Most in Sloatsburg know Jenny Kirby from her long days and generous ways at Characters Bar and Restaurant, where she can often be found working the dining room floor evenings, helping out wait staff or just chatting with regular customers.
Even at seven months pregnant and counting, Kirby is an engine of activity, putting in some 70 hrs per week at the restaurant.
“I’ve got to slow down,” she said recently, after opening the restaurant for the day. Adding that, at least that’s what they keep telling her (meaning the doctor). Rest, he says.
Kirby’s generosity and commitment to community was acknowledged and rewarded by the Rockland County Ancient Order of Hibernians, where she was selected as the 2015 Hiberian Business Person of the Year, an award that took Kirby completely by surprise but was nonetheless well deserved.
Kirby has worked tirelessly to help build Characters into the Sloatsburg success story it has become, along with co-owners Dionn Acton and brother-in-law Tommy Acton. Kirby’s husband and long-time Characters bartender Dennis Kelleher also lends important hands that have helped make the local spot popular.
Jenny Kirby, Businesswoman of the Year with Vince Tyer, who will serve as this year’s Grand Marshal for the 53nd Rockland County St. Patrick’s Day Parade, held on March 22 in Spring Valley, NY. Tyer is a former president of the Rockland County AOH, is active in the Rockland GAA, where he also serves as the organizations’s vice chairman, and plays a mean bagpipe in the Rockland County AOH pipe band. Photo courtesy of Rockland GAA.
Shy to step out into the spotlight or take too much credit, Kirby inevitably has kind words toward her village competition, citing the comaraderie and friendly relationships with the proprietors of Rhodes North Tavern, Sterlington Station and Sunnyside as very helpful to keeping and growing Sloatsburg’s dining business.
Gaelic football is part of the reason that Kirby will be feted at Saturday’s Rockland County AOH Emerald Ball at the Pearl River Hilton.
Each year the Emerald Ball ball kicks off the county’s St. Patrick’s Day season which will culminate with the 53rd Annual Rockland County St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Sunday, March 23, at 1:30 p.m. in Pearl River, NY.
As Business Person of the Year, Kirby is also a special parade honoree and has front-of-the-parade walking privileges — which Kirby said she just may have to pass on. Her due date is in April.
The AOH is a storied Irish fraternal organization open to men who are practicing Roman Catholics and of Irish decent — the Rockland organization also features active Ladies AOH divisions. Rockland County has a long history of Irish decsendents, including the Village of Suffern’s namesake John Suffern, who hailed from County Antrim, Ireland and originally named the Western Ramapo settlement New Antrim after his birthplace. The AOH was formed in New York in 1836 near the historic Five Points neighborhood as a response to Nativist attitudes as Irish immigration dramatically increased throughout the New York area. The first AOH division officially formed in Rockland County in 1962 in Stony Point, harkening back to the Hibernian movement first introduced in Haverstraw in the 1880s but always active in the area.
Along with the Rockland County AOH, there are divisions in Suffern, Stony Point, Pearl River, and Blauvelt.
Kirby was cited by the Rockland County AOH for her continuous support of the Rockland Gaelic Athletic Association, where she has been a mainstay of women’s Gaelic football — as a past player of the year and former team coach. She has also served as recording secretary for the NY ladies senior board of the organization. Hailing from Castletown- Geoghegan in County Westmeath, Ireland, Kirby was a star footballer throughout her youth, winning some seven county titles before moving on to play for Waterford IT at the college level and then continued participation in the Rockland GAA after moving to Suffern.
Kirby has led Characters’ local community outreach and and business support by attracting numerous organizations to the restaurant’s cozy upstairs dining room, including bringing the Ramapo PAL, Rockland County Sheriff’s and the AOH Suffern Division in for regular visits — she has continued to build and leverage the dining room as an important feature of Characters, booking it for church, community, social, and seasonal functions and events.
Rockland County Ancient Order Hibernians honorees for 2015 include: Hibernian of the Year Linda Sheridan, Business Person of the Year Jenny Kirby, Characters Bar & Restaurant, 53rd Annual Parade Grand Marshal Vincent Tyer, Aide to the Grand Marshall, NYC Brendan McNamara, and Parade Commander Teresa Hartey Adametz, Ret., NYPD.
The Rockland County Ancient Order of Hibernians St. Patrick’s Parade Pearl River will take place in Pearl River on Sunday March 22, starting at 1:30 p.m. The parade will step off at approximately 1:30 p.m, leaving from the Pfizer parking lot, turning east onto E Crooked Hill Road, turning south onto N. Middletown Rd, turning west onto E Central Ave turning south onto South Main Street, and ending in the area of the Pearl River Post Office.
