In November of 2018, Swampoodle made a comeback of sorts. An 8,000-square-foot park featuring — according to the NoMa Business Improvement District — “a dog space with an agility structure, a Wallholla for children to climb on and public seating” opened at the southwest corner of Third and L Streets NE.
The “poodle” in Swampoodle has nothing to do with the pooches frolicking in the park’s dog space. It refers to the puddles in the swampy immigrant enclave that took shape in the 1840s with the exodus from Ireland’s Great Famine.
Swampoodle Park. Courtesy NoMa Parks Foundation.
Earlier Irish immigrants resided in Georgetown, including County Limerick-born Mayor Thomas Corcoran Jr., a St. John’s vestryman. Many of the C&O Canal diggers, some indentured, worshipped at Holy Trinity, the oldest continuously operating Roman Catholic parish in what is now the District of Columbia.
The new park is north of the historic borders of Swampoodle, a hardscrabble neighborhood bisected by Potomac tributary Tiber Creek (now in an underground conduit) and obliterated during the construction of Daniel Burnham’s Beaux-Arts Union Station, completed in 1908 by a workforce of local Irish laborers, among others.
What remains, Irish heritage-wise? Most visibly: St. Aloysius Catholic Church, dating to 1859, with Gonzaga College High School attached since the school’s 1871 relocation from F and 10th Streets NW, next to St. Patrick Catholic Church. (That parish was established in 1794, just seven years after Holy Trinity.) And though they opened their doors in 1974 and 1978, respectively, two nearby pubs — the Dubliner and Kelly’s Irish Times — hold the Irish tricolor high.
Kelly’s Irish Times.
Where better to raise a glass to long-lost Swampoodle on St. Patrick’s Day than in one or both of these storied taverns on F Street NW? Separated by an alley from its neighbor, each has its own vibe. At number 4, the well-polished Dubliner occupies the ground floor of the Phoenix Park Hotel; the more down-to-earth Irish Times at number 14 — its green awning between bay windows with terracotta tiles — was once a restaurant called the Chinese Lantern.
Plenty of other bars and restaurants are gearing up for St. Patrick’s — notably the Irish Channel, owned by a family with roots in County Cork, in the Fairfield Inn & Suites at 500 H St. NW. In addition, several pub crawls are scheduled in and around D.C. between Friday, March 14, and Monday, March 17 (visit Eventbrite for details).
Part of the Irish-owned Doyle Collection, the Dupont Circle Hotel at 1500 New Hampshire Ave. NW is celebrating Irish Heritage Month with a pop-up of a Dublin cocktail bar, the Sidecar (March 4 to 7); Whiskey Tasting Tuesdays (March 4, 11, 18 and 25); and a Great Irish Tour drink menu (March 8 to 31). The hotel has also partnered with the Kennedy Center to offer a package with tickets to one of the 16 performances of “Riverdance 30 – The New Generation” in the Opera House (March 4 to 16).
In Maryland, tonight, Monday, March 3, the Irish Inn at Glen Echo will hold a traditional music night. Based in College Park at Prince Georges Council No. 2809 of the Knights of Columbus, the Irish American Club of Washington DC is offering two events for members this month: a Knight’s Irish Festival on March 9 and a St. Patrick’s Day Dinner Dance on March 15.
Also on March 15, from noon to 6 p.m., the Wharf and Kirwan’s on the Wharf will jointly present Ireland at the Wharf, a festival of live Irish music and dance, plus Six Nations Rugby on a big screen on Transit Pier. The VIP Irish Experience, sponsored by Jameson, includes a pint of Guinness or a glass of wine, a sampling of premium Irish whiskeys and a meet-and-greet with the bands.
If you weren’t in Alexandria, Virginia, last Saturday, you missed one of the nation’s earliest St. Patrick’s Day parades. The District will hold its parade on March 17, stepping off at noon by the Peace Monument, west of the Capitol at Pennsylvania Avenue and First Street NW, and ending up on F Street by Kelly’s and the Dubliner.
