Thursday, March 17th 2022

1pm Ireland / 8am NYC

Jimmy Neary & The Irish 21

Una Neary in conversation with Dave Hannigan

Sligoman Jimmy Neary sailed to America in 1954, his passage famously funded by poker winnings and cash earned breeding lambs. Arriving with $94 and the name and address of a friend of his mother’s, he opened a namesake pub in Manhattan, which for more than a half century has been a canteen for New York’s power brokers, politicians, archbishops, artists & actors, and Superbowl winners.

As Neary’s grew in reputation and regard, nicknamed The Irish 21, and standing today as one of the last of the old world NYC restaurants, Jimmy Neary became a world-renowned barkeep who poured generously yet didn’t touch a drop. A restauranteur for half a century, he couldn’t tell you how to make a hamburger. He never threw a pass or caught a touchdown, but ended up as the only Irishman with two Super Bowl rings and a footnote in New York Giants’ history. “It was all about people for him,” his daughter Una Neary said.

Following his passing in October, Una Neary talks to Dave Hannigan about her father’s remarkable life and unique Irish New York story.

Dave Hannigan

Dave Hannigan is a professor of history at Suffolk County Community College in Long Island, New York and a columnist with The Irish Times in Dublin. He is the author of several non-fiction books and two children’s novels. His latest work, “Barbed Wire University – the story of what happened when Winston Churchill interned intellectual, artistic and musical refugees on the Isle of Man during World War 2”, will be published next year. Born and raised in Togher, Cork, he now lives with his three sons in East Setauket.

Una Neary

Una Neary is the eldest daughter of James ‘Jimmy’ Neary and Eileen
Neary. First generation Irish, raised in Neary’s, and a graduate of
Manhattanville College, she went on to become a Managing Director at JP
Morgan Chase, then Goldman Sachs, and is now Global Chief Compliance
Officer at BlackRock. When not working, Una enjoys spending time with
her family, and spoiling her six nieces and nephews. She remains a
regular presence in Neary’s, continuing faithfully the work of her
parents.

I.NY Project Partners