During my research on the Hoey Family, I found this great series of stories about the youngest child, James Hoey and a saloon keeper on South Chester Street.

At first I scratched my head.  What is going on here?  Why would he run? Why would they be serving a warrant to Patrick Flaherty for selling beer?  This was before prohibition, right?  Then it dawned on me.  This was published on March 18th. The previous night, March 17th 1912 was St Patrick’s Day and it fell on a Sunday.  Blue Laws be damned; an Irishman is going to sell beer on St. Patrick’s Day!  Sure enough, court notice on April 1st, 1912 confirms the charge:

But that’s not all.  Check out this amazing follow up:

Its great that the jury acquitted Mr Flaherty for this.  I feel this same frustration in Fells Point now.  Baltimore City allows very few businesses licenses to sell alcohol on Sunday.  Looks as though this is a long standing problem in the neighborhood.