Whatever Happened to ... Fiddlers Green?
With St. Patrick’s Day upon us, it’s a good time to take a look back at a popular Irish bar that used to be in Charlotte, Fiddlers Green.
The place was owned by Dublin native Annie Murphy, who brought in Irish bands and musicians for open-mike jam sessions and kept the Guinness and the good times flowing. Fiddlers Green moved from its original spot to a larger venue to accommodate ever-growing crowds.
Not surprisingly, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations were particularly festive at Fiddlers Green. The more-or-less house band, the Wild Geese – which included Murphy’s brother – once played a 13-hour set on “Parade Day,” with folks lined up to get in all day and night.
Murphy died 10 years ago. One of her daughters, Karina Murphy of Rochester, remembered St. Patrick’s Day at Fiddlers Green as the “best night of the year.”
“We had half-poured Guinness pints lined up…She only served Guinness in glass pints,” Murphy wrote in an email. “She even knew how to top it off with the shamrock on top!”
Annie Murphy came to Rochester from her native Ireland in 1989. She tended bar at McGinnity’s on West Ridge Road for a while before opening Fiddlers Green on St. Johns Park in 1997.
The building was small, the location – off Lake Avenue, near where River Street splits off – a bit out of the way. There was another big problem.
Murphy couldn’t get an entertainment rider on her liquor license, so there was no live music, and that wouldn’t do for any “authentic” Irish bar. Murphy got around it by renting out a back room and holding meetings of the Tenth Ward Irish Musicians Association.
“Any music being played was not ‘entertainment,’ but part of a meeting,” wrote Jym Ellison, another member of the Wild Geese, in an email. “This went on for a few months and the popularity of the bar was beginning to catch hold.”
Members of the newly formed Wild Geese played Fiddlers Green on St. Patrick’s Day in 1998. It became apparent that more room was needed, and Murphy soon moved the bar to 4653 Lake Ave., close to Charlotte Beach.
Audrey Cooper of Greece remembered the move. “Friends removed the mirrored walls, upgraded the bar, donated music for the jukebox, painted the outside sign, loaned money, labor and moral support,” Cooper wrote in an email. “Fiddlers became the venue for Great Guinness Toast gatherings, Irish music sessions, Friday night fish fries, pints of Guinness on tap, and the place to ‘catch up with Annie.’”
More:Whatever Happened to ... Dentico’s Italian Villa?
More:Whatever Happened to ... the Panorama Theater?
Musicians like the Dady Brothers and Peg Dolan regularly played at Fiddlers Green along with the Wild Geese. But it wasn’t only Irish music – Aric Schaubroeck posted on Facebook that the first show by Camel Clutch, a metal band, was at Fiddlers Green, and newspaper listings mention events like a “Flying Words Project” presented by Writers & Books at the pub.
When Annie Murphy got married in 1999, one of her brothers, Ben Mac An Tuile, came from Ireland for the wedding and wound up staying. He soon joined the Wild Geese.
Thursday-night open-jam sessions attracted regulars who brought guitars, fiddles, banjos, mandolins and harmonicas. The Irish bands included other traditional instruments like tin whistles, Uilleannpipes and the Bodhran.
Annie Murphy wrote an essay that was published in the Democrat and Chronicle in 2001, a month after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “The party atmosphere just isn’t there anymore,” she wrote. “When people come in (to Fiddlers Green) they just look at the TV, waiting to see what’s going to happen next.”
Terrorism happened all the time in Northern Ireland when she was growing up, Murphy wrote. “But I grew up in Dublin. It was like living here and watching what’s been going on in New York (City) on TV. You just stayed home and stayed out of the way.”
The crowds and party atmosphere eventually returned to Fiddlers Green. But other issues arose, namely the Fast Ferry project that was developing in Charlotte. Ongoing construction was tough on Murphy and other business owners.
“You couldn’t get down Lake Avenue or park anywhere, and the constant construction noise wasn’t pleasant for customers,” Karina Murphy wrote. Fiddlers Green closed in 2003, and Annie Murphy went to work at Hawthorne’s on East Avenue.
When she was diagnosed with cancer in 2009, a Fiddlers Green reunion and benefit were held at Johnny’s Irish Bar on Culver Road. “Ann held court, the place was jammed, the Wild Geese played,” Audrey Cooper wrote. “The best kind of Irish wake, because Ann was still with us to celebrate her life.”
Annie Murphy died about two months later. No doubt, more than a few toasts to her and Fiddlers Green continue to be raised on St. Patrick’s Day.
Alan Morrell is a Rochester-based freelance writer.
About this feature
Whatever Happened to ...? is a weekly feature about Rochester's haunts of yesteryear and is based on our archives. Got an idea for a feature? Send it to cbenjami@gannett.com.