Oct. 18 (UPI) -- A former New York City cab driver visited a bar in Ireland to collect the two pints of Guinness he was owed from an IOU given to him by a passenger nine years earlier.
John McDonagh was driving his cab in New York at 4 a.m. in 2013 when he picked up Shane Gaffney, a Dublin resident who did not have the cash to cover his ride.
"He said he owned a bar in Dublin and I said, 'Yeah, everybody owns a bar in Dublin,'" McDonagh told WNYW-TV. "But he says, 'No, I can get you some free pints of Guinness.'"'
The men determined the cab ride was worth about two pints of Guinness at the 2013 exchange rate between the dollar and the euro, so Gaffney wrote McDonagh an IOU promising two pints at the Gaffney and Son Pub in Dublin.
McDonagh finally made his way to Ireland nine years later, while touring Off the Meter, On the Record, his one-man play about his nearly 40 years as a cabbie.
Gaffney and his parents were at the bar to welcome McDonagh.
"It has been surreal the whole time I've been here, it's been unbelievable. When I arrived at the bar, there was a massive banner welcoming me," McDonagh told the Irish Independent.
