City blocks Adams Street, Dorchester, between Gallivan Boulevard and Saranac Street

 It’s often said that Boston is a city of neighborhoods. Each week, Metro will toss a dart at a map of the Hub, then provide you a snapshot of what we’ve found.

BOSTON. The first thing that grabs you as you stand in Adams Village and glance up Adams Street into far-off Dorchester is the wealth of red, white and blue. Each lamppost on the stretch is clad with two American flags and to one side a veteran's club boasts a war memorial and a gun turret out front, flags again hanging overhead. 

That’s not to say those in surrounding neighborhoods do not bleed for the U.S., but it’s apparent this strip does. And with each reference to the land of the free comes one for the old sod, as greens and golds of Ireland add to the rainbow of colors.

Inside the Eire Pub, photos hang of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton mixing it up with the locals there while back on the campaign trail. An all men’s club when Thomas Stenson opened it in 1963, it’s allowed women since 1980. Men still tend to dominate in numbers.

“The women haven’t taken over, but they seem comfortable,” joked John Stenson, Thomas’s son.

Back outside you are blinded as your eyes readjust to high noon. Once they do, the block’s theme is carried on, with American flags hanging over Greenhills Irish Bakery, which boasts that it'll “warm the cockles of your heart."

Lisa’s Liquors, Lynn’s Spa, Sonny’s Adams Village Restaurant and Lopez’s Florist are among the run of businesses named for those who opened them. There’s nary a Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts or any other chain in site, unless you head to nearby Gallivan Boulevard, where they abound.

Adams Street, seemingly in defiance of such monstrosities, remains true to itself, and its country.