What neighbors are for
Very cool -- from the
New York Daily 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 F�ilte 32. (F�ilte 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 F�ilte 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.
This is how it should be done -- Paul Hurley sounds like just the kind of person whose "wealth" Obama want's to redistribute. He is a successful businessman and well connected in the community (the United Restaurant and Tavern Owners Association gig) and here he is, taking a room in his business and making space to help people who are looking for honest work.
One person like Paul is worth five thousand soulless government bureaucrats.
Posted by DaveH at May 3, 2010 6:43 PM