If you’re wondering where to drink yourself green this St. Patrick’s Day, how about the oldest continuously operating bar in NYC? McSorley’s Old Ale House first opened on 15th East 7th Street in 1854 by John McSorley.
John McSorley came to NYC on the Colonist, a ship that sailed from Liverpool, following the potato blight in Ireland.
Operating for nearly two centuries, it’s no surprise McSorley’s has lived through plenty of history, from serving Near Beer in the prohibition era to inspiring an e.e. cummings poem.
However, what’s maybe the most distressing, is that McSorley’s refused to serve women for its first 116 years. In fact, its philosophy went as far to claim “Good Ale, Raw Onions, and No Ladies.”
Many other bars began accepting women after the prohibition, but McSorley’s, even after ownership fell into the hands of Dorothy O’Connell Kirwan, didn’t relent due to a promise she had made her father, of whom she inherited the bar from. Kirwan made her husband the manager, only coming by on Sundays when the bar was closed.
It wasn’t until 1970, after McSorley’s got sued a year before, that the bar began serving women. However, a women’s restroom wasn’t added until 16 years later in 1986. McSorley’s hired its first female, Teresa Maher de la Haba, to work behind the bar in 1994.
If you’ve ever set foot in McSorley’s, you know you only have two choices of ale: light or dark. There was a time in the early 1900s when the Irish saloon tried experimenting with hard liquor alongside its ale, but that quickly ended right after it begun.
Both men and women can now patron the bar that once served the presidents, thieves and authors in our history books.
Still interested in learning more about McSorley’s history? You can take a virtual tour on its website.