The oldest pub in the area hardly hints of itsauthenticity on the outside. Tucked away next toMcKinon's Choice Meats, with red blinds coveringthe windows, Sligo Pub attracts a more traditionalcrowd.

Owner Thomas W. Mannion says the pub has one ofthe longest licenses in the greater Boston area,and has been in the same location since the 1930s.

As Mannion talks with customers, his brotherSean praises the perfect pint of Guinness in hishand.

Thomas Mannion originally is from County Galwayand immigrated in January 1958.

He cracks a playful smile as he says, "I onlycame over for a few years."

Yet Mannion says that life in the isolatedworld of the West of Ireland was far from easy.

"It's so bleak and desolate out there. Youwouldn't want to live there during the winter," hesays. "It's not the place to make a living."

Mannion recounts how farmers, in harsh seasons,would travel down to the rich topsoil of thevalleys and "borrow" the soil, creating fertilepatches in the hills which can still be seentoday.

Sligo, with its small size and Irish regularsthat include three men from Doolin, a small Irishtown renowned for its Irish music, seems to be theepitome of the no-frills Irish pub.

Mannion is critical of bars that are trying tocash in on the Irish commercial revival.

"They're using Irish names as marketing tools,"he says. "Good luck to them, but these guys are init for the money. They come and go but this placeis here to stay."

Beyond the Bars

Though Boston's Irish influence is stillpalpable in the bar scene, the power exerted bythe immigrant group--in politics and beyond--haswaned over the last two decades.

Initially driven to Boston by the potato faminewhich struck Ireland between 1845 and 1849, theIrish continued to flow to Boston and Cambridge,turning City Hall and the world of the Hub into anIrish center.

Today, Irish immigration is dwindling, and theglory days of the Irish Mafia are in the past.