Death of Matty Maher of McSorley's, a NYC Icon-- Part 2: A Chance Meeting, a Job, and Those Chicken Wings

In 1936, the McSorley famiky sold the bar to Daniel O'Connell, a patron and police officer, who left it to his daughter Dorothy Kirwin.  In 1964, while vacationing in Kilkenny, Ireland, Kirwin's husband, Harry, was stranded with a flat tire when who should come along but 25-year-old Matty Maher.

Harry Kirwin promised Matty a job at McSorley's if he ever moved to New York.  Matty accepted, got the job and in 1977 bought the bar and the building it occupies at 15 East Seventh St.

McSorley's is noted for a sawdust -sprinkled floor and various memorabilia, including a pair of Harry Houdini's escape-proof handcuffs, a wanted poster for "the Murderer" John Wilkes Booth and an icky accumulation of wishbones that hang from a gas lamp over the bar.

There is a story behind those chicken bones.

Next.  --Cooter