MONTREAL -- It's the second St-Patrick’s season since the pandemic began.

With neither pubs nor parades, staying home on St-Patrick's Day goes against the grain for many.

Usually, the months leading up to March 17 are busy with events hosted by Montreal’s Irish community and their friends.

This year, however, with lockdown rules and health guidelines firmly in place, some members of the Irish community are finding different ways to honour their heritage.

Following health guidelines, the folks from the Irish Embassy Pub donated time and a truckload of food to serve meals to the hungry at Resilience Montreal Day Centre near Cabot Square.

“People like our parents and family and Father John Walsh have just always inspired us to do something for the community,” said Joe Cannon of the Irish Embassy Pub, a popular spot before the building burned down before COVID-19 and has yet to be rebuilt.

Cannon said that times are tough for bar and restaurant owners, but for Montreal’s homeless community – times have been even worse.

So, Joe and his partner Paul Quinn donated 300 breakfasts today and 300 portions of hearty Irish stew for lunch.

“It’s the recipe we usually would serve in the pub for all the punters coming in,” said Quinn, jokingly referring to regular folks in British slang. “We're delighted that we're going to be doing it for some people who are a little bit less fortunate than ourselves and it's just great.”

On the corner of Atwater Ave. and Ste-Catherine St. West, Resilience Montreal is just blocks from where the St-Patrick’s Day parade route would begin.

It’s also a neighbourhood full of history says Paul Sowney of The Erin Sports Association.

"We're standing in the neighbourhood here of Shaughnessy Village, Griffintown, Goose Village, Point St-Charles," said Sowney. "There were 44,000 Irish people here in 1865 and this is the area, within two or three kilometres, that the Irish community grew-up and remains in, and continues to give back to,”

Sowney personally collected donations from restaurants in Point St-Charles and Dorval and brought them to Resilience Montreal because helping others is in his culture.

"I think it's something the Irish community has always done," he said.

Those meals offered a warm respite from the cold of winter and lockdown.

David Chapman of Resilience Montreal said, “the people are feeling appreciated by the community at the moment and enjoy the food. That’s a good thing.”

He explained that it was such a good thing, that a line-up formed outside in the sunshine.

"The line-up down the sidewalk 20 minutes ago told me a lot!" said Chapman.

Aislin's editorial cartoon on March 17 showed an Irishman dressed in his Kelly green finery wearing a mask and staying home.

It reminds us that socializing is what the Irish community usually does on this day.

One way Montreal is helping celebrate St-Patrick’s Day, while social-distancing, is by joining Ireland's "global greening" initiative.

Every year monuments are illuminated in rich green light to honour the date.

The McGill College tower, The Olympic Stadium, The Verdun Borough Hall and the Grand Roue in Old Montreal are some of the local monuments to be lit up in green, and since the curfew is a bit later, you are allowed to go for a quick visit.

The United Irish Societies are inviting people to snap a pic and sharing it on social media with the hashtag #MTLStPaddys #HappyStPatricksDay.

Trudeau airport's familiar "Montreal" sign on the main terminal building sports a Kelly green shamrock as well even if very few people are there to see it.

The weather on March 17 in Montreal was warm and inviting.

Sunday, March 21 would’ve been the 198th St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the city. The forecast for that day is also very springlike, a reminder that better days are ahead and hopefully next year, we will all celebrate together again.