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By KARLA D. SHORES; Times Leader Staff Writer
Saturday, March 16, 1996 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE — The 51st Friendly Sons of St. Patrick dinner was almost
womanless again Friday night.
For the first time, The Friendly Sons allowed a female reporter to observe,
but women, in general, could only mingle across the hall, at Keenan’s Irish
Pub, something most of them said they didn’t mind doing.
It’s nothing personal, the Irishmen say.
“The problem was that people started making too much out of it,” said
former Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom McLaughlin during the dinner Friday night at the
Ramada Plaza Hotel. “We have never said `no’ to a woman. We have always seen
it as a positive thing. We’ve just kept up tradition. That’s the way it’s
always been.”
The women shrug it off as tradition.
“They’ve been doing it for years,” said Friendly Sons wife Kerri Gallagher.
“It sort of bothers me that some women make an issue out of it. It’s just a
traditional thing. I don’t think it’s discriminatory.”
But not all women share Gallagher’s feelings. During the past five years
the event has drawn anti-women criticism.
“There are so many misconceptions about what we’re about,” Thomas Murphy
said. “I’m very tired of it. You listen to the radio and you hear things.”
Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Hugh F. Mundy, named Man of the
Year, said he heard about the Friendly Sons for the first time in 1970 when he
moved to the area from Brooklyn, New York.
“It was interesting,” Mundy said. “It’s important to me to see a community
involved in its Irish heritage.”
Longtime friend Ray Sobota said Mundy is a deserving recipient.
“He’s a credit for the bench,” said 25-year friend Ray Sobota. “If you
wanted to find a judge, he’s got all the ingredients for it.”
The dinner was all about good-natured name calling, joke telling and cigar
smoking.
The men, young and old, enjoyed a prime-rib dinner in the atmosphere of
Irish tunes and guttural laughter.
Even 18-year-old Eric Sweeney said he felt the beginnings of male bonding
when he sat down at his first Friendly Son’s dinner to butter a roll.
A sea of about 600 green ties –from clover-bedecked to plain kelly green
— bounded throughout the room when old pals caught each other’s eyes and
offered a hand for a hearty shake.
The men settled down after dinner to laugh at a collection of political
jokes thrown out by Toastmaster Kevin Boylan and listen to featured speaker
Arthur J. “Art” Donovan, member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
“It’s basically a men’s night out,” Murphy said. “It’s kind of like a
shower and a bachelor party. The men go to the bachelor party and the women go
out tonight. We have one night a year that we do this.”
TIMES LEADER/DON CAREY
Dave Grimes, left, and Tom Torbik, center, pose with Friendly Sons of St.
Patrick Man of the Year Judge Hugh F. Mundy at the Ramada Plaza Hotel on
Friday night.
Ex-NFL player featured speaker
— Page 1B