With chain franchises popping up in cities across the nation, Hoboken remains one of the cities with an authentic Irish pub scene that is very close to the real thing. From the music to the brews to the bar staff, Hoboken’s Irish pubs provide patrons with the real feel of a local pub.
The Square Mile’s Emerald Isle
Saint Patrick’s Day isn’t the only time of the year when Hoboken residents can find traces of Irish tradition within the city.
Take a walk down First Street on any day of the week, and you’ll be greeted by so many Irish pubs – and accents – that you’ll think you’ll have stepped into a small version of the Emerald Isle.
With half-a-dozen pubs just within a five-block radius, First Street is where Hobokenites go to watch the latest football (known here as soccer) match, down a good pint of Guinness, or to hear some quality Celtic tunes. Irish brogues abound at many of the pubs, where both staff and proprietors are recent immigrants from Ireland. McSwiggan’s, Mulligan’s, O’Donoghue’s, The Shannon, The Nag’s Head, Busker’s Bar & Grill, and The Quiet Woman, are all Irish pubs that call First Street home.
Aidan Boyle, the owner of McSwiggan’s on First Street and The Dubliner on River Street came to the United States on a resident’s visa over 13 years ago.
“It was supposed to be only for six months,” said Boyle, “but I never left.”
A native of County Mayo, Boyle came to the United States to find better economic opportunities, like many generations of Irish immigrants to this country long before him. He said he originally came to work in construction and then found himself tending bar on weekends. He has owned McSwiggan’s for eight years and took over the Dubliner a year and a half ago.
He joked that he got involved in the bar business because of the stereotypical association between the Irish and bars.
He quoted a famous Irish saying, “God created drink so that the Irish wouldn’t take over the world.” Boyle joked, “Might as well take advantage of that.”
Better jobs beckoned
Boyle is one of many who found a better living in Hoboken in recent years. Since the mid-1950s, The Shannon, located next door to Boyle’s bar, has been a big meeting place for many of Hoboken’s Irish immigrants who came looking for more lucrative jobs.
“The Shannon was always the place to come for work,” said Tara Whelan, whose family has owned and operated the establishment since 1956. “You came and saw Joan [Joan Wall, Whelan’s grandmother] and met someone in your field.”
One of the members of Whelan’s current bar staff, Cathy, from Nawry, said that she too came over in the early 1990s to find better work.
She added that Ireland’s recent economic growth has led many of the immigrants who originally left to change their minds about their new lives.
“A lot of people are moving back because the economy is more stable,” Cathy said. An eight-year resident of Hoboken who met her husband in Belmar, Cathy said she would probably not be returning to Ireland.
“This is my home now,” Cathy said.
Cathy’s co-worker Cormac, who is from County Offaly, was led away by his heart. “I came to the United States because I fell in love with a beautiful American girl,” Cormac said.
He and his girlfriend, Dawn, met when they were 11. Year after year, her Irish-American family traveled to Cormac’s town for vacations every year. Seven years ago he came back with her to the United States.
Cathal, a bartender at McSwiggan’s, was drawn to leave Ireland by an adventurous spirit. “I was young and curious and wanted to travel,” Cathal said.
Celtic charm
There are over 100 bars in Hoboken. In a place where sports bars and lounges abound, many residents and visitors are drawn to the friendly neighborhood feel of the city’s Irish pubs.
Moran’s Tavern on Garden Street is one of those pubs with a real neighborhood feel, where locals meet up to listen to live music, or play darts.
Lysa Hawke, a bartender at The Nag’s Head, said that is part of the reason why her pub is also popular. “The owner is Irish and he tries to capture that same authentic feeling,” Hawke said.
Hawke, a Vernon, NJ native whose family is from County Mayo, said she comes from a long line of Irish bartenders. “Pretty much everyone I know in my family has turned to bartending as an alternate source of income at some point,” she said as she poured a pint of Guinness for a customer one recent weekend night.
Tim Gehan, who ordered the beer, chimed in on part of the Nag’s Head’s allure: “There are lots of fake, Disney-like Irish bars,” he said, naming pub-chain Fado as one of the “Irish-pubs-in-a-box” that have popped up across the country.
“This one has more of the real vibe,” Gehan said.
Cormac, one of Whelan’s bartenders at The Shannon, said that it’s that type of atmosphere that patrons feel in a pub in his home country. “You can walk into a bar a total stranger and anyone will talk to you,” he said.
“You’re made to feel welcome. There could be 10 guys playing cards in a corner and you could ask ‘can I play,’ and they’d say, ‘sure.'”
He and his friend Cathal are two friendly, funny characters that many pub patrons enjoy engaging in barroom banter with. They’ve been known to tell a tall tale with a completely strait face, make a cheeky comment with a wink and a smile, and then top it all off with the double thumbs up.
Big party
The city’s annual Saint Patrick’s Day celebration is soon approaching, and many of Hoboken’s pubs are decked out in green and decorated with shamrocks. Staff members are gearing up for the festivities, which is a marathon day for most working at the bars that day.
Boyle said he worked over 12 hours at McSwiggan’s last year.
He commented on the difference between St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the United States and St. Patrick’s Day back in Ireland.
“St. Patrick’s Day is definitely celebrated a hell of a lot more here,” he said. “You could celebrate it for a month here if you wanted to. Every town and city has its own celebration.”
At the Nag’s Head, Hawke is busy psyching herself up for her shift this Saturday, which will be her first working the city’s St. Patrick’s Day celebration.
Comments on this piece can be sent to: MFriedman@hudsonreporter.com.