Repeat business.
That was the measure of success for Mary Burke, the long-time banquet manager of Rosie O’Grady’s, which closed for business on July 2.
As people returned to event after event, year after year, Burke became a familiar face in the Irish community, although some didn’t get to know her first or last name.
Those who did come to know her and work with her are fulsome in their praise.
Paul Finnegan, the president of the Irish Business Organization, said, “Mary represents the very fabric from which the success of the Irish in New York is woven.”
The IBO is honoring Burke at its 50th anniversary gala next Tuesday with the Arthur F. Clements Founder's Award “for a lifetime of selfless service to the community.”
The IBO said in a statement that, “Mary Burke has welcomed more people to Rosie O'Grady's than can ever be counted.”
Finnegan told the Echo, “We couldn’t have chosen a more worthy recipient than Mary.”
“I’m delighted Mary is being honored,” said the Echo’s Tracey Quilligan, who worked with Burke when planning the newspaper’s various awards ceremonies over many years. “It’s well-deserved.”
Her Echo colleague Madeline O’Boyle agreed. “Mary is the hardest-working woman I know,” she said. “She’s a bundle of energy.”
Burke started with Rosie O’Grady’s 25 years ago. That’s a very long run in New York’s theatre district as the native of Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, knows well, being herself a fan of Broadway shows. Only “Chicago” and “The Lion King” can boast greater longevity.
“It speaks well of Rosie’s that there was very little turnover in staff over the years,” she said.
“I just had a great time,” Burke said of her position as banquet manager at the venue on Seventh Avenue at the corner of 52nd Street. “There was something different every day. Meeting different clients, organizing conferences, birthday parties, weddings, evening gatherings.”
She enjoyed “setting it up, making sure everything was run correctly. I was very much into service. So, that was something I was really focused on.”
Burke’s staff knew that the aim was for everyone to have a great time. She’d like to hear, “We will come back again,” and “You do an outstanding job!”
The banquet manager particularly liked the challenge that the “whole set-up was my responsibility.”
Mary Burke’s path was a familiar one, certainly recognizable to those who came to America 30 years ago and more. She worked without papers at first, and then went home for a while before making a return. Along the way she secured a Donnelly visa.
Her first long-term job was with an Italian restaurant. After that she worked in Moran’s on Tenth Avenue, at 19th Street. One night in November 1995, she was involved in a vehicular accident after her shift ended.
That put her out of work for two years. However, Burke’s determination and the same “independence of spirit” that led her to tell her mother as a very young child that she would one day go to New York, would see her through.
When doing physical therapy, she’d be told, “Mary, do this exercise 15 times.”
“I would do it 25 times,” she recalled.
She took a break back home in Waterford during this time and also did some computer classes in New York. Soon enough, though, she was fully recovered and ready to return to Manhattan’s hospitality industry. Stints at Beckett’s and Shades of Green eventually led to the job at Rosie O’Grady’s. “And I never looked back after that,” she said.
Burke, who was hired as a manager at the Perfect Pint on 45th Street after Rosie O’Grady’s closed, recommended the industry for young adults, especially if they’re new to New York and don’t have many friends. “I think it’s great meeting different people from all over the world,” she said. “I think it’s a great way to get into the Irish community, making it less lonely. The Irish network is still very strong.
“Mike and Caroline have been great to me,” she said of the owners, the Cartys, “When things were good and when things weren’t so good.”
When her mother was ill she went home several times. “My job was there when I came back,” she said. “When my mum passed away, they were great to me, because it’s hard to go home and it’s hard to go back into the routine. I think Rosie’s was a family. Everybody was there for a long time, which looked very well for them, but also very well for Mike and Caroline. They were doing something right.”
Burke especially enjoyed planning events with regular customers, such as the Echo.
“An absolute pleasure to work with. I worked very closely with Madeline and Treacy and I couldn’t have asked for two better clients,” she said.
As for ideal staff, Burke said, “Personality is the first thing; willing to learn, very important — no experience, but willing to learn; can take constructive criticism, because it’s based on your work — it’s nothing personal; the ability to be on time; appearance; willing to work.
“If you are willing to work and listen as well,” she said. “Instead of saying ‘I know it’ when you don’t know it. That’s a very important asset to have, because you can succeed.”
Some people don’t learn as quickly, but they can do well if they are strong on the other attributes. “They can still climb up the ladder and become very successful,” she said.
She described her second in command for 18 years, Ronnie Cabrera, as “very patient.”
The Chilean immigrant “always did the right thing,” she said.
To those who found it hard at first to adapt to Burke’s “strict but fair” approach, Cabrera would advise, “Do your work and you’ll be fine.”
Aside from Broadway shows, the Perfect Pint manager is a regular at the Irish Repertory Theatre and Irish music events. She likes to get to Broadway about once a month. “The Music Man” with Hugh Jackman and “Some Like it Hot” were recent favorites.
Burke is a fan, too, of the U.S. Open. “I didn’t make the tennis this year, but I did attend it last year, which was great,” said the Queens resident.
She lists sports high alongside international travel and theatre as her favorite downtime activities. The former treasurer of the Leamybrien club, at the foot of the Comeragh Mountains in her home place, is ever hopeful that Waterford, finalists in 2017 and 2020, will return to Croke Park to take the All Ireland hurling championship again.
Burke is also known for her volunteerism in the community, such as with the New York Irish Center’s seniors’ lunch program.
It’s one of the reasons she will be honored next Tuesday night.
When the IBO’s men in suits came to tell her about the Oct. 24 event, she thought she was being asked to help in some way. “I was shocked,” she said of the award. “I couldn’t even think.”
Mary Burke added, “Well, I’m very humbled.”
The Irish Business Organization of New York will mark its 50th anniversary with a “Celebration of the Irish in New York” on Tuesday Oct. 24 at the Chelsea Piers overlooking New York Harbor. To buy tickets, click here.
