Berkeley’s storied Irish Pub celebrates a half-century of community this St. Patrick’s Day (2024)

It doesn’t take very long to see why the Starry Plough, Berkeley’s Irish Pub soon to celebrate its 50th anniversary, is adored by so many. It’s the kind of place you might intend to visit for 30 minutes and stay for four hours. It’s where you walk in on a Monday evening and think “Wow, busy night,” to which Shahin Naima, third-generation owner of the pub responds casually, “Typical for a Monday.”

You can find the people who live next door stopping by for a cup of tea and a chat, the girl who just got back from a year abroad in Ireland who fell in love with céilí dancing, or the couple who met at the Starry Plough years ago, now married.

The Starry Plough is the kind of place that has transcended the local watering hole to be a crucial piece of the neighborhood tapestry. It hosts the longest-running poetry slam on the West Coast, and, when a long-time patron recently passed away, the Starry Plough was one of the beneficiaries named in their will.

“[In Ireland], Irish bars are not called bars, they’re called public houses; and the Starry Plough is a public house: a place people go to meet other people,” says Shay Black, a local Irish musician who started the Sunday night Irish jam sessions at the Plough.

“American bars are for people to get away from other people. Irish public houses are community-driven places where people drink, eat and commune together.”

Founded in 1973, it’s technically been 51 years since the Starry Plough first started pouring pints. But due to the pandemic and closing down for a year, Naima says 2024 is the year they’re ready for a proper celebration of 50 years in business.

The anniversary celebration will be combined with Saint Patrick’s Day festivities. The street will be closed to traffic and there will be live music, traditional Irish dancing and food all day long.

Last Year on Saint Patrick’s Day the Starry Plough surprised its neighbors at CBCB with enough corned beef and cabbage to feed 30 people.

Few bars offer such a variety of flavors like the Starry Plough. Each night has a theme: Sundays are for Irish music sessions or a ‘jam’ of sorts; Mondays are dedicated to classic Irish céilí dancing; Tuesdays are open-mic nights; Wednesdays welcome poets from across the Bay, and the weekends bring a variety of bands from blues to cumbia, bluegrass to funk, along with crowds of patrons ready to dance.

For many like myself who went to college or grew up in the area, Funk Night on Thursdays at the Starry Plough was a rite of passage. (Funk Night stopped in 2013, but there are plans to bring it back this year.)

“Every night of the week is a community event,” says Naima, “We just put up two new dart boards, and we’re looking to start a dart competition or game night every first Friday.”

The Starry Plough was founded by eight volunteer members back in the 70s as a safe space for political prisoners from Ireland, Chile and Honduras, says Rose Hughes, second-generation owner of the Starry Plough. (Frances Hughes, who moved to the United States from Ireland when she was 19 and was one of the co-founders, died in late 2022.) There were so many people from Chile that some went and bought the place next door, which exists today as La Peña Cultural Center –– founded in 1975 in response to the 1973 coup d’état in Chile.

The Starry Plough, like many beloved eateries and watering holes that are family businesses, has relied on a certain level of scrappiness to stay in business this long. Grants helped keep the Starry Plough open over the pandemic, coupled with a GoFundMe that brought in almost $67,000.

The GoFundMe campaign offers a glimpse into the rich past of the Starry Plough. Messages of adoration pepper the page alongside donations from people who have been frequenting the space since the beginning. One person even shared faded film photos of kids playing the clarinet back in the day.

“So many people are in my life because of this place,” said Hughes. She remembers growing up in the space, helping place tile as a 10-year-old, and helping start up the restaurant when she was 18. “It was all fun for me.”

But Naima says sustaining the business and the overflowing event calendar on food and beer sales alone has become increasingly more challenging. He says getting a liquor license might help, but he’s trying to avoid changing the dynamic of the space to keep the welcoming, “living room” type feel.

“We host so many events, most of which are free. The value of the place in the community is more than the money that it brings in.”

Similar to places like the UC Theatre and Freight & Salvage, moving forward the Starry Plough plans to become a nonprofit and establish itself as a community cultural center. Having a separate way to support everything from the Irish music sessions to the popular Irish dancing nights without being dependent on selling food or alcohol will keep the space cemented in the community for years to come, the owners hope.

“A lot of the dancers don’t drink and just come to dance,” says Shay Black. “People come back and have a great memory of it, not just Irish people but everyone. The pub itself has a warm and welcoming feeling and people don’t forget that.”