Jeff Grundy started tending bar at Bull Feeney’s in Portland in 2004. Last year, he worked the final St. Patrick’s Day there before the popular Old Port pub closed the following week. The manager at Ri Ra offered him a job before the last keg had even kicked, so this year, he’s pouring pints of Guinness again.

“I like pubs,” he said with a shrug. “I’m a whiskey and beer guy.”

Since last St. Patrick’s Day, two more Irish pubs have closed in Portland, leaving Ri Ra as the last one standing in the city proper. Of course, Sunday revelers will find local taverns such as Gritty McDuff’s serving up hash and eggs at dawn. Meanwhile, more unexpected watering holes – such as Bonfire Country Bar and Scandinavian-inspired Portland Hunt + Alpine Club – are also picking up the slack with Irish-themed specials.

Still, Grundy expects to see familiar faces in his new spot.

“I think it’ll be a little extra busy,” he said.

Even if the Old Port has changed since the years when Brian Boru was packed from 6 a.m. to midnight, Portland still has strong ties to St. Patrick’s homeland.

Census data shows that nearly 18% of people who live in the metro area claim Irish heritage. New Hampshire has the highest percentage of residents reporting Irish ancestry in the United States, with 19%. Maine, with 15%, is fifth.

That data wasn’t surprising to Vinny O’Malley, the former executive director of the Maine Irish Heritage Center. His own parents were among the immigrants from the country’s west coast who settled in Portland.

“My first cousin has a pub where my father was born, and there’s still a lot of old-timers who come in and say, ‘How are the Portland boys doing?’ ” O’Malley said.

O’Malley has a busy weekend schedule with the many activities planned to celebrate Irish culture in Portland, including a Maine Mariners game, a flag raising and two parades. He won’t be among those lining up for bangers and beers Sunday morning, although he said he can still name a half-dozen Irish pubs that dotted the city during his “misspent youth.”

While many of those old haunts are gone, O’Malley speculated that at least some of the people working in the city’s many breweries today must be at least a little Irish. (Guests who visit the open house at Maine Irish Heritage Center in the former St. Dominic’s church building in the West End starting at 1 p.m. Sunday could find out for sure through its genealogy program.)

For those behind the bar, the weekend will also be busy.

“I’ve been thinking about St. Patrick’s Day since New Year’s ended,” said Matt Lacroix, general manager at Ri Ra in Portland. In addition to the usual holiday crowd, he was set to contend with the end of a major rugby tournament and a huge pub crawl. The bar has never been hurting for business on a St. Patrick’s Day (Grundy estimated that he’ll spend at least an hour just entering tips from credit cards into the computer at the end of the night), but the closure of The Snug and Bull Feeney’s will likely bring them even more customers this year.

“It’s obviously unfortunate for those other locations,” Lacroix said. “Bull Feeney’s, Boru’s, all those places were institutions and great spots. But I have to believe it’s going to be a benefit to us.”

The menu at O’Reilly’s Cure in Scarborough is part Irish and part Korean, a balance that reflects the respective heritages of the married couple that owns the restaurant. This weekend, they lean hard into the Irish side.

“Boru’s was my spot,” Patrick O’Reilly said. “I definitely miss Brian Boru and the vibe there on St. Patrick’s Day.”

At his own bar, O’Reilly said, the crowd “will be four deep pretty quickly on Sunday. While he could see a bump in traffic from customers who are looking for those Celtic credentials, he also said that his clientele is generally looking for a different experience than they would find in the Old Port. He is, too. Making plans to bring Irish dancers to the bar on the holiday or sponsoring the Portland Gaelic Athletic Association have given him a deeper sense of the city’s Irish history.

“I feel like I’m more a part of the greater Irish community in Portland now than I ever was, and it’s made me more proud of St. Patrick’s Day,” he said.

Allison Bagonzi, 35, wore an olive green jacket to Ri Ra on Friday evening for a Guinness with friends and family. The group was headed to Twelve later that night for dinner, and they decided to get a pint at the Commercial Street bar before the holiday crowd really got roaring.

“This place has been here for a really long time,” the Portland resident said. “If this place ever closed, it would be a shame.”

Peaks Island residents Chris Reed, 40, and Brian Brostowicz, 42, enjoyed a drink before the Maine Mariners game on Friday night. They planned to spend the holiday itself at the island’s American Legion Post 142 for a corned beef and cabbage dinner, so this was their celebratory night out. They would miss the stalwarts, they said, but the changes wouldn’t prevent them from enjoying a night out.

“There’s still plenty of places to drink,” Reed said.

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