As all of you already know, the IBO Gala Ball is our primary fundraising function for the year. It not only provides our organization with operating funds, but it also benefits some of the charities which rely on us for support. This year we will be supporting Brother Rick Curry S.J. and the National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped, as well as the N.Y.P.D. Emerald Society Pipes and Drums.

We encourage all members and friends to reach out to our community, and encourage them to attend this great function. We are assured of a fantastic night of entertainment, and most importantly, we will be helping two great causes.

By the way, we still need help with the Gala, so if you would like to volunteer, please contact Clare at the IBO.

I hope to see you all there!

I penned this column to highlight the unfair treatment of bars in NY State, since the smoking ban. Upon reflection however, I realized it had more to do with small business owners and operators struggling to survive, when someone had moved their cheese! It applies to all of us in the IBO and across the full business spectrum. I’ll let you judge for yourselves!….read on

In the Bar business, there’s always one curmudgeon of a customer that you would wish he or she, would just take their business elsewhere for a change and leave you the hell alone. You know of whom I speak. Its always someone who has the uncanny knack, despite their lack of sophistication or perhaps education, still manages each day to vex you, not because they are wrong, but often because they are annoyingly and frequently correct, like they can see past your dark glasses, your eyes, and your subterfuge and see right into your soul!

There are many of these folks, wandering their days here, unheralded. Some take up causes that seem to cry out for attention. Starvation in Africa, wounded whales in Maine, Japanese foot-tying, fish-farming abuse of growth hormones, whatever. But whatever it is they champion, you know three things before they ever open their mouths.

They are accurate and honest in their defense or condemnation of whatever the topic.

They know there are two sides to their story, only one of them true!

They are so incredibly and sincerely motivated and inspired by it that their eyes pop!

Well such a person is Richard Naylon, who owns a bar in Buffalo! Yes, that vast empty land that Hilary and Chuck like to call the heartland, in reality is an artic refuge of folks who are happy with their pace of life, would like to keep it that way, and frankly would prefer us New Yorkers would secede to Delaware and they wouldn’t have to pay us much heed, no how, in the future!

Back to Rick. For 27 years he has run his bar, catering for regular blue-collar folk, who just like to get out of the house for a while, on a regular basis, have a beer, discuss the Bills (Buffalo, not Verizon) and shoot pool, maybe play lotto, and yes, draw down deep on a fag (cigarette to you pops), until you can imagine the very tip being sucked deep into their craggy heads, and thawing that cool demeanor that these guys exhibit.

These are no LL Bean models. These are real men, with real hopes and aspirations and a love for their country, their families, their Buicks and yes, their freedoms! Not for nothing did their forefathers cross frozen tundras, starvation-wracked bogs and wintry, vengeful seas to escape their demons and their antagonists.

These are clever and resourceful folks, used to fending for themselves, making do! They don’t exhibit much feminine charm, nor do they carry much credit card debt! No, they’d prefer beer to Evian, and check shirts to Tommy H, but they smile a lot too, not strut, just smile! These are the folks who come over with a pie when you could do with a boost and come over with a tractor when the snow’s too deep for you to get the kids to the school-bus! These are the modest men who fought world wars, built Kodak, and carved out canals that tamed the great lakes. This is America!

So when a guy like Rick Naylon starts writing stuff, getting his name in the paper, making a fuss, bringing down the law on himself, and using words that frankly folks up there simply don’t use, America should sit up and take note.

This is the dog that frets before the earthquake. This is the canary in the coal-mine. This is the belly-up fish in the poisoned pond! This is the wrong that rankled Braveheart!

Rich Naylon recently got in trouble, allowing his neighbors, yes, his customers to smoke in his bar, but only after he had read them his home-made disclaimer, warning them that they smoked at their own risk, in his Government-mandated non-smoking bar.

His interpretation of the law, and yet to be tested, in court, was that the law does in no way force him to try to act as a policeman, and evict offending smokers from his bar. He is an Inn-keeper. A Tavernier. A Professional. He is carrying on a 200 year tradition of service to his community, serving and monitoring his customers in his bar, while they consume legally sanctioned drugs, namely Alcohol and Tobacco. Nowhere does the law say he has to throw his customers out, should they choose to ignore good healthy advice, and drink alcohol while on anti-biotics, or smoke cigarettes, while nursing a cold, or a 20-year-hence heart-attack!

The Authorities want to shut him down and may yet succeed. He faces fines and legal fees in the thousands of dollars, and yet he persists.

Why?

Well maybe his letter to the president of the NY State Restaurant Association, of which he, Rich, is a member tells the story better than I.

“Dear Mr. Sampson,

Here we are, fourteen months into the NYS smoking ban. Literally hundreds of bars, taverns and saloons have been forced out of business. Hundreds more are teetering on the verge of closing. You'll be happy to know that, Jimmy Mac's in Buffalo will go out of business before the end of this year. The smoking ban that you and the NYSRA endorsed through Bruno and Silver has destroyed an entire segment of the NYS economy. Thousands of hard-working people are out of work.

