Irish in New York hit O’Casey’s for a pint and a job

AN Irish pub in the centre of Manhattan is turning into a makeshift job centre for young Irish people heading to New York looking for work.

O’Casey’s Restaurant and Bar on East 41st Street, just off Fifth Avenue, is the headquarters of new support group called Fáilte 32, which aims to connect new arrivals with existing Irish organisations in the city.

“The first thing new arrivals do when they come here is drop off their bags at the aunt’s house and come to the pub,” said Maurice Landers, one of Fáilte 32’s organisers. “It’s where we’ve traditionally got our information and part of our social fabric.”

“So when we got that pointed out to the Irish community, they thought, why hasn’t it been done before?”

Around 30 job-seekers came to the group’s first event on Monday night.

The event has attracted the attention of some local TV and newspapers – intrigued no doubt by how Irish it all sounds – job advice served with a pint.

But organisers are taking their tasks seriously. And say while it’s a tough environment, they believe the jobs are out there for the J1 students who arrive. They just need to be clever and make all the connections they can create.

“It’s tough going” said Gavin O’Hanlon, 20, from Co Kilkenny, who, along with friends, has been going door-to-door with CVs looking for any kind of work. “We were out in Long Beach, and had that cleared up. We tried Manhattan yesterday for bar work, dish-washing... anything. Going round door to door... but nothing going so far.”

By the end of Monday’s event, he had lined up an interview for a job. “The guy is a building manager, so we could end up with door work or something like that,” he said.

Things also went “really well” at the meeting for Julie Kavanagh from Terenure, a commerce student who is also in New York on the J1 visa.

“I just got offered an internship with my friend in an international PR company for the summer. The guy just literally came up to myself and my friend and asked what we were doing in college. I said commerce and I specialise in marketing.

“And then he was like, I own a PR company, you should do an internship with me, and I said, ok – I’d love to do that because it would be such great experience, especially here in New York. So he just said, ‘come in tomorrow, you start at one o’clock’ – so we’ll see how it goes.”