Irish eyes are crying in Manhattan.
At least 25 Irish pubs closed in the borough during the two years of the pandemic, according to Sean Murphy of the New York bar resource MurphGuide.
“After a while, it got too depressing, so I stopped keeping track,” he told The Post as St. Patrick’s Day approaches on Thursday.
The Mayor’s Office of Nightlife said that there were approximately 331 Irish, Scottish and British-style pubs in the five boroughs in 2019. Of that number, 216 were in Manhattan. That means more than 10 percent of the watering holes dried up during the two-year pandemic.
Bars and restaurants closed the day before St. Pat’s in 2020, due to COVID-19 — and many stayed shuttered even after the lockdown was lifted.
Sixth-generation bar owner Shaun Clancy said recording a video announcing the closure of his Midtown gin joint, Foley’s, was “the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”
March 2020 would have been his biggest month of the year — $25,000 in sales — with St. Patrick’s Day, the NCAA tournament and baseball’s opening day.
“It couldn’t have come at a worse time … those 30 days paid the expenses for five quiet months,” Clancy said.
When his bar — known for its 10,000 pieces of baseball memorabilia that now sit in a storage facility — closed, MLB umpires paid his employees.
Clancy is now living in Florida, working at the deli counter of a Publix supermarket. “And I laugh because …. I had 19 employees, every one … was making more than I make,” he said.
The luck of the Irish also ran out for some of Robert Mahon’s bar businesses. His father, John, owns the Pig ‘N’ Whistle Group, which operated 12 Manhattan bars pre-COVID.
They were forced to close PJ Moran’s in Midtown, Pig ‘n’ Whistle on Third and Pig ‘n’ Whistle Times Square, letting go of a “couple hundred” employees.
“It’s tough to close any business especially if it’s been in your family for 25 plus years,” Mahon said.
Mahon already renegotiated a deal with his landlord at the Pig ‘n’ Whistle on Third, and with the help of Ken McCoy, owner of Midtown’s The Horny Ram, just opened a “more modern” bar, Amy Fontaine’s, in the space on March 8.
Overall, liquor licenses at over 1,400 establishments, including bars and restaurants, in Manhattan have become inactive since March 2020, according to the state Liquor Authority.
One survivor was Bloom’s Tavern, on East 58th between Second and Third avenues, which pulled through thanks to its eclectic clientele in a more residential neighborhood, according to co-owner Noel Donovan.
“We have everyone from top anchors at Bloomberg to tailors at Bloomingdale’s,” he said. In 2020, Bloom’s only closed for one day, but reduced its staff from 25 to six, but are now back to 22 in time for St. Patrick’s Day.
“Hopefully this will be a good year to recover a lot of what we lost,” he said.
