Reilly's Daughter Makes Triumphant Return to 111th Street

The saloonkeepers O’Brien: Brendan, Dan and Boz.

Back in the days of disco and boogie nights, a 24-year-old South Side Irishman named Boz O’Brien opened a little Irish bar in a strip mall at 111th Street and Pulaski Road called Reilly’s Daughter on June 16, 1976.

But there would be no mirror balls or polyester in this watering hole named after the Irish folk song about a beautiful lass with black hair and blue eyes and her terrifying drunken father, Reilly.

Reilly’s Daughter was the kind of place where a South Side politician, preferably a Democrat of Irish descent, would feel comfortable walking into and pressing the flesh with a bunch of sweaty softball players around election time.

“Irish pubs weren’t the thing at the time,” the 65-year-old Boz said. “We were always involved in politics, sports, and Irish culture. We had a heavily Irish neighborhood. One thing led to another and we started to attract people from all over.”

Irish singers and musicians found a steady gig at Reilly’s Daughter, and young people from the neighborhood who used their earnings to put themselves through college and achieve great success in adult life, including young Matt O’Shea who used to sweep up the joint and pour beer.

When the pub acquired a license to open a beer garden, Boz bought a bunch of black and white television sets from a Cicero Avenue motel that was going out of business. For an entire season of “Monday Night Football,” he sold chances where the lucky winner could throw a brick at a TV set during Howard Cosell’s broadcast of the game.

“”Everyone loved to hate Howard Cosell back then,” Boz said. “You could hear the implosion of the TV sets from blocks away.”

The stunt grew in such notoriety that the late Ch. 7 sportscaster Tim Weigel did an unheard-of-for-then live remote of the brick heaving. When a disgruntled fan threw an actual brick at Cosell’s limo during the World Series, “he blamed that flea bag bar in Chicago,” Boz said.

Reilly’s Daughter became so successful -- 1985 Bears super quarterback Jim McMahon taped his “Bears Report” TV show at the South Side pub -- that Boz reluctantly sold the business after in 2002. He opened a smaller, more contained Reilly’s Daughter at Chicago Midway Airport.

“I was at it for 27 years and gave it my all. I was burned out,” Boz said. “I had mixed feelings about it, but I knew it was the right thing to do.”

When the O’Briens pulled out they sold the business to Mike Quigley, who passed away in March. The pub hung onto to its Irish roots and went through various incarnations as Quigley’s South Side Irish Pub and Hops and Helmets.

“His children didn’t have the interest in the business that Mike did,” Boz said. “They put business up for sale. There were quite a few bidders. They chose us.”

Now, almost 13 years later, a second generation of saloonkeepers O’Brien are re-opening Reilly’s Daughter in it’s original space on Thursday.

“It’s really cool to be back here,” said Brendan O’Brien, co-owner and manager. “I spent my childhood and my teens in here, so this will be round three for me.”

Brendan said that when interviewing candidates to work at the pub almost everyone had a personal story about how their parents or aunts and uncles met at Reilly’s Daughter.

“Now their sons and daughters are working here. It’s generational,” Brendan said. “It’s really cool in the sense that we’re going to try to bring back here that community feeling.”

Thursday’s opening night act will feature Terry McEldowney, who co-authored the anthem “South Side Irish” by writing down lyrics on napkins after a night of revelry at Reilly’s Daughter. Bobby Fitzpatrick, another former employee and Marist grad who went on to open a dental practice on 95th Street, will also take the newly renovated stage large enough to fit a whole platoon of Irish step dancers.

“I still have a hard time believing that it’s happening again,” Boz said. “It was a unique place when we were here the first time. We hope we can recapture some of that magic.”

Reilly’s Daughter, 4010 W. 111th St. Oak Lawn, will be open 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily. There is good pub food to be had until 9 p.m. when the kitchen closes. The bar will open at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving (Nov. 26) if you want to get away from your relatives for awhile.

And if you need a sponsor for your softball team, they’re ready to talk.

Keep up with Reilly’s Daughter on Facebook.

More fun photos:

Photo 1 - ‘85 Bears Quarterback Jim McMahon, with a young Brendan and Boz O’Brien.

Photo 2 - Fundraiser for Richard M. Daley’s run for Cook County State’s Attorney.

Photo 3 - Rich Daley enjoys a cool one after pressing the flesh.