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Irish 'Ayes' Are Smilin'

Tribune photo by Cliff McBride

Jacques Racine dances with his daugher-in-law, Mary Bignell-Racine, at Four Green Fields.

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By ANTHONY McCARTNEY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 3, 2008

TAMPA - It should go without saying that if you end up on a barstool at Four Green Fields, you're there to drink.

You're not there for the drink specials (there are none), or to watch the big game (no TVs, either).

For 16 years, Four Green Fields has been the type of bar where the drinks are supposed to matter as much as the people you share them with.

Unique? It's the only Irish bar in America with a thatched roof. The only pub in Florida that hosted a Sinead O'Connor performance during a 2005 tour.

Authentic? Many of the memorabilia hanging on the walls are items owner Colin Breen has picked up while traveling in Ireland. The Guinness is expertly maintained and precisely poured by a cadre of bartenders, many of whom themselves are Irish imports, which is immediately apparent when they speak.

So although other Tampa bars sport Irish names, and plenty of others stock Guinness, Four Green Fields thrives by trying to capture the spirit of Ireland in a way that only an international flight could.

"Lets be honest, it's not rocket science. Anybody can open a bar and put an Irish name on it," Breen says. Four Green Fields, with its mix of posters, framed clippings from Irish newspapers - even a street sign from Ireland - doesn't want to run with the pack, Breen says.

The thatched roof, which once had to be repaired because cats were burrowing into it, is trademarked, preventing copycats.

"A lot of these things you're not going to see anywhere else," Breen says.

Yet for all that, Four Green Fields typifies Tampa, a city that eight years ago had an estimated 26,000 residents of Irish ancestry.

Located at 205 W. Platt St., the bar is on the doorstep of downtown, and it shows. Some nights, older men with Gaelic accents brush shoulders with a younger, hipper, more pierced clientele.

The location is key, Breen says. His customers range from doctors and lawyers who work nearby to students who make the short walk from the University of Tampa campus.

"It's nice to have customers come from different avenues," he said.

Many weekend patrons enjoy the music of Pat Dunleá, who regales - and occasionally berates - bargoers with a mix of Irish and contemporary music.

"Rat-a-tat-tat," Dunleá sings on recent Friday as he beats a drum, a pint of Guinness perched below his microphone. His rendition of the Irish song "Gentleman Soldier" was part of a set that included songs by The Beatles, Bob Marley, the Irish folk song "Whisky in the Jar" and an off-color rendition of an Eric Clapton hit.

Behind him, posters and pictures of some of the bar's other notable performers hang: Paddy Reilly, The Wolfe Tones and O'Connor.

'Not A Church'

A native of Cork, Ireland, Dunleá does his best to elicit singing from patrons. When the crowd responded half-heartedly during his first set on a recent Friday, Dunleá mocked them. "You don't have to hurt yourself," he hollered.

The irreverence resonates with longtime patrons and reflects the bar's "love it or leave it" attitude.

"It's a pub," Dunleá said between sets, "not a church."

That suits Dunleá perfectly, who vouches for the bar's credibility. He moved to Florida permanently about six years ago, and Four Green Fields is his main venue. "It's like home, to be honest."

The bar certainly has seen its share of moments.

There was the night an Irish hurling team arrived after winning a championship, celebrating and singing. They left behind a signed jersey that still hangs over the bar.

Another time, a crew of about 3,000 soccer fans converged on the bar and "drank us out of everything," Breen recalled.

Then a couple years ago, the grandson of James Connolly - a hero of the Irish liberation movement - came to the bar and parked a boat in the parking lot. He sold Christmas trees to raise money for various causes and said he wanted to sail back to Ireland, hoping to revive the Gaelic language in his homeland.

A former stockbroker, Breen spent a year looking for the perfect site to place his pub.

His inspiration was a simple one: a watering hole that suited his style. "I liked Guinness and Irish music, and you couldn't find it anywhere."

6 Kegs A Day

Guinness is serious business at the bar, where the kegs are kept separate from the rest of the beers. Breen's stock tends to go fast; he said the bar sells on average six kegs worth of beer a day.

Music provided the bar's name. "Four Green Fields" is the title of an Irish folk song by Tommy Makem that refers to the island's four provinces. It's about the dominant theme of Irish history: British occupation.

The bar always has had a political bent, sponsoring a visit by Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in 1995.

Breen chalks up the bar's success attracting Irish speakers and bands to influential connections back in Ireland. Indeed, the interior drips Irish politics, with a recruitment poster for Sinn Fein hanging near the kitchen door and a copy of the 1916 Easter Proclamation of independence hanging near the front.

Breen's political contacts don't extend just across the Atlantic. His partner is Robert E. O'Neill, the interim U.S. attorney for Tampa.

And 2008 may be the year that Four Green enters a new era. Breen long has planned a boutique hotel for the bar's sizable parking lot. He said he expects to break ground this year.

The thatched-roof pub isn't going anywhere, though.

"We have something that's different from most places," Breen says, sitting at a table near the front door one afternoon. "People who like that end up coming here."

Breen spots a man pausing on the sidewalk. The man raises a digital camera and snaps a picture of the pub and its distinctive thatched roof.

It's not every day, after all, that you come across a piece of Ireland in the middle of Florida.

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