Peoria’s Irish bars did a great thing, they didn’t have a St. Patrick’s Day blow-out event this year. When Governor Pritzker announced the Illinois shutdown which included bars and restaurants would close at the end of the shift on Monday March 16th, most of the bars said they were moving their St. Patrick’s Day parties to Monday.

When I started seeing that on facecrack, it really made me feel uneasy and I was freaking out anyway. I thought if a bunch of bars open up early and hundreds if not thousands of people go there it could spread the CoronaVirus like wildfire. People would be drunk and there’d be no social distancing and I thought it could do to Peoria what the Mardi Gras did to New Orleans.

You know it’s scary, when I’m the voice of reason!

Well, that afternoon and evening, one by one, they all decided not to have a St. Patrick’s Day party. Some had corned beef and cabbage available for take-out and curb service, but no one was opening their bar. That had to hurt, but they did it for Peoria and they should all be applauded.

Pat Sullivan, owner of Kelleher’s On Water, recently did an Irish pub tour here in Peoria, here’s a stop from his nephew’s Irish bar, W.E. Sullivan’s. This gave me an idea to do my own Irish pub crawl, but this will consist of posts from the past that I’ve done on Peoria’s Irish bars as I stay quarantined. Once the bars are open again, I’ll go back and do a live post from them. When we open up we should all stop by these bars and every local business to show support and help them stay open.

The first one up is from a classic Peoria Irish bar, Jimmy’s Bar! And I’m going to recreate a post I did from there almost ten year’s ago to this date!

I was living in New York at the time and doing my 365 bar crawl and I came home to Peoria to celebrate my birthday. And of course I had to go to a bar everyday, so on April 24th, 2010, I went to Jimmy’s Bar and here’s the photos and text from that post.

Day 105 - Jimmy’s Bar - Saturday. April 24th, 2010

I haven’t been to Jimmy’s Bar in over 16 years! I used to practically live here when I was in my wild youth. I had lots of crazy nights in here with my friends and it’s going to be a blast to go back. I really hope Jimmy Spears, the owner is there, because he’s one of he best and friendliest bar-owners in town. My friend Moon is picking me up and the two of us logged in lots of hours in this joint in the ‘80’s and early ‘90’s. Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to my youthful, drunken days!

My friend Moon picked me up and we're planning on meeting Chris Cassidy down there as well. The three of us once lived in a house and someday I should write a book about those crazy days.

Here we are at Jimmy's Bar. A real blast from my past.

Wow, this is like walking into my past. It hasn't changed at all and that's a good thing!

And here he is, Jimmy Spears! I told Jimmy he's one of the few bar owners that never threw me out of his bar back in the day. He laughed and said he needed to go look for my tab from the '80's. Uh, oh!

Just like old times I'm already I'm seeing old friends. From left, Joe and Connie Waugh, Moon and the aforementioned Chris Cassidy.

Here's my old pal, Jim "Webby" Schwindenhammer. In addition to Webby, I've also shared many drinks with other folks from the Schwindy clan including, Mark, Tito and Lee Ann. And hi to Webby's wife Karen (who's from the Waugh family, things go round and round here!)