal day, depending on what "out" you are — meaning what order you stop taking tables and end your shift — you might get a break. A typical morning or night shift is anywhere between three to six hours. If you're closing both shifts, which rarely happens, at most you might work 12 hours. But even then there's time to eat and sit down when it's slow during the middle of our day, between 3 and 4 p.m.

On St. Patrick's Day, if you work a real double, open to close, which is a lot of the staff, you come in at 9 a.m and leave at 12 a.m., which makes it a 15-hour day.

The coolest part is when a full pipe band goes around the restaurant for about 15 minutes and everything kind of pauses. We stop running food to tables because you can't get to the tables. We have everyone playing bagpipes and drums in the restaurant, everyone standing up, and the bar pretty much stops serving drinks. Everyone is filming on their phones. It's funny because the older servers will go outside to smoke or take a little break and sit down for a second, because that's really the only opportunity that we get.

This is the only day of the year that we have close to all the staff here at the restaurant, with 38 employees in total. It's nice to be able to work with everyone.

My least favorite thing would be dealing with people who can't handle themselves. St. Patrick's Day is a pretty wild day. For an Irish pub, most people that come in here do a really good job of understanding the limit, but you always have the occasional people who don't know when to stop drinking.

The weather has more of an impact than COVID-19 does sometimes. The year before last, they didn't do a St. Patrick's Day celebration because they'd just shut down. Last year, they did a modified version that was a little smaller. This year was full on everything, and from what I've heard, it was not quite as packed as it's been in past years, but I think it was more due to the weather.

'It's not focused on a drunk day. It's more about the camaraderie and pub style.'

Amy Schirtzinger is the owner of McClellan's Pub in Dublin, Ohio.

I bartend, I serve, I'm the head chef, I'm a janitor — literally all of it.

We prep the night before. We opened late, at 10, and we'll go all day until midnight. Everyone's in kilts, there's streamers — it's just madness.

The energy is just great. Everyone's in such a good mood. They all really know how to limit themselves, too. It's a really good time. It's not focused on a drunk day. It's more about the camaraderie and pub style — we watch soccer and just have a good time with each other.

I love talking to people that haven't been here before. I love introducing them to some Irish whiskey and just telling them what the vibe is normally like and sharing our Irish heritage with everyone else.

It's just a really long day. We're all just really tired.

Everyone is out, everyone's having a good time. We haven't thought about COVID-19. It's really nice.