Today marks St Patrick's Day and to mark the occasion the ECHO has spoken to owners of some of the city's most loved Irish bars and pubs.
Originally from Tipperary in the Republic of Ireland, Richard Lanigan runs a number of pubs and has a furniture business in his native country. His attention turned to Merseyside in 2014, when his business partner invited him to a day at Aintree racecourse.
Richard, 61, told the ECHO: "He asked me to come over to the races at Aintree. We had a few drinks together, we were inside The Empire pub on Hanover Street.
READ MORE: Which pub serves the best Guinness in Merseyside?
"We were looking out of the window and there were people passing up and down the street and the footfall was amazing. He said to me 'wouldn't this be a great place to open a pub?' and it emanated from there."
In 2015, Richard and his business partner made good on the idea and opened Lanigans on Ranelagh Street in Liverpool city centre. With his venue in Liverpool, Richard wanted to offer the city's large Irish community a bar that felt like home.
He said: "I lived in Sydney for many years and I frequented many of the Irish watering holes there. We felt that we wanted to bring a bespoke Irish product to the city, a traditional theme with timber and the right artefacts.
"Some of my bars in Ireland were done up with architectural salvage from a company in Leeds. And I have some good carpenters that work with me on projects, we try to incorporate a mix of the traditional and the contemporary."
"A lot of Irish people and people of Irish descent want a real Irish pub, someone to do it properly, someone to give it a little bit of homeliness, to use timber", Richard added.
"Some people put place names like Tipperary or Kilkenny over the door and put in a few bits and pieces. But that doesn't make it an Irish bar."
"To do an Irish bar properly, you need wood, architectural salvage. Recently, I bought the contents of a church in St Helens and I put some church pulpits in the new bar.
"Some carvings and balustrades and stuff like that. That mixes with the newer stuff."
On the back of the success of the Ranelagh Street bar, Richard was able to buy more venues across the city. He has owned Fitzgeralds on Slater Street since the pandemic and in October he opened another Lanigans, this time on Wood Street. He also owns student staple Slater's Bar, which will be refurbished over the next month.
Now happily a Liverpool resident, he lives in Mossley Hill with his wife Sandra Lanigan. Sandra, a Liverpool native, believes the success of the venues comes from their sense of homeliness.
She told the ECHO: "The bars are like a home from home for a lot of the customer base, it's mostly Irish people and students who will drink in Fitzgeralds and a real mixture in Lanigans of different age groups.
"There are a lot of Irish people who have either been here for years and years, or their parents were Irish, and it's like a family."
Originally from Tyrone in Northern Ireland, Conor Foley moved to Liverpool as a student 19 years ago. Now 37, he owns Baltic Triangle pub Dockleaf, The Dispensary on Renshaw Street and Irish pub Kelly's Dispensary on Smithdown Road.
For Conor, the key of an Irish pub lies in the fundamentals.
About Kelly's, he said: "Smithdown, as you know, is changing. It's almost being gentrified, so it's not as student-heavy now.
"There are more and more working professionals in the area. We've tried to encapsulate all of them, there are no deals, we still attract them all because it's a nice place to drink and a nice place to socialise.
"It's Irish hospitality. We don't do any gimmicks, it's just an Irish pub, good hospitality, a nice place to eat and drink and socialise."
Since arriving in Liverpool as an 18-year-old, Conor has not lacked reminders of his heritage. He feels Liverpool, with its deep-seated Irish roots, offers the same welcoming spirit and friendliness as the Emerald Isle.
He said: "19 years ago, it was all I heard about here. It was 'oh you're Irish, my grandad's Irish, his dad is Irish', it's always a joke in Ireland that Liverpool is the capital of Ireland, outside of Ireland. Everyone has come through here the other day.
"I was in the gym the other day and some pensioners were telling me the whole history of street names, Dingle also being a place in Ireland. Everyone loves to remind me of the Irish history of Liverpool, it hasn't stopped since I've been over here, it's nice.
"I think it's like that Irish hospitality I spoke about. I think Liverpool has it and it's just the people you meet in the street, I don't think you get that anywhere else.
"I moved to London after a while because I got an itch for it but I came straight back here after a year. I think that made me realise how much I did love Liverpool."
Richard also felt a strong attachment to the city from the minute he arrived.
He said: "When I moved to Liverpool, I was embraced by the people of Liverpool. I was embraced by the customers.
"I was in the museum on the dock and I saw that in the 1930s, one in five people in Liverpool were Irish. You can imagine what happened in Ireland with emigration and work.
"The Irish influence is massive. It's very rewarding to see the new emigrants coming and the students coming. Our staff are predominantly Irish as well."
For Richard, celebrating Ireland's culture and heritage is a vital part of the emigrant experience. He thinks the fact that hurling and Gaelic football are played at Liverpool's universities is important, and his pubs sponsor teams as a result.
Another big part of celebrating that heritage comes from Guinness, and serving it properly, according to Richard. Guinness is central to anyone's perception of an Irish pub and Richard thinks his bars can compete with the best of them.
He said: "If you want to look at it - we had the Guinness Guru (a social media pint reviewer), he came to Liverpool about 18 months ago and he said that the Guinness in Lanigans on Ranelagh Street is one of the best pints of Guinness he got in Liverpool.
"Irish people demand a good pint of Guinness. It's part of our culture.
"When American presidents come to Ireland, and when the Queen and Prince Philip came, they take them to the Guinness Storehouse or they take them to an Irish pub. The first thing they do is put the Guinness up in front of them."
Conor expects to sell considerably more than 1,000 pints of the stout at Kelly's today as Liverpool celebrates St Patrick's Day. He remains discerning about how they are poured, though.
He said: "The quality of Guinness is so important. I have a 100 point system where I come out and mark them every now and then.
"Running three pubs, which I've never done before, I need to make sure and that's the most important pint to be good, especially for me, more for pride."
The city will be painted green today as the annual celebration of all things Ireland takes over. The yearly parade will begin at the Old Irish Centre on Mount Pleasant at 2.30pm, before moving off at 3.30pm.
Liverpool's strong feeling of 'Irishness', mentioned by Conor and Richard, means St Patrick's Day can be more of an event in this city than most others in England. Driven by the number of Irish people who have made Liverpool their home, it is buoyed by the number of Irish pubs to pick from if you want to mark the day with a few pints.
For Richard, Liverpool feels like home. He hopes his pubs can provide that same feeling of belonging for many others who have chosen to settle in Merseyside.
He said: "When an Irishman feels at home, he has a good experience. He goes in and the staff are nice, they greet him and he likes his surroundings and he likes his pint of Guinness, then he'll be back another day.
"That's how you start off. If you can recreate that every time, you're onto a winner in this business."
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