Bloomberg Joke Falls Flat in Bayside's 'Irish Alley'

Mayor Bloomberg’s latest attempt at humor may have fallen flatter than a slice of stale soda bread, but in Bayside, it seems as though patrons of Irish establishments have taken it in stride.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg reportedly made a St. Patrick’s Day reference about intoxicated people on balconies at the American Irish Historical Society headquarters in Manhattan, to a chorus of nervous laughter, gasps and groans.

Bloomberg reportedly said he was used to spotting “people that are totally inebriated hanging out the window” at the society building, and added, “I know, that’s a stereotype of the Irish. But nevertheless, we Jews from around the corner think this.”

He apologized on Thursday for offense taken to his remarks.

All within a Blarney Stone’s throw of each other, (“Sullivan’s” to the locals,) KC’s Saloon, , and make up Bayside’s “Irish alley” at 41st Ave., east and west off of Bell Blvd.

In many of these establishments, the hot topic of conversation at the moment is who won how many “points” in the various Super Bowl box pools; how Wisconsin ended Ohio State’s unbeaten basketball streak and the state of Golf in the Emirates, but if asked, opinions could be had.

“Well, we do drink on Saint Patty’s, don’t we?” more than one patron offered. But there was less charity for the messenger.

At Maggie Mays, friends Joe Kupi, Austin Schulberg and Terry Freehill were enjoying adult beverages before having dinner at the bar.

Kupi and Freehill had just returned from an unsuccessful cod fishing trip aboard the “Miss Montauk,” Schulberg from the offices of Bayside attorney Dennis J. O’Sullivan, where he is a paralegal.

The diverse trio sound like the beginning of a possibly offensive joke (an Albanian, a Jew and an Irishman walk into a bar…) but they finished each other’s sentences when it came to the incident.

“He’s just not funny and shouldn’t try to be,” said Kupi. “It’s painful every time he tries to tell a joke,” offered Schulberg, with a shake of his head.

Freehill, a son of the old sod and owner of arguably the most thoroughly Irish of Irish bars in northeast Queens – the Breifne Pub on Crocheron Avenue, in Flushing – summed up. “The fat is still in the fire on this because there’s nothing funny about Mike Bloomberg. Coming from anyone else, I would have laughed it off, but he’s such an arrogant person.”

“Maybe term limits has taken its toll,” the pub owner speculated, with a twinkle in his eye. “He could use a time-out at the Blarney Stone.”