Cuba Observes St. Patrick’s Day with Irish Week

With the sponsorship of Havana’s Historian Office, the colonial-style Palacio O’Farrill Hotel organized the Irish-Cuban Cultural Week for a second year running on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day last March 17. The event included a number of activities that hyped the establishment as the traditional venue for this particular red-letter day.

Traditional Irish cuisine and great Cuban food, coupled with musical performances, dance classes, lectures on the Irish migration to Cuba, art exhibits, movie presentations and tours around places in Havana that treasure the history of this Celtic people embraced the weeklong celebrations that stretched from March 11 through 17. And a brand-new cocktail especially made for the occasion –the Irish Flag- was served by Cuban bartenders at the Chico O’Farrill Bar.

The Palacio O’Farrill Hotel, right on the corner of Cuba and Chacon streets, next to the beautiful Havana Bay and at a stone’s throw from the capital’s Cathedral, cherishes a rich history told by the lodging’s halls, walls and columns that make guests turn three centuries back in time in just the blinking of an eye, as its slogan goes.

This mansion, recently refurbished by Havana’s Historian Office, used to belong to Don Ricardo O’Farrill y O’Daly, whose ancestors had come to Cuba from Ireland’s Longford. Mr. O’Daly was a well-to-do merchant closely linked to the money-spinning trade of African slaves and owner of several sugar mills. He settled down in Havana in the early 18th century where he founded the O’Farrill family, known at the time for its financial prosperity and its contribution to the island nation’s cultural heritage.

The hotel features 38 well-equipped rooms, including three Junior Suites. All accommodations have balconies and a couple of queen-size beds, safety boxes, pay-TV, central air conditioning, minibar, hairdryer, hot-and-cold water and international calling service.

The facility’s services are tailor-made to meet the most demanding guests, including wakeup call, laundry service, car rental and travel bureau. And all guests are entitled to a 10 percent discount in every restaurant around Old Havana.

After the O’Farrills left the mansion, the palace housed the headquarters of such prestigious institutions as the Copyright Registration Office, the Supreme Court, the Attorney’s Office, the Department of Justice, the School of Law and the Special Public Works Fund, a section of the Ministry of the Economy in charge of registering motor vehicles that remained on the premises until 1959.

With an exquisite architectural style dating back to the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, the hotel boasts a floor-by-floor decoration in line with these three periods, letting guests see a hard-to-find blend of history and modernity.