Exhibit 31.1

Certification of Chief Executive Officer Pursuant to Section 302 of the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

I, Barry M. Donohue, President and Chief Executive Officer, certify that:

1.   I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-QSB of Atlantic Liberty
     Financial Corp.;

2.   Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any untrue
     statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to
     make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such
     statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by
     this quarterly report;

3.   Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
     information included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all
     material respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash
     flows of the small business issuer as of, and for, the periods presented in
     this quarterly report;

4.   The small business issuer's other certifying officers and I are responsible
     for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as
     defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal control
     over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(f) and
     15d-15(f)) for the small business issuer and have:

     a) designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such
     disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to
     ensure that material information relating to the small business issuer,
     including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us by others
     within those entities, particularly during the period in which this
     quarterly report is being prepared;

     b) designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such
     internal control over financial reporting to be designed under our
     supervision, to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of
     financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for
     external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting
     principles;

     c) evaluated the effectiveness of the small business issuer's disclosure
     controls and procedures and presented in this quarterly report our
     conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and
     procedures, as of the end of the period covered by this quarterly report
     based on such evaluation; and

     d) disclosed in this quarterly report any change in the small business
     issuer's internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the
     small business issuer's most recent fiscal quarter that has materially
     affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the small business
     issuer's internal control over financial reporting; and

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5.   The small business issuer's other certifying officers and I have disclosed,
     based on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial
     reporting, to the small business issuer's auditors and the audit committee
     of the small business issuer's board of directors:

     a) all significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or
     operation of internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably
     likely to adversely affect the small business issuer's ability to record,
     process, summarize and report financial information; and

     b) any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other
     employees who have a significant role in the small business issuer's
     internal control over financial reporting.



Date: August 8, 2003                           /s/ Barry M. Donohue
                                               ---------------------------------
                                               Barry M. Donohue, President and
                                               Chief Executive Officer


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