Expect to see plenty of the gray corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day weekend at O’Hara’s. (COURTESY O’HARA’S TAVERN)

If you didn’t already know it, St. Patrick’s Day is a pretty big deal around these parts.

You’ll find St. Paddy’s Day parties in various establishments throughout Dracut from Saturday, March 15, through Monday, March 17, the actual St. Patrick’s Day, and all will serve the traditional Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage.

But perhaps the Irishest celebration of all will occur at O’Hara’s Tavern in Tennis Plaza, 1734 Lakeview Avenue. O’Hara’s is the Dracut Economic Development Business of the Month for March 2025.

Meaghan McCarthy will be back this St. Patrick’s Day weekend serving up Irish-themed Jell-O shots. (COURTESY O’HARA’S TAVERN) 

“St. Patrick’s Day is one of our busiest days,” said Donna Hamelin, who owns O’Hara’s, adding that they’ll cook about 250 pounds of gray corned beef.

“We’ll serve it Saturday, Sunday, Monday till it runs out,” Donna said.

Each year, local chef Matt Sheehan makes a special appearance at O’Hara’s to prepare the ultimate Irish meal, and a DJ will be on hand to spin “Danny Boy,” “Finnegan’s Wake” and other Irish tunes along with other genres of music.

Popular Dracut resident James Gookin opened O’Hara’s Tavern in 1996 after retiring from the Lowell Police Department. When Jim was looking to sell the business in early 2013, he didn’t want anyone to come in and change the good reputation the tavern had established in his 17 years as owner.

“Jimmy was talking about selling it in 2012, and he had a buyer for it, but he really didn’t want to sell it to them,” Donna said.

Donna, one of Jim’s good friends who also served as his bar manager, and her then-partner, now-husband Dan stepped up to buy O’Hara’s with the promise to keep running it the way Jim did.

Jim was diagnosed with lung cancer just five days after the sale was finalized.

“I basically told him, ‘You show me what you do as far as the books go, and you go and take care of yourself and get well,’” Donna said about the quick transition in ownership.
Jim Gookin would pass away just seven months later.

O’Hara’s Tavern owner Donna Hamelin and bartender Shannon Belanger, with O’Hara’s fans Sara Orlando and Steve Cushing (DRACUT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PHOTO)

Donna kept her promise to run the business just as Jim had run it. The clientele is still mostly regulars, and O’Hara’s is constantly involved in the community, holding fundraisers regularly for everything from the Lowell General Hospital Team Walk for Cancer Cure to local high schools’ sports teams to families experiencing sickness or hardship.

“I feel like that’s my donation to the community,” Donna said of the many fundraising events O’Hara’s Tavern hosts.

While running O’Hara’s, Donna also worked for the Town of Dracut in several departments at Town Hall for 17 years until her retirement in July 2024.

O’Hara’s features a classic menu of comfort foods – burgers, flatbread pizzas and sandwiches – but also offers specials and Wing Night every Monday.

“The Steak & Cheese Eggrolls are big sellers,” Donna said, and sure enough, it says right there on the menu “Customer Favorite.”

“They’re homemade and made to order,” she said. “The steak-and-cheese sub is good. We try all kinds of things, and the prices are reasonable.”

You can play Keno and other Massachusetts Lottery games, and with large-screen TVs placed strategically around the tavern, “you can sit anywhere in here and watch a game,” Donna said.

As Donna said, though, you can have the best food and all the TVs you can fit, but it’s the people that make O’Hara’s stand out – those who come for a beer and a bite, and those who serve them.

“We have a good group of regulars,” she said. “And I always say our success is because of the people we have working here. They make this place.”

O’Hara’s Tavern is open every day, from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Kitchen hours are Mondays, from 4 to 9; Thursdays and Fridays, from 11 to 9; Saturdays, from 11 to 8; and Sundays during football season and, of course, on March 16, from 11 to 6. It’s closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Stop in for some corned beef and cabbage March 15-17, and keep an eye out for whatever fundraiser is coming up.

For more information, call 978-957-0271, or email Oharastaverndracut@gmail.com.