I was at a meeting in Niagara County last Monday with Sen. George Maziarz and Assemblyperson Francine Del Monte and many bar owners from that county. Grown men were crying as they described how they had closed their bars that they had worked decades to build up and keep going. They described how they had overcome many obstacles being in business but the one that was beyond conquering was the state imposed smoking ban endorsed by you and your organization. One former bar owner as he cried told the crowd how he closed the bar he owned for 16 years and now has a job at the Indian run gambling casino bussing tables for $7.50 per hour. The casino, by the way, where eating, drinking and smoking are still legal. Nice level playing field.

How do you sleep at night knowing that the so-called LEVEL PLAYING FIELD has DESTROYED so many lives?

I still feel that the issue at hand is not smoking, but free enterprise and FREEDOM.

Respectfully, Rick Naylon, Jimmy Mac's, Buffalo, NY”

Last Friday the Appellate Court ruled that the Erie County smoking waiver guidelines are both ARBITRARY and CAPRICIOUS, vacated them (threw them out) and instructed the county to promulgate new ones in line with the intent of the law. Previously he had won in the NY Supreme Court. Both regrettably are Phyrric victories as his business is in trouble now. He still cannot get a smoking waiver due to proven economic hardship as the State hide behind layers and layers of bureaucracy and enforcement, tying any bar foolish enough to challenge them up in legal knos for months . He told me the following about his bar:

#1. His corporation is insolvent.

#2. He has spent $30,000. on legal fees fighting to force the county and state to do what they were legally obligated to do.

#3. he has put $80,000. into our business in the last year to keep it open while we wound our way through the legal system.

#4 Before the end of this calendar year he will be forced to liquidate the assets of his corporation and close his doors.

I wonder how many other New York and Irish bars will suffer the same fate after this, their first winter with no smoking in the bars, business off by 15-20% and unfair laws by a decidedly nanny-esque Irish Government.

There are bigger issues out there. Poverty, Education, Health, to mention three.

Why can’t the politicians here and in Ireland tackle them rather than taking the easy route, discriminating against certain small businesses, and reforming and re-engineering the social fabric of the nation, avoiding the bigger issues and taking politically expedient kudos for their efforts.

Going out for an evening pint and maybe a fag used to be such a simple and normal event. But its been changed in one year, and not for the better if you ask me!

Brian Nolan
Celtic Solutions
201 280 5022

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IBO MENTOR PROGRAM

If you have a career that you would like to develop further, run an enterprise that you would like guidance on, or simply would like a wise and unbiased head to turn to - the IBO Mentoring Program could be the answer. We have access to experienced individuals both within and outside the IBO who have offered to act as Mentors to our members.

The Program is free to IBO members and is totally confidential.

If you would like to learn more, email Simon Pereira Shorey at simonps@ibo-ny.com or call Simon on (212) 208 2526.

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• IBO Website Members Forum
  Just a reminder that once you have logged into the Members Forum (left hand side of the IBO Home Page at www.ibo-ny.com) if you click on to ‘Members Forum’ you will have access to pages for:
  • Job Opportunities
  • Members seeking positions
  • For Sale/For Rent
  • Misc. Event Announcements
  • IBO Suggestion Box

  You can post your own items and read those posted by other members. This is a new area so initially there will be only a few items there. However, the more you use it, the more useful it will become! So please post about any non-IBO events that you wish to publicize, post job opportunities that you hear about, and indeed anything else pertinent. This is YOUR area. Please use it and read it every time you come to the website.
  

• Success Stories
  One hears of many success stories of how membership of the IBO has led to new business, a new job, etc. We are seeking to collect these so that they can be used as ‘sales points’ to attract and retain members. If you have one (or many) of these stories to tell, please email us now at success@ibo-ny.com and let us know.
  

• Membership Renewal
  If you have not already done so, please take the opportunity to contact Clare Bennett, our IBO Administrator, to renew your 2004 Membership. Your financial support of the organization is vital to its existence and growth. If you have paid we would appreciate it if you could verify that your payment transaction was completed as we have discovered that due to technical errors several member payment transactions were incomplete and therefore, not validated into the IBO database. Clare is streamlining the database, printing new badges for 2004 members, and will be updating the on-line directory shortly, removing inactive members. Clare can be contacted at 212.750.8118 or email at clareb@ibo-ny.com and she is available to answer any questions, concerns, comments or suggestions you may have. She welcomes your calls and shares all feedback she receives with the Executive Committee.
  

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About The IBO: The Irish Business Organization of New York, Inc. is an non-profit, non-denominational organization, which seeks to promote, foster, and advance the business interests of Irish and Irish American business people in the tri-state area.

The IBO News is the official newsletter of the Irish Business Organization of New York, Inc. It is published 10 times per year. This newsletter is distributed to members of the IBO, guests from recent IBO meetings, and other individuals from the NY-NJ-CT business community.

Newsletter Staff
Editor: Simon Pereira Shorey, GeneAfrica, Inc. (212) 208 2526

Technical Support: Jim McGuire, Eric Elias: Teledotcom Inc., 212 675 6565

Contact Information:

The Irish Business Organization of New York Inc.

FDR Station, PO Box 6425
New York, NY 10150-1901

Tel: 212 750 8118
Fax: 212 747 1820

email: info@ibo-ny.com
www.ibo-ny.com

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