By Tom Meade of SNS
All the world is Irish on St Patrick's Day, the old saying goes.
And so are many of the pubs, bars and taverns that claim to be authentically Irish for the duration.
"You can't just stick a shamrock in the window and call yourself an Irish pub," said Patrick Griffin, owner of Patrick's Pub in Providence, RI, and a native of Athlone, County Roscommon, Ireland.
"I run the pub like it's my sitting room at home," said Tom Cahill. "It's not some gin mill." He and his wife, Mary, own and manage The Chieftain Pub in Plainville, Massachusetts. They are natives of Dungarvan, County Waterford, Ireland.
"A pub is not a place you go to get a buzz going," Cahill said. "It's a place where you go to talk.
"The one thing I miss about Ireland is the pub where you'd have a 75-year-old retired man at the counter sharing his experiences with a 19-year-old - we can drink at 18 over there. That's wonderful. It gives great satisfaction to the older person, because a young person is listening, and the young person can get a wealth of knowledge."
Ideally, an Irish pub is owned and managed by an Irishman, said Charlie Breagy, founder of the Downtown 5K and the St Pat's 5K road races in Providence and the elite athlete coordinator for the Ras na hEireann 6K in County Louth, Ireland.
An Irish publican knows how to run a public house, Breagy said, but he cited Ri Ra Irish Pub in Providence and Doherty's East Avenue Irish Pub in Pawtucket, RI, as exemplary pubs run by Americans of Irish descent.
Breagy, who prefers his pint at Patrick's, has several criteria for evaluating a pub.
Beer is first.
"Number one, what do they have on tap?" he asks. "They've got to have Guinness. Then, they should have Smithwick's - that's what I drink - it's the number-one ale in Ireland. And they should have Harp, and maybe Beamish Stout. If they've got more than one stout, I'd say it's a good Irish bar."
How Guinness stout is poured separates a real Irish barman or barmaid from the wannabes, according to several barmen.
"It takes time," said Tom Cahill, pulling a pint. He filled the glass about three-quarters full with a good head on the beer. He placed the glass on the bar and did some other chores for a few minutes. When the signature "cascade" of Guinness bubbles settled, he filled the rest of the pint, making certain that the head did not rise above the lip of the glass. Some American bartenders like to make a shamrock on the head. "I won't allow it," Cahill said. "It ruins the pint."
Music is important, said Breagy, after visiting some pubs in Ireland recently. "Sessions," when musicians gather for a Celtic jam, add to a pub's authenticity. At other times, a barman or barmaid should be prepared to harmonise when a pub patron breaks into song, said Cahill.
The barman must be a good listener and a lively conversationalist, said Griffin.
In Rhode Island and Massachusetts, at least, pubs owned by Irishmen generally don't have the word "Irish" in their names. Examples include Tara's Joyce Family Pub in Matunuck, RI, Galway Bay in Pawtucket, The Chieftain in Plainville, Patrick's in Providence, and two Newport, RI, pubs, The Fastnet and Buskers.
Irish publicans Griffin and Tom Cahill agree: "You can hang a lot of Irish stuff on the walls of a bar, but that doesn't make it Irish," said Cahill.
"You know you're in a real Irish pub," said Griffin, "when there are no strangers, only the friends you've yet to meet."
SNS