"Advocating for New England's on-premise beer, wine, and spirits retailers"
ABOUT THE IRISH VINTNERS' ASSOCIATION
Long before arriving to the United States from his native County Cork in Ireland, Pat Cross understood the concept of "strength in numbers" and the "power of unity". A third generation pub owner, Pat's first cousin Finbar Murphy actually became President of the Irish Vintners Association. As you can imagine, a role representing every pub owner in Ireland is a job held in very high esteem. And so for Pat like many in the Cross family, the business of Associations is just "in the blood".
When Pat, known to many of his friends as "Paudie", became the proud owner of the Thirsty Scholar in Somerville (1996) it wasn't long before he realized that running a small business in the city of Boston would be a challenge unlike any other. Building the business wasn't the challenge for Paudie and his partner Gerry Brennan at "the Scholar", the pub quickly established itself as "the home away from home" for many of the local students from the surrounding universities. Building the business wasn't the challenge. It was managing the political landscape that presented the headaches for Paudie. The licensing process, the different and often confusing local, city, and state regulations, the hidden fees and high costs of goods and services for our industry. It grew to the point where Pat felt his own livelihood was being threatened by the burden of regulation. When Pat confirmed with his fellow pub owners that they were frustrated by the same issues, it was then that his "association DNA" kicked into gear.
Pat called the first meeting in 1998 and many of the city's notable Irish publicans were there to show their support including Tom Devlin of Devlin's in Brighton, Joe Dunne of the Irish Embassy, John Joe Somers from Mr. Dooley's, Finbar (Butch) Murray from Flann O'Brien's on Mission Hill, Gerry Coleman from The Field in Cambridge, Pete Nash of Nash's in Dorchester, Jackie Linnane from the River Gods, Sam Carlyle from Emmet's, and Ray Butler of the Banshee. And before the gavel was struck to adjourn the meeting, somebody raised a motion that a name be given to the group before the meeting ends.....and thus the Irish Vinters Association was born.
The IVA grew tremendously in interest, membership and legislative effectiveness over the years. In 2001, IVA was largely responsible for helping the Massachusetts Licensed Beverage Association achieve its goal of increasing the automatic fire sprinkler occupancy levels from the original 50 person minimum to 100 persons. Unbeknownst to many even to this day, this slight revision in the law saved many bar and tavern owners thousands of dollars.
In 2002, with active IVA membership well over 100 bars and taverns after having worked so successfully with the MassLBA on the sprinkler bill, Pat and the IVA Board of Directors voted to merge with MassLBA. This meant more resources for the IVA cause which in turn meant more support for the neighborhood bar and tavern owner. With his background and credibility well established, Patrick Cross was elected President of MassLBA in June of 2006. Both MassLBA and the IVA are both better organizations as a result of the partnership. Neither has ever looked back....
