Australia's P.J. O'Brien's Sets St. Patrick's Day Offerings

P.J. O'Brien's pubs across the country will turn on the event of the year for St Patrick's Day on 17 March.

St Patrick's Day will see Australia's six million Irish, Irish descended - and even the Irish at heart - congregate for the world's largest celebration of Irish culture. At the same time wandering Irish folk from Dublin to New York to Tokyo will witness rivers turned green and landmarks lit with a wash of Celtic colour!

In Melbourne, the most passionate thousands of Irish will be found making the most of the craic at P.J.O'Brien's Irish Pub at Southgate. All are welcome, with a full entertainment line up and menu available via www.pjobriens.com.au

Festivities will kick off with an Irish breakfast from 8am at P.J.O'Brien's Southgate, on the banks of the Yarra River opposite the iconic Flinders St Station.

"Usually about three quarters of our patrons are Irish, and most of our staff are Irish too. It is our biggest day of the year by far!" says Melbourne venue manager Aoife Reilly.

The day will include face painting, Irish dancers, and an impressive line up of Irish bands and musicians including The Bad Penguins, The Coogans, Gallie and Marty Kelly.

P.J.O'Brien's Southgate Irish chef Marion O'Sullivan-Perez arrived in Melbourne to marry her Australian beau, and has been at the helm of the P.J.'s kitchen for eight years.

"One of our most special dishes has to be the Irish spiced beef sandwich. There is a long process to prepare the meat: first we rub it in brown sugar and leave it marinating for two days. Then we coat it in our own special blend of spices, turning and monitoring it to ensure it's evenly coated, which takes another three days," says Marion.

"When it's ready we serve it thinly sliced with apricot & almond chutney and horseradish mayonnaise on pan loaf bread. It's one of my favourites!"

Discerning St Patrick's Day revelers can also sample P.J.O'Brien's head bartender Cian O'Neill's signature Irish cocktails, including the Double Black Martini with Guinness and Espresso, the Black-Currant Velvet, merging the Irish and expat Guinness-variegated drinks, and The Sour Irishman.

The Sour Irishman is Cian's variation on the whiskey sour using Poitín, Ireland's original whiskey, distilled over 14 centuries ago by monks, 700 years before the first whiskey was created. Legal brewing of Poitín began in 1997, and it just became available in Australia in 2014. P.J.O'Brien's Southbank was one of the first to stock the spirit.

Designed and constructed in Ireland, and considered by Guinness Worldwide Brewing to be Australia's leading Irish Pub, P.J.O'Brien's is the country's most authentic destination for the celebration

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