Honolulu ready to go green for St. Patrick’s Day 2014! Here’s where to go.

Oahu may not seem like a hot bed for Irish culture. But come St. Patrick’s Day, you’d think it were the Emerald Isle, especially in Waikiki and, of all places, Downtown Honolulu’s Chinatown district.

Among the holiday highlights are the 47th annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the 27th annual St. Patrick’s Day Chinatown area block party. The epicenter for the latter is the intersection of Merchant Street and Nuuanu Avenue—near Murphy’s Bar & Grill and O’Toole’s Irish Pub. The area is unofficially dubbed “Honolulu’s Irish Corner.” But first, let’s talk about that parade.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade, organized by the Society of the Friends of St. Patrick-Hawaii, will feature bands, marching groups and floats, on Mon., March 17. Set for a noon start time at Fort DeRussy Park, the parade will make its way down Waikiki main drag Kalakaua Avenue, past Kuhio Beach, and finish at Kapiolani Park at around 2 p.m. For additional information on the parade and Friends of St. Patrick Hawaii green day goings on, click here.

Reveler at St. Patrick’s Day block party. Photo by David Croxford.

If all goes as usual, this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Chinatown Block Party is sure to attract thousands of green-wearing revelers to Downtown Honolulu’s Chinatown Arts District—conveniently, just a couple of blocks from HAWAII Magazine’s offices. Murphy’s Bar & Grill starts the celebration at lunch with a menu featuring Guinness-braised lamb shanks, blarney burgers, fish and chips, and traditional corned beef and cabbage. (For every pound of corned beef sold, Murphy’s donates $2 to the Hawaii Children’s Cancer Foundation.)

Murphy’s will also open up its traditional (and popular) Guinness Oyster Bar ‘round lunctime, boasting hundreds of freshly shucked oysters, steamed clams, sautéed shrimp, calamari steaks and oyster shooters. For dessert, indulge in homemade Irish whiskey cake and traditional bread pudding with whiskey sauce.

Lunch service starts at 11 a.m., and the official block party kicks off at noon. But the serious celebrating starts near sundown when Merchant Street and Nuuanu Avenue close to traffic to make room for live stages featuring local bands performing Irish songs and hard-rocking tunes into the night.

For more information on the St. Patrick’s Day Chinatown block party, click here or call 808-531-0422.

Erin go bragh!