In the nearly 12 years since Doolin Rakes came together, the Celtic rock band has become a mainstay in Honolulu.

With that much experience under the band’s belt, it’s hard to remember a time when Doolin Rakes was not on stage, providing a safe harbor for roots music and good times in Honolulu.

After this month, changes are in store for the band, as founding member James McCarthy prepares to take a hiatus.

McCarthy plans to “take wing,” he said, traveling to the East Coast and likely Ireland. As he prepares for his final sets with Doolin Rakes, including shows at O’Toole’s on Saturday and May 28, he is looking back on the band’s accomplishments.

McCarthy gets emotional as he thinks of the friends and admirers who have passed in front of the band.

O’Toole’s serves as Honolulu’s downtown headquarters for Oahu’s military, and McCarthy said he commonly hears from recruits as they are returning from a deployment, telling him that they thought of the good times had at O’Toole’s every Saturday.

“There’s a good energy in the shows,” he said, putting it mildly.

A Doolin Rakes night stretches from 9 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. on Saturdays. The music may range from an instrumental reel to an acoustic Irish ballad to a rousing traditional drinking song to a rocking Van Morrison cover to a rendition of “Whiskey in a Jar” that would make Thin Lizzy proud.

It all started when fellow founding member Jamie Winpenny approached McCarthy, seeking to put a band together for a local party, McCarthy said. “We had such a good time that we stayed together,” McCarthy said.

Winpenny, a writer and rocker who was well known for his involvement with the reggae/ska band Red Session in the ’90s, and McCarthy, who has an abiding love for Celtic folk and lyrical rock music a la Richard Thompson and Van Morrison, clicked.

Winpenny was traveling off island at the band’s show on May 24, and current fiddle player Lisa Gomes was also on a break, but that provided an opportunity for longtime Rakes member Lesley Kline to sit in with the band again. Kline, a graduate of the Berklee School of Music, also plays with the Saloon Pilots and brings a high level of expertise to the stage.

Geoff Red plays bass and mandolin with the band and has been an essential member of the Rakes for many years.

Drummer Steve Howell was a longtime part of the lineup, until he too departed on a world tour. Currently James Ganeko is back in the fold; McCarthy notes that Ganeko, who also plays with Honolulu bands Cho Cho and Tiki Taboo, was drummer for the band in its early years.

The musical interplay between band members is part of Doolin Rakes’ attraction. The band has written several original songs, and recorded a Na Hoku Hanohano-nominated rock album, “Irishman in Paradise,” in 2007.

McCarthy says the bonds are strong, calling the band a “family project.”

“It’s been really meaningful to us,” he said, recalling that a few years ago, the band members were asked about Doolin Rakes’ purpose, and four of them simultaneously said, “to lift people up.”

“It’s kinda more than just a good time,” McCarthy said.

As McCarthy wraps up some responsibilities in Honolulu, he will also be taking a break from his work as a master teaching artist with the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts program for schools and as a performing arts teacher at charter school SEEQS.

His focus will be gathering up inspiration and spending more time writing songs. In the future, he may perform more acoustic numbers, melodic rock and “old-style country,” he said.

“There’s all these stories I have,” he said.

Eventually, you may hear his new music as he unveils it in Honolulu.

For another last-chance listen to McCarthy before his journey, check in on him with Red and Howells on June 10 at Downbeat Lounge.

And brace yourself for the finale concert by McCarthy with the Rakes on May 28, when he plans to roll out a best-of set including songs that embody “the soul of Irish wit,” fiery fiddle tunes, classic rock and “as many original compositions as we can fit in.”