For Frank Cunningham, who peers out behind wire-rimmed glasses under a traditional Irish tweed cap, the pubs of Boston offer a chance to reconnect with his heritage beyond wearing green on St. Patrick's Day.

Although Cunningham lives on Nantucket as a carpenter, he knows Boston pubs well, expertly picking his way through the streets on his evening travels.

Yet, as he traverses the Charles, he is traveling not only into Boston, but back into the world of Ireland.

The sound of a melancholy Gaelic singer fills the car.

"You can hear the lyricism as he sings," he muses, explaining that the song is about a deceived girl who waits fruitlessly for the return of her love.

As he drives through the back streets of Boston, he weaves his way to Jamaica Plain and finally to the Brendan Behan Pub.

While "Behan" is located off the beaten path, it offers a world vastly different from the trendiness of many Irish bars today.

The pub, instead of the usual television above the bar, has a kitschy fish tank; instead of Top 40 teeny-bopper music, it showcases an Irish seisun (session), in which Irish musicians form an impromptu ensemble, playing everything from traditional flutes to a bouzouki, a guitar-like instrument.

"You tend to go to the bars to reconnect you with the land you left behind," cunningham says.

"Everything happened there. If there was a funeral, everybody would go there," he adds.

Yet, even these traditional centers of Irish culture do not remain as entirely exclusive cultural environments.

In the Behan, Boston Irish congregate along with a full-blooded American Indian.

"It reflects the notion that people from all over use them as a common embassy," Cunningham says.

In the face of a disintegrating Irish community in the Hub, public houses, or "pubs," remain at the center of traditional Irish communities.

In recent years, as everything Irish hassuddenly become commercially successful, a slew ofIrish pubs--some more traditional thanothers--have created a pub scene that is far fromauthentic.

The New Crowd

In a one-block radius in Somerville's sleepyDavis Square, three Irish pubs represent thetradition--and commercialism--of the Hub's versionof Irish-Americanism.

The Burren, a pub tucked away behind atraditional Irish facade of window panels and acolorful door, is the product of recent Irishtransplants trying to establish a little slice oftheir homeland in Massachusetts.

The owners of the pub, musicians Tommy McCarthyand Louise Costello, said tried to give the bar adistinct Irish flavor beyond Guinness withpictures of the Burren, a desolate, rocky areafrom Costello's home in County Clare, when theyopened it in 1996.

The Burren hosts live Irish music seven nightsa week, and already has had members of theChieftains and Riverdance pay a visit.

Grainne O'Callahan, a waitress, praises the baras similar to the pubs of her hometown of Galway.

"It's the closest thing to an Irish bar thereis in Boston," she says.

Through its music, the Burren has maintained atraditional Irish identity, though alsocapitalizing on the interest in Ireland brought onby Michael Flatley's "Lord of the Dance" andRiverdance.

While the Burren can be considered an authenticIrish pub, the Joshua Tree Bar across the streetseems to be Irish only in name.

Founded less than two years ago, the bar, witha similar facade to the Burren's, is worlds apart.

Though all the bartenders are Irish andGuinness is certainly on tap, a sign upon enteringinforms patrons of a "Red Dog Special."

Manager Allen A. Doyle is candid that eventhough the name is taken from U2's 1987 album, TheJoshua Tree is far from a pub.

"It's not really an Irish bar; it is really anAmerican bar run by the Irish," he says.

Doyle says some of the patrons don't evenunderstand the meaning of the bar's "Irish" name.

"They don't know it's an album," he says.

Old-School Irish

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.

Joseph P. Kennedy II stepped down from hisEighth District seat this fall, leaving Rep.Michael A. Capuano (D-Somerville), to fill theposition. Boston's City Hall, which between 1930and 1993 was filled by mayors with Irish roots,now has Italian-American Thomas M. Menino asmayor.

Yet the Boston Irish are far from a dyingbreed. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 (D-Mass.)and John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) still reign inMassachusetts, and the Boston financial elite hasan influential Irish contingent.

Now, many of the newer bars reflect not thestoried past of Boston's Irish life, butcapitalize on the mainstream intrigue in the newlypopular Irish culture.

In the Green?

The world of The Field, located in CentralSquare, although it proudly serves Guinness fivetimes more than any other beer, hardly mirrors theSligo.

With Oasis tunes serenading the patrons andwaitresses drinking Starbucks instead of Harp, TheField caters to a younger crowd.

"This is what an Irish bar is like in Irelandwhere people come and listen to rock music," saysAllan C. Murphy, one of the Field's bartenders.

Murphy described the clientele as a mix ofpeople--Irish people, professionals, Harvard andMIT students--who tend to be fairly young.

The Druid, located in Inman Square, creates asimilar atmosphere to The Field's, with a giantMarlboro heart pierced by a cigarette hanging fromthe ceiling.

Here, the Evander Holyfield-Lennox Lewis fighttakes center stage, rather than an Irish musicalsession.

Behind the Guinness

While Irish bars like The Druid and The Fieldplay on customer interest in Ireland, they stillcontribute to the Hub's thriving Irish pub scene.

But many of the more authentic Irish pubssymbolize something more than just a place to fillup a pint.

"It's like the sitting room for this culture,"Cunningham says.

He does not have to look farther than hishometown for a poignant example of how pubsconnect Irish-Americans to their homeland.

Cunningham, a native of Ballina, a 7,000-persontown in County Mayo, recounts the story of aBallina native who has lived in Boston for sixyears--but who is going back for soccer.

Ballina has advanced far into Irish's soccertournament, forcing the Ballina soccer player toaccumulate in excess of 30,000 miles back andforth over the Atlantic.

"While his whole life was here for six years,he still has an affinity to his people and histown," Cunningham says. "He will sacrifice allthat to go back to play for his home team."

While Cunningham does not travel over theAtlantic to cheer his friend on, the Bostoncontingent of Ballina, Cunningham included,gathers at the Kells in Allston for the playoffs,raising their voices and their Guinnesses insupport of their hometown stars.CrimsonSarah E. HenricksonPICK YOUR POISON:Irish pubs offerdrinks form the traditional Guinness to Americanbeers like Red Dog and Budweiser.