Death of McSorley's Matty Maher-- Part 3: About Those Chicken Wings and Women

In the last post, I mentioned that there was a collection of chicken wings in New York City's McSorley's.  It would seem that this would be something a bit out of the ordinary in a bar.  And it is.

Matty Maher would explain that they dated to World War I, when departing doughboys, after finishing their last full meal stateside, would hang the bones above the bar as a good luck wish that they would return safely.

In 1970, Mayor John V. Lindsay signed legislation barring discrimination in public places because of gender.  Altercations erupted at McSorley's between longtime customers and the female newcomers.

"I'm afraid it will be this way for a few days," Maher said.    If anything, he continued, it helped business.  But it took until 1986 before McSorley's added a female bathroom

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

Deaths: Matty Maher of McSorley's Old Ale House in NYC-- Part 1: "Good Ale, Raw Onions, No Ladies"

From the January 16, 2020, Chicago Tribune  "Patriarch was steward to New York City institution, McSorley's" by Sam Roberts of NY Times.

MATTY MAHER  (1939-2020)

He died Jan. 11, 2020.

His family is only the third ones to own the venerable McSorley's in Manhattan's East Village since it
 opened in the mid-19th century.  He started working there as a bartender in 1964 as an immigrant from Ireland.  By the time he became bar manager its area, the Bowery, had become blighted and the bar was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Then, the bar lost a gender discrimination case in 1970 that forced them to open the place to women.  They had to delete the last two words of their slogan "Good Ale, Raw Onions, No Ladies."  Then a Health Department ordinance that banned smoking, but had the unintended consequence of encouraging customers to drink more.

--CooterBar