Irish ears are ringing.
Mayor Bloomberg’s unfunny joke about Irish drinking habits reverberated all the way back to the Emerald Isle, where word quickly spread about the stunning slur.
“People of the Irish heritage are disgusted, just so upset about us being classified as drunks,” said Paul Hurley, president of the United Restaurant and Tavern Owners Association, which represents 3,000 bars and pubs in the city. “The phones have been inundated from New York, Chicago, Ireland, Hong Kong, everywhere.”
Hurley, who is also an organizer of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade — celebrating its 250th anniversary next month — said callers were furious when they heard the mayor’s remarks.
Bloomberg shoved his foot in his mouth last week at the American Irish Historical Society’s Fifth Avenue headquarters.
“I live in the neighborhood, right around the corner,” he said of his Upper East Side town house that is near the St. Patrick’s Day Parade route. “Normally when I walk by this building, there are a bunch of people that are totally inebriated hanging out the window. I know that’s a stereotype about the Irish, but nevertheless we Jews around the corner think this.”
Hurley said the restaurant association is “outraged.”
“To hear this comment from the mayor, we’re just shocked,” he said at a news conference in a back room of O’Casey’s Restaurant & Irish Pub in Midtown. “The mayor is a great man . . . I accept his apology, but the phone has been ringing nonstop.”
Hurley said he welcomes Bloomberg at the parade this year but thinks some spectators will shower the mayor with boos.
Bloomberg had at least one Irishman in his corner.
“The mayor is actually a very, very good mayor to the Irish here in New York City and around the world,” said Patrick McCarthy, who owns Nevada Smith’s on the East Side and is director of the United Restaurant and Tavern Owners.
“He made a bad-taste . . . joke but it was taken completely out of context and I think it was blown out of [proportion].”
Bloomberg spokesman Marc LaVorgna said the mayor plans to attend this year’s parade.
“The mayor apologized and said he certainly didn’t mean to offend anyone,” LaVorgna said.