Last April, Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. performed at a sold out concert at the Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum.

The group performed hits from their latest studio album, Romance, which earned two nominations for Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards. A year earlier, in 2024, Hozier’s song “Too Sweet” topped the Billboard Top 100, making him the first Irish singer-songwriter to have a No. 1 song since Sinéad O’Connor in 1990.

The Irish hot streak hasn’t just been confined to the music industry either. Irish actors like Paul Mescal and Cillian Murphy have won awards and landed films smashing box office debuts. In 2023, the Los Angeles Times coined the term “Green Wave” in an article referring to the fact that a single Irish-led film, Banshees of Inisherin, earned nine Oscars nods at the 95th Academy Awards.

American tourism to Ireland has surged over the last decade, and despite some leveling out since the start of the Trump Administration, remains strong.

Back in Texas, the so-called Green Wave hasn’t missed Dallas, as evidenced by the Fontaines D.C. show last spring.

Peter Kenny, owner of Lochland’s Irish Pub in Lake Highlands and the Dubliner on Lower Greenville, says he’s been glad to see his native land enjoying so much popularity in his adopted home.

“I do love to see it. I love seeing the Fontaines D.C. being the great band they are. They keep breathing it out,” Kenny says. “I’m sorry I missed them in Dallas.”

Kenny is originally from Dublin and moved stateside in the ’80s. After a few years working in bars around town, he opened the Dubliner in 1994. Peter and his wife, Cheryl, now run it and Lochland’s as part of a family enterprise, having previously operated Capitol Pub in Uptown for over a decade.

He’s been in the pub business for over 40 years and says it’s the people who keep bringing him back.

“I just love to see everybody enjoying themselves and having a good time. I like the vibe of it. Kind of grew up in it,” he says. “Whether it’s people enjoying just hanging out and talking and different people meeting each other. Over the years, even at the Dubliner, we’ve had a lot of people even get married there. People who’ve got engaged there.”

The craze for all things Irish has been good for pub owners.

In 2019, owner Alan Kearney based the West Davis Street pub Cannon’s Corner on one he owned in South Dublin. Kearney is best known for creating “true traditional Irish spots” like the Crafty Irishman in Downtown Dallas and The Playwright in One Arts Plaza.

“I appreciate the history has been well cared for, which is important to me coming from Ireland, keeping the same culture and tradition of the area,” Kearny said of our neighborhood in a previous Oak Cliff Advocate article.

Ireland native Feargal McKinney runs three businesses across Dallas with the opening of The Old Monk in 1998, The Skellig in 2015 and Spider Murphy’s in 2021. He expanded into our neighborhood with Old Monk Oak Cliff in 2024 and the upcoming sister bar Kilmac’s, just a couple doors down.

Zach Offord, general manager at Cannon’s Corner, says the homey feel of an Irish pub is what he believes has contributed to the rise in popularity.

“We know your life, so it’s more like family kind of situation,” he says. “Whereas other bars can be a little more standoffish, we just really like to grasp and keep hold of this, like you’re family when you walk in that door. And I really think that’s kind of the Irish pub way.”

Offord says Guinness sales have increased, but also Irish whiskeys. At Cannon’s Corner, people often explore beyond the Jameson.

“Like everybody knows James, right? I can go, ‘Oh, well, there’s also this, it’s really good, too,’” he says. “And they’re like, ‘Oh, this is better.’ I’m like, ‘Well, yeah. There’s other ones other than the one.’ And so yeah, I think that becomes very popular very quickly.”

Aside from well-executed marketing campaigns, Kenny also attributes the Guinness’s newfound popularity to more developed palates.

“I think, because of all the brew pubs and everything else, people drink good beers these days, whether it’s hazy IPAs or stouts or bourbon barrel stouts,” Kenny says. “And they realize Guinness is not this big high alcohol by volume beer. It’s like 4.2%.”

“It’s a good beer. It tastes well, and it’s not super alcoholic. You know, look at these IPAs, and they’re 7-8%.”

While it may be the poster child, Guinness isn’t the only Irish beer on taps in Dallas. Smithwick’s (the W is silent), a red ale, regularly comes in behind Guinness sales at the Dubliner and Lochland’s.

Sales of Irish whiskey, long second fiddle to Bourbon and Scotch in the States, have seen an increase in sales in the last few years, he says. Jameson has done well, as always, but Kenny also says neighbors are expanding their tastes.

“There’s a lot of good Irish whiskeys, whether it’s Teeling and Red Breast and Midleton and they go on and on,” Kenny says. “It’s exploding, the Irish whiskey market.”

However, pubs aren’t just for those imbibing, Cheryl says.

“We have a lot of people that actually don’t drink at all, they just like that camaraderie,” she says. “And I think that you hear of people traveling all over the world, and they always seek out an Irish pub wherever they go.”

The Kennys will hope for the trend to continue as they gear up to host St. Patrick’s Day events at both pubs this month. Preparations begin a year out, and Peter laughingly admits his staff probably “get tired of listening to Irish music.”

Dallas, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be escaping the Green Wave anytime soon.

Victoria Hernandez contributed to the reporting of this story.