Irish Beerfinder
News

Midtown pub O’Casey’s converted into unemployment center to dish out job advice to Irish newcomers

A midtown Irish pub is pouring pints while serving up career advice for immigrants from the Emerald Isle hungry for a job.

O'Casey's Restaurant and Irish Pub on E. 41st St. is converting its second floor into an unemployment center Monday in what may be the city's first back-to-work program run out of a bar.

"We are not guaranteeing work, but we will place them in the right direction," said Paul Hurley, who owns O'Casey's and the PD O'Hurley's bar chain.

He named his center Fáilte 32. (Fáilte is Gaelic for welcome, and 32 represents the number of counties on the island.)

Hurley aims to help Irish newcomers find work - legally.

"We are trying to help our community," he said. "Unemployment is through the roof in Ireland."

Hurley hopes to use his connections as head of the United Restaurant and Tavern Owners Association to place job-seekers in a paying gig. The association, civic groups and the Irish consulate are working with Fáilte 32, which will have free Wi-Fi and three computers at the bar.

"Sounds like an Irish craic [Gaelic for fun]," said job-hunter Michelle Flahive, 23, who lives in Queens after leaving Ireland in February. "Bars are a part of our culture, which makes it an ideal place to make new contacts," added Flahive, who hopes to be a legal aide.

Hurley said he was inspired to launch his program after reading a 2009 Daily News article chronicling a spike in Irish immigrants needing jobs.

Unemployment services sprouting up in New York's ethnic enclaves are common. But Hurley boasts his is the only one to call a pub its headquarters.

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, by comparison, runs a jobs program from its lower Manhattan offices.

Met Council CEO William Rapfogel thinks using a pub to attract job hunters is a kosher idea.

"If outreach from a bar works, then maybe we all need to explore new and different venues," Rapfogel said.

This article was cited from the NY Daily News and can be viewed here. It was written by Simone Weichselbaum, Daily News Staff Writer and was published on Sunday, May 2nd 2010, 4:00 AM

To view O'Casey's Irish Pub on Irish Beer Finder click here.

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.