6 Boston bars more than half a century old

J.J. Foley’s has been family-owned and operated since 1909. It is still at 117 East Berkeley Street in the South End, making it one of Boston’s oldest Irish bars and one of the city’s most established family businesses.

The bar has a pre-Prohibition feel without turning itself into a museum. There is a dining room, sports on television, Guinness, and a crowd that includes longtime regulars alongside people discovering the place for the first time.

Foley’s history is tied to the city’s political and labor history, too. In 1919, Boston police officers voted to strike at Fay Hall above the bar. You do not need to arrive looking for a history lesson. Order a drink, find a table, and the room will do the rest.

Sullivan’s Tap opened on December 5, 1933, the day after Prohibition ended. It became a gathering place for people heading to the Garden, and it has kept that role as the neighborhood around TD Garden has changed.

Sully’s is Boston’s oldest sports bar by its own account. It is a straightforward place with a narrow room, cold beer, and a crowd that knows exactly what it is there to do. On game days, it fills up with Bruins and Celtics fans. On other days, it is simply a good place to sit near the Garden without dealing with a polished sports-bar production.

The Tam first opened sometime in the 1940s and has remained a small downtown watering hole ever since. Even the bar’s own history page does not pin down a precise opening year, which feels right for a place that has never needed to explain itself too much.

The Tam is small, cheap, and direct. It is useful before a show, after work, or whenever you want a drink without a reservation, a dress code, or a menu full of explanations. The crowd changes throughout the night, but the basic character does not.

The Galway House has been a Centre Street fixture since 1960. It is a family-style restaurant and Irish pub with Italian and American food, a full bar, sports on television, and a steady Jamaica Plain crowd.

This is the kind of place that feels like a neighborhood business first and a destination bar second. People come in for dinner, a drink, a game, or because they have been coming here for years and see no reason to stop.

Some older coverage dates the business slightly differently, so 1960 is the safest version to use.

Corrib Pub has been open on Market Street since 1969. It is the sort of Irish pub that works for a quick pint, a plate of bangers and mash, live music, or a long conversation with someone who has been coming in for years.

The pub is named for Lough Corrib in County Galway. Its Irish identity is straightforward rather than theatrical: Guinness, sports, music, and a neighborhood crowd. Corrib has stayed part of Brighton’s daily life while plenty of other bars have come and gone.

Cask ’n Flagon opened in 1969 beside Fenway Park. It has spent more than five decades serving baseball fans, sports writers, visiting bands, and people who came for the atmosphere even when there was no game.

Cask is louder and busier than the other bars on this list, particularly around Red Sox games. That is part of the point. It is a Fenway landmark, a sports bar, and a reliable place to start or end a night around Lansdowne Street.

The bar’s appeal has remained simple: a drink near the ballpark, baseball on the walls, and a room that expects to get crowded.