According to a report by Western People, Mary runs an Irish pub near the East Village in New York and hosted 45 people of varying nationalities as part of a charitable initiative organised by Humans of New York (HONY). The initiative involves finding a host family for those who don’t want to be alone at Christmas.

“It was pretty simple but it was really beautiful and it was just perfect and people loved it. They did not want to be alone or by themselves and it was just basically an act of kindness, people were just very happy.”

“We had an amazing Irish ham and cabbage dinner with mashed potatoes, and they just loved it. A lot of these people have never had something like this before so for them they loved that this was a real Irish dinner.

“Every big party I have at Mary O’s I make Irish ham and cabbage. My husband and four of my children were here and then four of my regular customers came and they had also nowhere to go for Christmas and they came and they helped me do all the extra work that was needed.”