Story by Peggy Verhagen
Interview by Brad Balfour
Photos by R.P. Lucibelli

William J. Burke arrived in Brooklyn from Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo, over 20 years ago, with absolutely no large-city experience. Yet Burke is a lucky man. The day after his arrival he accompanied his brother-in-law to a Chinese laundry where he was offered his first job. No, not doing laundry. It turned out that the man behind the counter actually worked as a bank officer in New York during the week. Bill took the job. "What the hell did I know," he says, "so I started the following Monday." He has never looked back.

When he first started out in the banking business he was the only Irishman surrounded by many other nationalities. People at the bank would try to make him feel at home by saying 'Erin Go Bragh' and 'Sure and Begorrah,' thinking they were endearing remarks to make him feel at home. But, as Burke recalls, "We never talked like that." He has traveled a long road from there. He became Senior Vice President for both the Bank of Ireland and Barclay's Bank in New York City. One day Bill was introduced to Country Bank through Joe Murphy, the bank's major stockholder. Murphy called, invited him to breakfast, and asked him to come work for him at Country Bank. Laughingly, Burke recalls that he said, "Jeez, I never heard of that bank." Joe said the bank was located in Carmel. So I said, "Jeez, I never heard of that either." He was hired in 1993 and today is the President of New York City's Country Bank.

At that time Country Bank was one of many small friendly banks in Carmel, New York, and Murphy decided that they needed a better return for their stockholders when he hired Burke. The idea was to bring this friendly bank south and eventually it wound up in New York City. Says the pleasant-voiced Burke, "We are not like the big banks who only want you to come in and use their automated machines. We want to meet and talk directly to the people. Our employees are better educated and more experienced than those in other banks. The key is to offer better service, better rates and allow the customer use of all the services the bank has to offer. Our biggest challenge is to service everyone on time. You have to understand that people come in and want a loan immediately."

Burke recalls that there were many times they helped raise money for funerals. "I remember when a Bronx woman came looking for a loan to bury her husband. Basically there was no way she could afford it and after speaking with her, I felt badly and approved her for the loan, going against bank policy. Sometimes you have to go on instinct and she turned out to be a wonderful customer."

He says that several years ago his father-in-law ran into some fellow whose brother died and he wanted to pay for his funeral. The estate was not yet settled, he needed money, but he met a man who was willing to give it to him on a handshake. Burke laughingly recalls, 'Who was that stupid bastard?' asked my father-in-law. 'His name was Bill Burke,' he answered. 'Oh, damn, that's my son-in-law.

According to Burke, "There are few banks who still care about their customers--you have to go to the suburbs like Hudson Valley up in Yonkers, Union States in Rockland County. In NYC probably Jewish banks such as Bank Leumi, Commercial Bank of NY, Atlantic Bank, or Amalgamated Bank still give very personal service. In the old days when you opened an account you were with that bank for a lifetime-you got your car loan, mortgage, education loan for your kids. It was a one-bank thing. Big banks don't care about small loans because they process large amounts to internationals. To process a $100,000 loan would probably take the same effort as a 100 million dollar loan, so why bother?" Country Bank has a policy of supporting many things. CEO Murphy is very big into Irish art. Once he brought over a famous art gallery and financially supported them. He also supports the Irish Business Organization. Murphy has been a big supporter of Iona College, and a contributor to Rice High School where he went as a kid. It is now an all black Catholic college in Harlem and he still supports it, as well as lends a helping hand to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital Diabetic Center. "Joe is involved on that level and," adds Burke, "I am involved on the Irish level. You have to be committed to a community and the community responds back to you. I don't care if someone opens an account but I'm there to help and have always been." If the bank job had never turned up, Bill would probably have been a police officer. Definitely a police officer. "My father was born in NYC and my uncle was a lieutenant in the Police Department so that's all I heard about. I took the test and got into the top 10. My uncle was disappointed because he thought 'here is this wiseass coming out here and getting a hundred.' Of course I was not a wiseass, but my uncle had struggled all his life, and here I came along and made it look easy."

On the personal side, Bill and family live in New Rochelle, with summer homes in the Catskills and Glandore, Co. Cork. He attended St. Nathy's College in Roscommon, the American Institute of Banking and the American Institute of Credit, as well as Pace University, all located in New York state.

Burke is proud to have been selected as the aide to the Grand Marshal for the St. Patrick's Day Parade in 1979, and as Grand Marshal in '88. Beyond that, he's thrilled to have led the Brooklyn Parade in '91. "The people were extremely generous and kind to me there." In the early days, as today, the St. Patrick's Day Parade was a very serious affair for the Irish. They are proud of their roots and get behind their county in the parade route to show their civic pride.

