Philly’s most famous Irish barman, Fergus Carey, is organizing his very own tour of Ireland

For 30 years, Fergus ”Fergie” Carey has charmed Philadelphia with homey, authentic pubs that have become cultural staples of the city.

From his eponymous bar on Sansom Street to Grace Tavern in Devil’s Pocket, to the red-lit confines of the Jim in South Philly, the Irishman with a shock of white hair simply knows how to create (and sustain) a vibe. The secret to his success? Fergie has always treated Philadelphia like a village. His bars are places you go to make the city feel small. And if Philly is a village, Fergie’s Pub is the village inn. A place sans TVs, where conversation matters and time doesn’t, and you can always catch live music (or try your hand at it) on the second floor.

This isn’t, in other words, green beer faux-Irish nonsense. “I’ve always wanted it to be my home pub,” Fergie said.

Now, he’s taking his home pub back to his actual home — Dublin, Ireland — as part of a yearlong celebration of the bar’s 30th anniversary.

It’s mostly an excuse to pack up a gang of friends, poets, musicians, and artists, for some good craic on the Emerald Isle.

“It’ll be a very Fergie tour of Ireland,” said the barman, with a smile. “I’m letting my friends know it’s open to everyone who wants to come.”

With spots still open, Fergie’s Pub Fall 2024 Tour of Ireland is set for late September. The 10-day trip to Dublin and the stunning southern coast of Ireland includes hotels, transportation, day trips, breakfast, and gigs. Rates start at $2,410 for double occupancy and a group air rate has been secured.

Anyone who’s spent a night out with Fergie has a good idea of how this will go. You may not necessarily know where you’re going but the crowd keeps growing, he said, the drinks keep flowing, and you’ll always wind up at the center of things: a live musical performance, a play, or a surprisingly deep late-night conversation.

“There might not be a better person to go out in Philly with,” said Casey Parker, a musician and an owner of Jose Pistola’s and other bars, who got his start at Fergie’s and is planning on making the trip. “There’s definitely not a better person to go to Ireland with.”

On Fergie’s last trip to Ireland he wandered into Dick Mack’s Pub in Dingle, and got up and sang “The Auld Triangle,” which he’d recently practiced with Charlie Hall of the Philly band the War on Drugs. That turned into a weeklong singing session with local musicians across the town.

“There’s going to be music every night,” Fergie promised. “And maybe music on the bus.”

That’s a lock with the musicians that have already signed on. John Byrne, a fellow Dublin transplant, whose self-named band is a Fergie’s mainstay, and the ballad singer Kevin McCloskey will help lead the tour. And Philly singer-songwriter Jon Houlon, of the John Train band, is also making the tour. The trip is open to anyone who wants to come, Fergie said.

The idea for the inaugural tour came to him during a six-week sojourn to Ireland last year.

“I thought about it and thought about it, and I said, ‘If it’s the right crew it would be great fun.’ ”

The intermarry includes many of his favorite spots, he said. Like the sweeping sea views, clifftop trails, and ancient ruins of Howth Head. The rugged beauty of Dingle Bay. And lots of pubs. Like the Palace Bar in Dublin, where so many of Ireland’s literary legends once bent their elbows. And Dingle’s An Droichead Beag bar — or, “the little bridge” in Irish — where the music sessions stretch late into the night.

“It’s where all the staff and musicians from all the pubs gather,” Fergie said.

It might be a little bit of blarney to say Fergie single-handedly created the Center City bar scene, but there wasn’t much of one when he opened Fergie’s in 1994, in an old carriage house that had once been home to a German restaurant.

Selfishly, he said, he created a place where he liked the music on the jukebox, the food on the menu, and the beer on tap. On opening night a line stretched around the corner and he and his former partner, Wajih Abed, quickly ran out of their one keg of Guinness. “We had no idea what we were doing,” Fergie said.

But the bar became a mainstay and a hub for the underground art scene, where artists met and music seemed to happen almost spontaneously.

“It was an oasis like that,” said Parker, who named his band Casey Parker & The Second Floor after the music scene at Fergie’s.

Fergie’s pitch for the trip is like a pitch for his nights out in Philly.

“It’s a hell of a chance, and maybe we’ll never do it again,” he said. “But you’ll have the time of your life.”