Sarah McNally enjoyed her job at the Céilí House pub in the New York borough of Queens and was conscientious about her work.
The Co Longford native is remembered by friends and workmates as a popular employee and colleague wherever she worked – quick-witted, talkative, smart and, most of all, kind.
“She was so much fun – chatty, great craic and everything, but at the end of the day, she took her job seriously,” said Alicia Walsh, who worked alongside McNally during their time together in the US.
“She respected where she worked and had always made time for helping new staff,” said Walsh, who is now back living in Ireland.
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McNally had many regular customers in The Céilí House and liked the work, from opening the day’s trading to shouting the last call.
Nobody in the bar ever expected that this would be where McNally would die at the hands of her boyfriend in a violent attack in front of customers.
The Grand Avenue watering hole, about an hour on public transport from downtown Manhattan, was one more stop on McNally’s decade-long US odyssey.
She had worked as a waitress and bartender at a number of popular spots in Manhattan and Queens, including the famed Playwright restaurant in midtown Manhattan, and Dillons on New York’s east side. She eventually ventured over the Queensboro Bridge, finding employment at The Céilí House.
“Our New York adventure began around the same time,” said one friend who didn’t want to be named.
“We lived close enough back home, but got very friendly [in New York]. She had such a love for life. We both worked in the bar business, as did many of our friends. It was Easter Sunday morning when I heard the news.
“I got a call from a relative back home, who was close to Sarah’s family. I just couldn’t believe it – getting such heartbreaking news from thousands of miles away, about something that happened right here on our doorstep.”
The Céilí House is situated in Maspeth, a Queens neighbourhood once known for its annual influx of younger Irish immigrants. One nearby street in 2016 was renamed “Easter Rising Way” to mark the centenary of the 1916 Dublin insurrection. The area is also known for its thriving Polish, Italian and German communities. McNally lived in Glendale, just a few minutes’ drive from Maspeth.
Irish bars are strewn across the locality. Taverns such as O’Neill’s, Connolly’s Corner, Glenpatricks and the Irish-owned Bukowski’s, which is right across the street from The Céilí House, offer a welcoming atmosphere for those anxious for a taste of home.
McNally had a loving family, including a close bond with her mother, Dorrie, who had also spent some time working in the US. There was her father, Des, her grandmother Kathleen, many close friends, a full social life and a job she enjoyed. The pretty 41-year-old seemed to have it all going for her.
Until everything was taken from her on March 30th, 2024.
That day had started out for McNally like any other in the Queens bar.
There were a few regulars around. Sports-wise, it was a busy afternoon. There was excitement over the baseball season, which was just kicking off, and the ever-frenetic annual college basketball tournaments, which were by then heading towards conclusion.
Weather-wise, it was mild. Typically dull in a late-spring way, with a slight threat of a rain that failed to show up.
Who did show up at the Queens bar that day was Marcin Pieciak (37), an individual known to most of the customers present. As he was a semi-regular at the bar, and in a relationship with the affable Longford girl behind the counter, it perhaps wasn’t surprising for the regulars to see him walk in.
Joseph Kenny, the New York Police Department’s head of detectives, set out details of what happened that day at a subsequent court hearing. Pieciak made small talk with a number of customers he recognised, before walking in behind the bar and attacking his girlfriend, Sarah McNally, stabbing her 19 times.
One man – according to local and official sources, a regular customer from the neighbourhood, who has asked not to be interviewed or identified by The Irish Times –,courageously fought off the knife-wielding Pieciak, as others screamed for help and called 911. He managed to stop him leaving the bar until police arrived minutes later.
Pieciak did, however, manage to cause self-harm by slashing himself with a second knife in his possession after he attacked his girlfriend before being disarmed.
Emergency services soon arrived at the location.
“I don’t think, in all the commotion, everyone immediately realised there were two people involved,” said one eyewitness.
“[Pieciak] was injured from his own wounds, but poor Sarah was being treated inside the bar. It was just shocking.”
Once he was restrained and his weapons confiscated, Pieciak and a seriously injured McNally were rushed to nearby Elmhurst hospital where Pieciak was arraigned on a number of charges relating to the incident.
Sarah suffered stab wounds to the chest, neck and back, some of which caused massive damage to her carotid artery. Pieciak severed her spine in the attack. The injuries proved fatal; she was declared dead shortly after her arrival.
Pieciak recovered and later appeared in court. The case was adjourned more than once, for legal teams on either side to prepare, until a plea deal was agreed between opposing attorneys.
On October 30th, the Queens District Attorney said Marcin Pieciak had agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter in the first degree for the killing of McNally.
On Friday he appeared in court and was sentenced to 24 years in prison to be followed by five years of post-release supervision.
Speaking in court, in remarks directed at McNally’s family in Ireland, Pieciak said he had no explanation for his actions.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any answers. I’ve been thinking about her every day and night, about Sarah. I have no answers,” he said.
“I know it’s too early now, but I hope one day you will forgive me.”
Last month, after Pieciak pleaded guilty, Queens district attorney Melinda Katz said: “This murder shocked the community and McNally’s loved ones.”
A lawyer read out a victim impact statement in court on behalf of Sarah’s family, telling the judge how her parents, Dorrie and Des, had lost their only child and her relatives their eldest cousin and niece.
Sarah was “Des’s pride and joy”, the statement said.
“As Sarah got older, their father/daughter bond grew deeper, sharing the same passion for music and a love of animals, especially their family dogs.
“Sarah was the Lisa Marie to his Elvis,” the statement said.
“Sarah and Dorrie shared a unique and close bond, like sisters and best friends as well as mother and daughter. Sarah was their future and this has been stolen from them. As a family, we think about Sarah and talk about her every day.”
The family said many cousins came along after Sarah and they were “all so fond of her and admired her fun, bubbly and adventurous nature”.
She was “so friendly and kind-hearted to everyone and because of that Sarah had so many friends. Everyone loved her,” they said.
“Every single life Sarah touched, whether you were her parent, aunt, uncle, cousin, her friend, colleague or acquaintance, has been shattered,” they said.
The family said they thought they would see Sarah again, either in Ireland or New York; “it is hard to come to terms with the fact that we never will”.
“Losing Sarah, especially in the circumstances we did, has been the most painful, gut-wrenching thing we have ever experienced and not something we will ever be able to get over,” the court was told.
The family said they talk about Sarah every day “but there are also the quiet moments, away from the distractions of everyday life, when it hits you – the evil of it, the finality of it.”
The Céilí House has since closed down.
Grand Avenue is still relatively bustling. The shuttered bar is simply another derelict storefront littered along the way, awaiting redevelopment, though local sources say it will be a different business, not a bar.
Amid the flyers, construction notices and legal posters plastered over the abandoned front window of the former bar, is one simple sheet of cardboard, covering glass.
On it, someone has written in large letters with a black marker “Sarah RIP” – a small remembrance for a young Irish woman looking for work and adventures in the US.