Certainly Burke and his family are no exception. "My aunt would dress up in a white uniform to march behind Sligo and she was really very excited about that. The parade was revered and you were proud as punch for the honor of parading. Here I came twenty years later leading the parade as Grand Marshal, which was obviously a big surprise to my uncle. When you talk about the St. Patrick's Day Grand Marshals, there are many guys, like Frank McCourt-all great men." Speaking of Frank McCourt, it reminded him of when he first came to this country, when he used to listen to McCourt's brother Malachy's talk show on WMCA radio. One time the subject was to aggravate older Irish by saying nasty things to get them to call in. "It was hilarious. I loved it--all these people would be calling in and would be really upset. Malachy's theme song was 'The bells of Hell Will Ring-a-Ring-a-Ling for You, but Notfor Me. "' (laughs loudly).

Burke says that there are many people in the Irish community who haven't been recognized for their humanitarianism. "There is an Irish cancer and bone surgeon here, Paddy Vaughan, who has done so many free operations and never tells anyone. Once he amputated a leg on a young Irish fellow from Leitrim who had bone cancer but never sent a bill. 'He said he can't afford it. Why would I send him a bill?' There are many people like him; we need to say 'thank you' to all of them. Most Irish-born came out to America with zero because they obviously had no luck with jobs back home." As Burke states, "No matter how successful you are you look back and say, 'Jeepers, don't get too carried away with this success,' because we came from nothing and there's always the chance you could lose everything. Look around at some of the successful Irish, they have no airs about them and are very downto-earth guys." In 1847, famine wiped out a substantial part of the Irish population. During that period, people came to the States in droves. They are the people who lead corporate America today. On the face of that Bill says, "We have more money and power, but we really aren't in tune with the political side. It would be good for us to be back in politics. With the retirement of Moynihan it hurt us big time in New York." In the old days, going back to mayors like Jimmy Walker, many of the leaders coming out of Tammany Hall were Irish. They were needed to help the poor and uneducated Irish who came over here then to find jobs and accommodations.

"Today, Irish people have been absorbed into the country but are highly educated and sophisticated. America has changed too because Wall Street accepts anyone, as long as they make money. There is this worldwide Irish community that has potential everywhere. All of a sudden in Northern Ireland there is reasonable peace and it will be great to have one nation again." "The economy is fabulous," says Burke. "I was recently interviewed by BBC4 in London and they asked how I felt about the Irish government and companies trying to attract people back. I told them I thought it would be difficult to get people back because of the tremendous economy here, with the lowest unemployment in 30 years. If you have a blue collar job, such as a carpenter, for example, there are fabulous opportunities. You can make big money nowadays; if you work on Wall Street in a hightech company, even a six-figure salary is not a big deal anymore. But I believe that if someone comes out here, they make a conscious decision to leave Ireland in order to make more money. They open a business, buy a house, and now you want to ask them to go back? They can go home frequently, it only takes six hours." A local fellow, showing off at his neighborhood bar once said to Burke, 'Would you believe that a guy named Bill Burke lent me a million dollars.' This was back in the '70s and was a huge amount.

"He wanted to let the locals know how important he was, so in making himself famous he made me famous too ." (laughs) Burke reflects further on the attitude that makes his bank the community bank that it is. "If you came in for a $10,000 loan today at a big bank, it's a process. If you came to us, anyone who works with us could talk intelligently about a loan and have it." Burke continues, "Irish people are the most sophisticated as far as computers and internet banking services. Naturally, if they came here now, we'd have to update our banking for them. But our present customers are extremely happy with down-home banking, and we service them better on a personal level. They want to come in, shake hands with someone who listens to them and discuss their financial needs. We are friendly, competitive and efficient, we love what we do and it works for us." Burke connects to the Irish community in other ways as well. "We appreciate Irish music and, as I was growing up, there were dance halls and dance bands all over the country. Then we got interested in groups like the Wolfe Tones and The Chieftains, so we all developed a great appreciation for traditional Irish music. Riverdance is obviously a huge success, but years ago if someone were to say they were going to watch Irish dancing, people would say 'Are you nuts?' Now more Irish Americans have pride in their heritage. My wife Ailee and I have two children, Ross and Riley, and I don't want any of that dance stuff for them (laughs). I want them to be tough and rugged ball players." Whether it be soccer, music or dance, Burke is a man of his community.