Monday, March 17, 2003

By Rob Kirkbride
The Grand Rapids Press

Bill Quinn has been immersed in his Irish heritage since he was a wee lad, singing traditional songs about Molly Malone, the Rose of Clare and Gilgarra Mountain.

So it's only fitting the Grand Rapids native would come to own one of West Michigan's most active Irish music clubs.

Quinn, 49, owns Quinn and Tuite's, 1535 Plainfield Ave. NE, an unassuming building in the Creston Business District.

From the outside, it's hard to tell Quinn and Tuite's is anything more than a neighborhood bar. The only thing remotely Irish about the outside of the pub is the green-and-white sign.

But inside, there's no doubt.

A Dublin city flag hangs in the corner. Near the bar is suspended a banner from the Guinness Hurling Championship.

And Sinn Fein political posters decorate the walls.

Quinn and his business partner Rich Schall have owned the bar for 18 years but only started cultivating its reputation as an Irish music hotbed over the past four years.

He was prompted by a strong group of regular customers with Irish roots.

"This has become a haven for Irish people in Grand Rapids," said Quinn. "It is a place they can come and relax, feel at home. That is a great compliment.

"I think people wanted a place in town where they could go and get a couple of pints of Guinness and hear some great Irish music."

He graduated from Catholic Central High School. Although Irish music has always been a part of his life, he grew up in the predominantly Polish Northeast Side neighborhood that surrounds St. Isidore Catholic Church.

And yet his Irish heritage was always a part of his life.

His parents taught him traditional Irish songs, sung to them by Quinn's grandfather, who came to the United States from Ennis, in the heart of County Clare on the western coast of Ireland.

Quinn's father was involved with the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a Catholic, Irish-American Fraternal Organization.

Following in his father's footsteps, Quinn is the president of the Grand Rapids chapter of the Hibernians, the group responsible for the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Grand Rapids.

The former Mohawk Liquor salesman said he always wanted to own a bar. He bought the tavern from Pete Brown, when it was at Michigan Street and Diamond Avenue NE.

Despite the Irish makeover and move to Plainfield Avenue, the name stuck.

Quinn prepares Quinn and Tuite's for the St. Patrick's Day rush for more than a month. He prefers tradition to holiday trappings. There are a few cut-out shamrocks, but Quinn and Tuite's serves no green beer.

There is, however, plenty of Guinness Stout. The bar will go through more than 20 barrels of the smokey, deep-brown beer tonight.

Seamus McGinty, who moved to Grand Rapids from Ireland 27 years ago, will be part of the throng who will fill the bar tonight to listen to a full slate of Irish music, which starts at 3:30 p.m. with the Conklin Ceili Band.

"This is a home away from home for me," he said in a thick Irish brogue. "It is our meeting place.

"When Billy (Quinn) goes to Ireland, he stays with my family."

Today's lineup also includes singers Lee Mulder and Pat Woods, and the bands Smash the Windows and Lucky Charms. Woods, once named entertainer of the year in Ireland, is known as the "Bard of Armagh" because of his original and traditional songs and ballads and unique song-writing and delivery style.

"People like Bill are keeping Irish heritage alive in the United States," said Woods. "There isn't a big (native) Irish population in the Grand Rapids, but look around. The spirit of Ireland is alive here."

The pub is surprisingly large on the inside and Quinn pointed toward the back of the bar where the bands will play, under the tri-color Irish flag, the familiar harp flag from Leinster Province and the Starry Plough, a flag that symbolizes the Irish independence and the Irish working class.

"The best part about my job is meeting the people," he said. "I have made so many new acquaintances. They are my friends."