These are difficult times for some of Shanghai’s most venerable Irish pubs.

The first Irish pub in China, O’Malley’s in Shanghai, has been forced to close in April as the local government owners want to use the site in the former French Concession to open a kindergarten.

Another well-known hostelry, the Blarney Stone, has closed its doors too.

“The lease is finished so after 16 years we have to look for a new place. April 15th we will be closing,” said Richard Evans, managing director of O’Malley’s.

Business has been booming, he said, and 5,000 people are expected to visit the bar on St Patrick’s Day.

Originally the house was built during the late 19th century by a wealthy Shanghai family until liberation in 1949 when the property was handed over to the local education department. For the next 40 years the house and garden were used as a junior boarding school until it was abandoned in the mid-1990s, when O’Malley’s was born.

Finding a venue in Shanghai these days, especially in the fashionable French Concession area on the Puxi side of the city, is not an easy task, and rents are very high.

Outside the Blarney Stone, meanwhile, there is a hoarding advertising an Italian restaurant due to open soon. But the overall concept of the Irish pub has been warmly welcomed in Shanghai and the city’s ninth Irish pub is opening soon.