Irish patrons — even tipsy ones — are once again welcome at one Long Island bar.
The Dock Bar & Grill in Montauk had jokingly barred “Irish drunks” in a long list of personae non grata — which included yapping mutts, screaming kids, cellphones and strollers — posted on its window.
But after a worldwide outcry by Éire-centric groups after a picture of the sign was posted online, the word “Irish” was replaced over the weekend with the word “sensitive.”
“I do wonder what messages we are sending to our children, what stereotypes we are allowing to persist to the broader population, if we don’t push back,” Pauline Turley, vice chairman of the Irish Arts Center in New York, told IrishCentral.com.
“Why would you put up a sign like that knowing no one else would tolerate it?”
Bar owner George Watson — who is half-Irish — and his son Chris said the sign was simply done in jest.
“We truly don’t want to offend the Irish,” Chris Watson told The Post, joking that many of his customers identified with the line.
George Watson, who was grand marshal of Montauk’s 2003 St. Patrick’s Day parade, said he came up with the “no Irish drunks” line as an inside joke with several bar regulars.