Нью-Йорктің ең көне ирланд пабы – МакСорли

Tavern in New York City

McSorley's Old Ale House, generally known as McSorley's, is the oldest Irish saloon in New York City. Opened in the mid 19th century at 15 East 7th Street, in today's East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, it was one of the last of the "Men Only" pubs, admitting women only after legally being forced to do so in 1970. The aged artwork, newspaper articles covering the walls, sawdust floors, and the Irish waiters and bartenders give McSorley's an atmosphere reminiscent of "Olde New York". No piece of memorabilia has been removed from the walls since 1910, and there are many items of historical paraphernalia in the bar, such as a pair of Houdini's handcuffs, which are connected to the bar rail. There are also wishbones hanging above the bar; supposedly they were hung there by boys going off to World War I, to be removed when they returned, so the wishbones that are left are from those who never returned. Two of McSorley's mottos are "Be Good or Be Gone", and "We were here before you were born". Prior to the 1970 ruling, the motto was "Good Ale, Raw Onions and No Ladies"; the raw onions can still be ordered as part of McSorley's cheese platter. McSorley's is considered to be one of the longest continuously operating ale houses in the city due to the fact that during Prohibition it served a "near beer" with too little alcohol to be illegal. In 2005, New York magazine considered McSorley's to be one of New York City's "Top 5 Historic Bars". According to a 1995 New York Times "Streetscapes" article by Christopher Gray, accompanied by Mary McSorley, who was 16. When confronted with the fact that the 1880 census did not contain this entry, Gray corrected it to 1900 in his book published in 2003. John McSorley first appeared in city directories in 1862, and the building his bar occupies was built no earlier than 1858, according to city records. Founding owner John McSorley passed daily management to his son, William, around 1890, and died in 1910 at the age of 87. In 1936 William sold the property to Daniel O’Connell, a retired policeman and longtime customer. After O'Connell's death three years later, his daughter Dorothy O’Connell Kirwan assumed ownership. Upon her death in 1974 and that of her husband the following year, ownership passed briefly to their son Danny before the most recent proprietor, Matthew "Matty" Maher, who purchased the bar in 1977 and owned it until his death in January 2020. Maher's daughter Ann Pullman plans to keep it in the family. A 1954 New York City tourist guide describes McSorley's as, "An unusual and historic old tavern, little changed since established before Civil War. Interesting old dining room, seats 150 (men only at any time, though owned by a woman); different house specialty every day; old time songs; bar room quartet variety nightly; famous, well stocked bar. Inexpensive."

Women were not allowed in McSorley's until August 10, 1970, after National Organization for Women attorneys Faith Seidenberg and Karen DeCrow filed a discrimination case against the bar in District Court and won. The two entered McSorley's in 1969, and were refused service, which was the basis for their lawsuit for discrimination. The case decision made the front page of The New York Times on June 26, 1970. The suit, Seidenberg v. McSorleys' Old Ale House (S. D. N. Y. 1970) established that the licensing of the bar, under the New York State Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, rose to the level of state action, thereby requiring the bar to comply with the proscriptions of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. The bar was then forced to admit women, but it did so "kicking and screaming". In 1970 Barbara Shaum became the bar's first female patron.

Until 2011, McSorley's maintained a mouser cat within its premises until a law was passed ending the practice. In November 2016, the establishment was briefly closed by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene due to violations of health code. It reopened the next week. In January 2020, the then owner Matty Maher died.

Notable people who have visited McSorley's include Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, Boss Tweed, Harry Houdini, Jackie Gleason (who reportedly wrote "where are all the dames" in the bar's logbook), and John Lennon. Cultural icons such as Woody Guthrie, Hunter S. Thompson, Brendan Behan, Gilbert Sorrentino, Dustin Hoffman was a patron. In the early 1910s, anarchist Hippolyte Havel became a regular. McSorley's was the focus of several articles by New Yorker author Joseph Mitchell. One collection of his stories was entitled McSorley's Wonderful Saloon (1943). According to Mitchell, the Ashcan school painters John Sloan, George Luks and Stuart Davis were all regulars. Between 1912 and 1930, Sloan did five paintings, of the saloon — “McSorley’s Bar,” “McSorley’s Back Room,” “McSorley’s at Home,” “McSorley’s Cats,” and “McSorley’s, Saturday Night.” The first of which hangs in The Detroit Institute of Arts. The bar has also been painted by Harry McCormick, and photographed by Berenice Abbott. McSorley's most notable regular, however, was Cooper Union founder Peter Cooper who would regularly hold court in the back room. John McSorley instructed that his favorite chair be draped with a black cloth every April 4 following Cooper's 1883 death.

McSorley's Old Ale House has no other locations; however, a company called Eclipse Management has opened four McSorley's Ale Houses in Hong Kong and Macau "based loosely on the appearance of the original McSorley's Ale House in lower Manhattan, NYC". In the television series The Golden Girls, Sophia Petrillo, played by Estelle Getty, claims that her daughter Dorothy was born on a pinochle table at McSorley's, an anachronism, as McSorley's did not admit women until 1970. Daniel O'Connell Kirwan, the manager of McSorley's and son of the owner, appeared on the August 27, 1970, broadcast of episode 0514 of the panel game show To Tell the Truth after New York City required women to be admitted to the bar. In seasons 42 and 43 of Saturday Night Live, Mikey Day’s portion of the intro was shot here. McSorley's is featured in Christian Nilsson's Emmy Award winning short documentary Fight To Be The Oldest Bar In NYC produced by HuffPost in 2015. Season 2 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel filmed part of the episode "Look, She Made a Hat" in McSorley's, where it is used to depict Cedar Tavern also a real bar in New York. Episode 7 of the Netflix series Dash & Lily takes place in McSorley's.