#20: Thinking Finnegan’s is the Senior Bar

The bar scene in South Bend is perfectly complementary to the needs of Notre Dame Students.  For Students that want to casually drink at bars before their 21^st birthday, a mediocre fake ID can get them into such establishments as Cheers Lounge, Club 23, CJ’s Pub, and Madison Oyster Bar.  For the more intense partiers, more expensive fakes can work wonders at Club Fever and The Backer.  However no bar is more stringent on IDs than The Blarney Stone (commonly known as Finnegan’s). 

Seniors love to go to Finnegan’s not necessarily to dance or even to get very drunk, but to socialize with all of the other seniors that they don’t get to see every day.  On Thursday nights, Notre Dame Seniors can wander around Finnegan’s for hours just socializing with people they are peripherally friends with while casually drinking pitchers of beer or Long Island Iced Tea.

This social atmosphere has led many Notre Dame Seniors to perceive Finnegan’s as the Senior Bar.  These Seniors cherish their time at the bar, and become upset when 21 year old Juniors enter the bar.  They want the bar to be for Seniors only and oftentimes complain to each other when it becomes overrun with Juniors.  Notre Dame Seniors search for a Senior Bar leads them to loathe the days when more and more Juniors gain admittance to the bar.

This social atmosphere also infringes on the ability for Juniors to fully enjoy the bar.  Because not all Juniors are 21, they are not fully able to experience the social atmosphere of the bar and do not fully appreciate it.  Juniors do not really understand the glory that is Finnegan’s, but it doesn’t take long for them to learn, because all Juniors eventually become Seniors (when they too will want the bar all to themselves).