New York changes, but historic Irish pubs remain

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Irish here may drink elsewhere, but this St. Patrick's Day weekend, New York's most historic Irish pubs are still teeming with those searching for smiling eyes and a tale or two.

New York's oldest Irish bars now stand out as relics of the past in neighborhoods transformed from immigrant enclaves to more affluent areas with high rents, trendy shops and stylish restaurants.

In Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens, hip young professionals have erased the neighborhood's heritage as a home where struggling Irish Americans settled in the early 19th century.

But at P.J. Hanley's, which claims to be Brooklyn's oldest Irish tavern, middle-aged men can be found chatting at the bar in a mixed crowd. Established in 1874, it has had three Irish family owners.

"We still get a lot of Irish coming in fresh off the boat," said Patricia Hankin, wearing a tweed Irish peaked cap. She has tended the bar for 11 years.

A marble bar, tin walls and ceiling and an 1869 wall signature have survived, as well as an old photograph of men sitting at the original bar sporting mustaches and bowler hats.

Hankin said the bar still carried on the tradition of serving free drinks to New York police and firefighters, traditionally dominated by Irish Americans.

"It's historically a neighborhood meeting place," said Hankin. "Kids come in saying their fathers and grandfathers came here."

It is also one of the several surviving Irish bars that was also a speak-easy during the Prohibition era in the 1920s.

'TIME WARP'

Others include McSorley's Old Ale House, established in 1854 not long after New York became a prime destination for the Irish emigrating during the years of Irish potato famine.

Sitting near Manhattan's Lower East Side, McSorley's is not far from the former "Little Ireland" district that emerged in the 1830s and is near a host of modern glass-fronted buildings being built along The Bowery district.

Both immigrants and the struggling artists who eventually followed have now been edged out, but McSorley's is the same.

"It's a time warp. You come in here and nothing has changed," said Teresa De La Haba, 38, the daughter of McSorley's current owner Mattie Maher, who bought the place in 1977, seven years after women were allowed into the bar.

Inside the bar on Friday night, rowdy groups of men joked at the bar or jeered from round wooden tables surrounded by old newspaper clippings, photographs and a floor strewn with sawdust.

De La Haba, who has tended bar the past 14 years, said the place attracted tourists, blue and white collar workers to college kids, but added, "it's probably not as rowdy as 20 years ago."

McSorley's began as an Irish working man's saloon and still features a rough ambience, said Alan Maginn, an American of Irish heritage who recently brought two visiting friends there.

"If you're Irish American, it's still the place to take people; there is still a major pull to it," he said, drinking half-pints of the house ale -- the only beer served.

"I was told to 'Order a drink -- if you want to chat, there's a coffee house down the road.' I like that," he said.

McSorley's has housed famous historical figures from Abraham Lincoln to John Lennon -- as has P.J. Clarke's, a midtown Manhattan saloon started in 1884 named after Irish immigrant Patrick J. Clarke in the early 1900s. It is now dwarfed by neighboring skyscrapers.

Many Irish in New York prefer to stay away from what they see as tourist traps and drink in the Irish pubs in Woodside in Queens or Woodlawn in The Bronx.

But some say that whether the bars are old or new, that famed warm Irish hospitality remains the same.

"People in here are just really nice, you know?" said Hankin, smiling.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)