AN IRISH PUB in Boston that became the unofficial Scottish hub for World Cup fans over the past two weeks shut its doors on Tuesday to allow its staff some rest.
The brief interlude in service followed what was, by all accounts, a hectic for the pub and the local community as tens of thousands of fans descended on the Massachusetts city.
In a notice posted online, the pub said: “Thank you to our incredible staff! Over the past two weeks, you showed up, stepped up, and gave it your all. Your hard work does not go unnoticed.”
The message was accompanied by a drawing of the pub decked out with US, Irish and Scottish flags.
“Thankfully there’s nothing happening in Boston today so we will be back tomorrow,” the pub continued, with the hashtag “no Scotland no party” – seen to be a swipe against the England-Ghana match that took place on Tuesday.
The pub has enjoyed reams of business and long queues forming “around the block”, as they say in those parts, over the World Cup so far.
The 42′s David Sneyd, who’s travelling around North America covering the tournament for The 42 (and The Journal, at times) visited the pub last week. On his arrival, the Molly Malone statue out front had been decked out in a tartan bonnet and a Scotland scarf.
“When I was there, it was still pretty much Scotland headquarters,” he told The Journal today. “I got there an hour before a match and the place was rammed.”
The pub is across the road from the official Boston fan zone. “There was more of a queue to get into the pub than there was for the fan zone,” David said, adding that he thinks the Scottish takeover of the Irish pub has been completed.
“It kind of makes you realise as well what Ireland are missing out on,” he continued, adding that although if we had made it to the US we would not have been playing in Boston, there’s such a large Irish community in the area that it would have led to swarms of people coming out for the matches.
Scots in the US for the World Cup have become something of a phenomenon, with multiple pubs proclaiming they have been drunk dry. Scots have now moved on from Boston for the moment, off to Miami – but they could be back.