CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES:

Some would never have believed it, but, then again, New York is a town where anything can happen. Shane Doyle, legendary owner of Sin-é Café on St. Mark’s place, and the equally legendary Sin-é has found itself with a new owner as of the beginning of this year.

Although at first a seemingly unlikely candidate to acquire the cafe, Raouf Badawy, from the Lebanon, has been in New York for over ten years, and has known Shane well since the set up of Sin-é. His own bar, Alcatraz, is about eight doors down, right on the corner of St. Mark’s Place and Avenue A, facing Tompkin’s Square Park. Having started off with establishing the Upper Crust bakery in the West Village, he expanded into two more bakery premises, Rumbol’s cafe on 7th Street in the East Village. It was he who supplied Sin-é with its famous pies, chocolate puds and goodies down the years.

Badawy, who is already known to the Sin-é workers, is well aware of the very special nature of the cafe in the New Irish community. The fact that the business had been experiencing serious difficulties for some time now on several levels led to a situation where his stepping in was actually a welcome move for the cafe. He also came on board very much with a policy of “business as usual.”

While he intends to improve on the beer and wine selection (not a bad idea) and introduce a daily, all-day available Irish breakfast – a project Doyle instigated before his departure – he sat down with managers and staff upon arrival, and discussed their policies before introducing any new ones.

Jennifer and Kim in Sin-é will go on or off record to let people know they intend to ensure that the mellow atmosphere will remain, the quality that has always made Sin-é a homestead where people can drop into on their arrival from Ireland, or go to hear music and have a coffee. Some changes, of course, have occurred. The bockety, out-of-tune piano has gone, a sad sight for those who remember its distinctive sound. A wall or two will change shape, and where the natural spill-over from the Sin-é premises saw the masses inevitably standing in clusters on the pavement outside, a permit has been obtained from the city to have actual outside seating, which will start in Spring.

BELTING OUT THE DECIBELS

It’s impossible to gauge the impact that Sin-é has actually had on the Irish community in Manhattan. Started up by one Shane Doyle of Glenageary, Co. Dublin in 1990, it created a “vibe” – to use a well-known BP phrase – that was unprecedented. Initially, the very atmosphere and the low-key welcome of the druid-like Doyle was what drew people. Manager Karl Geary inevitably attracted his own fan club, among whom were several young journalists of the American press who began to write about the cafe. But it was what Shane himself opened up the place to that began to make the difference.

The musical element originally got off to a tentative start. Musicians would drop tapes and play arbitrarily, you didn’t know when you might encounter a gig or not. Then, Doyle’s gaff became the place to go any night. Singer-songwriter Tom Clark would keep the neighbours up every Monday night until all hours with his indefatigable playing. The Chanting House took over on Wednesdays. Then on Saturday nights, Big Dream headed by Gary Johannes (now Rogue’s March) belted out the decibels until midnight, after which the anarchic Clumsy Cabaret, took the boards. Hosted by Helena Mulkerns, Deanna Kirk, Elizabeth Logun and Paul Hond, it became a boisterous regular session into the early hours which would be packed to the gills, and serve as an informal audition for lesser known bands or songwriters seeking stints during the week.

Readings, organised by people like Terry George or Larry Kirwan, allowed young writers to begin voicing the words of the “New Irish” generation, a bunch about as far from the old guard who came from Ireland in the forties and fifties as you can get. Gerry Conlon made Sin-é his local when in New York, and it was there he met up with Gabriel Byrne to discuss what would eventually become In The Name Of The Father.

But it was a place where many projects would first come to light. Alternative Bloomsday kicked off there in 1991, an event produced by actress Imelda O’Reilly and Helena Mulkerns, that featured practically every actor and many of the musicians on the scene. The Irish Artist’s Group, a gathering together of creative forces organised by Brian O’Byrne, had its first meeting there. Dublin sculptress Grace Weir created a huge metal logo which provided a powerful back drop for performers. For Shane Doyle, anything basically goes, and while he hasn’t been without enemies either, same as any public figure (even an alternative one), his nurturing of a vibrant musical and arts scene is widely respected by the community.

When the heyday of the New Music Seminar ensued, with Irish bands coming over every year for a stint of three years for the event, the place took on its next musical guise: that of a very trendy spot to see up and coming Irish bands. Shane always had the latest playing on the sound system, but now you could see them live. His reputation had spread, and his contacts with the music industry allowed him to play host to nearly every Irish band on its way through New York. Then there were informal appearances from bigger names like, of course, U2 or The Hot Hours Flowers, The Black Crowes, Marianne Faithfull, Sinéad O’Connor or Allen Ginsberg, to name but a few, consolidated the fact that Sin-é had become a major – if spacially tiny – venue on the New York scene. One voice to emerge directly from the minimal stage of the cage is Jeff Buckley whose recording Live at Sin-é preceded the mammoth Grace.

A Sin-é Baby

The other major factor at Sin-é, of course, is that its staff have not so much been staff as such, but more a sort of extended East-Village Irish family. Jennifer, Lisa, Kim, John, Eamonn – the people who not only get the punters their coffee, but listen to yarns, problems, give the latest update on happenings. There has even been a Sin-é baby, in the best rock ’n’ roll tradition, a lad by the name of Ned whose parents Lisa Steves and Eamonn O’Leary have long been part of the Sin-é and Anseo clan.

Neighbouring the most musical cafe on St. Mark’s, Shane opened the Anseo Club with the idea of making a space for a quiet jar where there would be no music. It turned out to be a brilliant manoeuvre. For those who have wanted an alternative to the now nightly pack-out in Sin-é, it has taken over as the place to hook up.

With elements from just about every sub-species around congregating in Anseo, it has developed into a slightly quieter focus for the young Irish who either just want to go for an easy nightcap, or others who know that there, they can get to talk to and develop events or projects with others in the fields of fine arts, writing, film-making and, of course, music. Literary readings have moved directly in there. Everybody from local writers Eamonn Wall or Bronagh Murphy, to Patrick McCabe, Aidan Mathews, or John Montague and Derek Mahon have appeared. It was there that Tony Kavanagh’s astonishing play The Drum was first performed.

Thus, while the band plays on at Sin-é, whoever is at the helm, the vibe continues next door with Eamonn, Colm or Tom behind the bar, any cold night you happen to be passing by. It’s a haven that Shane Doyle has perhaps become more attuned to, and out of which he’ll be concentrating his energies from now on.