A fleet of festive pubs on wheels bring a taste of Ireland to New England

READING, Mass. (AP) — Just before St. Patrick’s Day, an Irish pub appeared one night beneath a basketball hoop in a suburban Massachusetts driveway.

Neighbors packed around the bar as music played and Guinness flowed — inside a tiny pub that had been towed in for the night.

Instead of heading out to celebrate the holiday, the bar had come to them.

“The Wee Irish Pub” was delivered by Tiny Pubs, a small business run by brothers Matt and Craig Taylor, who build miniature Irish pubs on wheels for holidays, weddings and backyard parties across New England.

Decorated with antique signs, church pews, an electric fireplace and a bar crafted from the front panel of an 1864 piano, the pubs recreate the feel of a traditional Irish pub — but are just small enough to fit in a driveway.

A neighborhood pub that brings people together

“It’s really just a time to forget about whatever’s going on in the world,” said Mark Cote, who hosted the pub in his Andover driveway last Friday. “That’s what pubs are supposed to be — for people coming together and having fun.”

Around 20 people from five families — whose children grew up together — squeezed into the roughly 20-foot-long (6-meter) space for Cote’s annual holiday party, creating what he said felt like a real neighborhood bar.

The idea began during the COVID-19 lockdown, when the Taylor brothers — retired from careers in corporate finance — found themselves missing their favorite Irish pubs.

The first version went up in Matt Taylor’s driveway in Reading, 12 miles (19km) north of Boston.

“When we were building the pub in this neighborhood, neighbors thought a pub was going to be living here full time,” he said. “We had to kind of settle them down a little bit.”

They worked until about 1 a.m. the night before their first rental. Matt said he worried the windows might crack when they first towed it down the highway, but it went smoothly.

What began as a pandemic project has since grown into a small business with four bars, including two Irish pubs, booked most weekends throughout the year.

Building an authentic Irish pub

The brothers wanted the tiny bars to feel like real Irish pubs — not themed party props.

“We have Irish friends who told us, ‘You better not have leprechauns and stuff in there,’” Craig Taylor said. “So we said, ‘No — it’s going to be authentic.’”

They visited Irish pubs around New England while designing the interior, settling on classic colors like jasper green and Irish cream.

Nearly every detail inside has a story, including the bar built from the front panel of an 1864 piano and church pews salvaged from a local church for seating.

A pair of horseshoes from a farm in Ipswich hang above the door for luck: pointed down when guests enter and up when they leave.

A hymn rack holds a book of Irish surnames where visitors mark their family names, sometimes with a dollar bill on the page, sparking conversations about ancestry.

There are packages of Scampi Fries — a popular pub snack imported from Ireland — and a corkboard with patches from police and fire departments, a tradition common in pubs where first responders gather.

Craig Taylor said one sign they got it right is when guests begin pointing things out inside — the Scampi Fries, a family name, a familiar song — moments when the experience shifts from something novel to something personal.

For weddings, bachelor parties — and even celebrations of life

Guinness has rented the Taylors’ pubs for weeks at a time. They’ve also been used by a state senator during South Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. The pubs have even been rented for celebrations of life after funeral services.

Jarred Guthrie of Swampscott said his family has rented the original version for years now as part of a longtime annual St. Patrick’s celebration.

The party draws about 125 people, Guthrie said, with an Irish band playing inside the house while guests move between rooms, the pub and the waterfront yard overlooking the ocean.

Guests crowd inside to take turns playing bartender, telling stories and breaking into songs — sometimes traditional Irish tunes or Gaelic lyrics that Guthrie said you rarely hear outside family gatherings.

“People feel emboldened,” he said. “There’s a lot of singing that happens in that pub. It’s a place where people naturally come together.”

Like Christmas morning

Before each event, the brothers personalize the space with custom posters often designed with a family crest naming the host as the pub’s temporary “proprietor.”

“It’s a special thing for a lot of people to be able to come into an authentic Irish pub,” Matt Taylor said. “Maybe they’re not able to get back to the old country, so it’s meaningful to them.”

The parties go on, despite rain, heat or snow. Each pub is equipped with both heat and air conditioning for all seasons.

The Taylors wait until everything is ready — lights low, music on, taps flowing — before letting guests into a mini pub.

Craig Taylor said when people step inside for the first time, “it’s like Christmas morning.”

He said that moment often feels like stepping into another place, one tied to memories of family, tradition and Ireland itself.

“People say you’re like Santa Claus,” Craig Taylor said. “You’re delivering joy every day.”

And when the night winds down, they aren’t in a hurry to take the pub away.

“We never want to kick anybody out of an Irish pub,” Matt Taylor said.

So instead of picking it up late at night, they return the next morning.

Craig Taylor said when he asks hosts how long the party lasted, the answer is often the same: “Like, three in the morning.”

When he and his brother show up to take the pub away, “there’s sometimes people sleeping on the pew,” he joked.