An elbow-to-elbow crowd laid ole Tim Finnegan to rest and later resurrected him the night of March 9 at Mullaney’s Harp & Fiddle in the Strip District, just as they have to kick off Pittsburgh’s St. Patrick’s season since 1992. Given the events of the past two years, this one was a little more special.
It was the annual Finnegan’s Wake celebration that typically precedes Parade Day — a mock funeral based on the 19th-century Irish ballad that would inspire James Joyce’s classic novel — but it’s been on a pandemic pause. Pints flowed, whiskey followed and toasts were made, including one by the excellently Pittsburgh Celtic band that led the proceedings, the Donnie Irish Band: “Here's to you and here's to me, the best of friends we'll always be. But if by chance we disagree, to hell with you and here's to me!”
But in this 30th year for Harp & Fiddle, one of Pittsburgh’s two most authentic Irish pubs (the other is Riley’s Pour House in Carnegie), it’s hard to imagine the disagreements. The best of friends part? That’s easy.
“We have several hundred couples who have met here and gone on to get married, and actually got married here. Probably dozens of weddings take place here,” said general manager and owner David Regan, who has been at Harp & Fiddle since day one in 1992.
“I have customers who came in here, met their spouse, and now I'm serving their kids. Thirty years later, and their kids are drinking age. That's pretty much the gist of what I think the pub is about.”
And it’s been a place of solace, too, a regular gathering spot after funerals for mournful dirges and celebrations of life.
Anne Mullaney and her brother, Tim Mullaney and a friend, Sean Murphy, opened the pub in 1992 and Mr. Regan and bartenders Declan Gilbert and Ann Lamb were original employees. It was an immediate success, and Mr. Regan became a co-owner. Ms. Mullaney was the beloved true spirit of the place, and is remembered with reverence since her death in 2011 from cancer at the age of 54. Mr. Mullaney now lives in London, but retains a hand in the business.
The pub has become a core constant in the modern history of the Strip, which is undergoing an unprecedented sea of change and development.
“When we opened I would say there were maybe 20 or 25 places or dwellings or units where people were living. Now there's thousands of them. We were a destination in the Strip for people from the north, east, south and west. We're still a destination, but the neighborhood is growing. We have more businesses, more lunch customers, more people living here,” he said.
“As far as the Strip itself. There's still a lot of mom and pop. And there's a couple neighborhood organizations that are trying to make sure that continues, because you don't want to lose that, right?”
The Great Guinness Toast was started there in 1993, and it’s been a favorite of Steelers and celebrities filming in town, too: Jason Momoa, Viggo Mortensen, Kristen Stewart and Dan Levy were “regulars,” as was the cast and crew of Kevin Smith’s “Zack & Miri Make a Porno,” including Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks and Craig Robinson, who rented the entire space for a Super Bowl party.
Beyond fish and chips and shepherd’s pie, the menu is pretty American, but the venue itself is a warm space, with a beautiful dark wooden back bar and all manner of Irish artwork, photos and bric-a-brac. It’s the kind of place that corporate Irish pubs that have come to town would mimic, but the Harp & Fiddle has outlasted them.
“I have customers that come in here, almost daily, who have been coming here for 30 years,” he said.
“We know all of them. So it's just more of a family pub atmosphere, which lends back to why all these corporate places have closed, and we've remained open.”
Dan Gigler: gdgigler@post-gazette.com; @gigs412 on Instagram and Twitter.
First Published: March 14, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: March 17, 2022, 4:34 p.m.