"And we'll start another day very good" "oh yeah, Murphy's here, now, sound out no problem at all, boys, thanks John, thanks" "there's a snug there, on this side, and there's a snug on that side and these snugs, in the olden times, were used for ladies to drink in and as well as match-making" "The fathers of the bride-to-be or the groom-to-be would come in and sort out what the dowry was going to be it could be a little bit of money and it could be a hen or a sheep or something" "The people getting married weren't there at all just the fathers and the mothers they discussed the deeds in every pub in Dingle, I'd say there are old marriage arrangements wrote down in every pub and they made out a document" "and it was signed by both people that there would so much money involved and there was money involved in every match" "And my aunt, who would be in her 90s now she remembers it actually going on and she said that you would stay outside and if the match went ahead there would be a celebration and you might get a biscuit or an apple" "not a glass of Champagne." "well, there was no seating at the counter no stools, up until the 50s well, maybe in the cities but not down in the towns and it wasn't etiquette for a lady to stand at the bar" "and have a drink." "it was frowned on so that's what these snugs were the lady went in, or a husband and wife went into the snug or else into the lounge" "but never at the bar until the end of the 50s and then they were allowed" "Ladies kinda didn't, it was terrible discrimination when you think about it, but if a man came in with his wife, she went to the snug and she might have her little sherry and he might be at the bar, y'know?" "that's the way it was in those times y'know I'm going back to the start of the century ah yeah, a lot of famous characters drank in there down through the years" "Michael Collins, was, I believe," "I would've heard stories when I was very young was a regular in there" "And people loved to come in and have a conversation about some serious matter and just close the little shutters off and have it." "and that's what the snugs... and the seats are so narrow you sat up straight as well there was no crouching" "There was a president of Ireland, actually was asked to, by Dick Spring, he was a politician and John Rodgers, a senior council they got together in there with Mary Robinson one evening and they asked her" "would she run for president so there's a little plaque in there to commemorate that and she ended up president yeah, would you like some snuff?" "Morning, how are you Percy?" "How are ye?" "ah, not too bad at all and here it has always been an important place for horse trading and I remember when I was young" "I was only 15 or 16 there was a lot of pretty successful horses around here at the time and there was a lot of bets pulled off good luck!" "so I remember walking in there one day, and there was the brother of a very famous trainer and it was the day before one of the big classics" "I think the Derby or the Guineas, in England and, unsuspecting, I walked in to the middle of a group of men expecting to get them another drink and he had a load of envelopes and everybody stopped, everybody looked" "I looked at Fonzi and Fonzi looked at me go away for a few minutes - right, sorry" "It's unusual, we've a pub on one side and we've a grocery on the other side we've petrol pumps just here to my left funeral home further down so we're trying to cater for everything" "it's an old traditional pub, and that's the way we run it, we've the grocery on one side we wouldn't make a big profit on the grocery we still are selling as much ham today" "as we were 20 years ago" "We're a shop really, we're a grocery" "I suppose as all rural places started off you're a shop, general merchant," "I think the old term is general store, you have your bar in one building we have a grocery hardware, a food market hardware, adjacent to this and a jack of all trades and master of none and we do undertaking" "which would be synonymous with the bar business" "We're also undertakers and have been for 5 generations as well so I'm the current undertaker in town" "this is the parish priest, Tom Breen" "Tomas O'Briain" "Tomas O'Briain" "Speaks Irish and we've got a barter system going he gets a lot of money in the church and I have to get a lot of change so he brings the change in to me" "I give him cash, cut out the middle man banks don't like it" "I don't get an awful lot of money in the church but they're very good to me really he does actually get an awful lot of money in the church his chauffeur is outside waiting for him" "This pub is one of the most unique pubs in Dingle it's got a lot of history to it it has never changed in any way inside, in the premises itself and outside is the same and I try to keep everything the same as it was" "that's one of my traditions myself keep things as they were there's enough of things changing in the world the whole world is changing the whole of Dingle is changing which is ruining it and we'll try to keep it the same as it was" "myself." "All I've heard from people that come in here is 'oh don't change it, don't change it'" "It's really, like, embedded in me and often times I can feel 'oh God'" "I need to give it a complete overhaul and then you think 'this is what makes it what it is'" "It is an old pub, it is hundreds of years old why would you change it?" "y'know, there's too many things changing in life look at the stone floor there now and all the new pubs and that now are puttin' in stone floors there yeah, that's a flag floor and it's here as long as this building is built" "so it's never changed albeit's rockier and it's unlevel and you'd have to watch your step walking on it but it is here over 200 and 30 or 40 years old you'd be alright coming in but" "you have to watch yourself going out" "that is so true can I get a pint off you?" "yeah, no bother, Danno" "Back in the 60s they were tearing some of the most beautiful pubs in this city apart" "I was told this story, Liam passed this on to me" "Bill, my grandfather at the time, people were saying to him, Bill, would you not move with the times?" "you're going to be left behind, y'know they were basically putting carpet on the floor and Formica on the counters taking away the snug, the partitions and the old mirrors, y'know?" "so Bill was really upset about this, y'know?" "what am I going to do here, like, y'know?" "what, what, y'know?" "so one day he went for a walk and he went up to Ryan's, another fine, beautiful, Victorian pub and, em, the boss man was there himself" "Bongo Ryan, as he was known" "Bill ordered a drink, and he says to Bongo, he says are you modernising?" "and Bongo says NO and he says, well I'm not either and the 2 of them shook hands and to this day, Ryans and the Palace bar stand as they were back in those days, y'know" "they haven't changed and now they have preservation orders on them which is great" "This is as it was built in 1800s ... and it's Colombian pine floor and the woodwork is all Colombian pine there is a lot of stuff here that has collected over the years for the future generations to see what life was like, like" "and what the ... because with the advent of all the technology now and everything and they think everything will be stainless steel or plastic and it's just the character just the memory of the people who went before us" "just to keep the continuity" "The younger generation will never know what real pubs were like and this which we're lucky enough to have kept they can't get over it, and we don't have no TV, no music just conversation and it has started off now with the surfers" "they love because they can come in and thrash out what they did wrong and what they didn't do wrong and they love when there's no music or anything like that to annoy their conversation" "Well, it's kind of an oasis now unfortunately, because the whole area has changed" "I mean, because there's all office blocks and tower blocks everywhere and in the 60s there was the theatre Royal which was across the road and we had the Irish Press next door and it was always very very busy" "during the day and before that it was the docklands and we used to get all the dockers in and it was just non-stop drinking in those days, y'know?" "early morning, we weren't an early house but as soon as you opened the doors" "Da would tell ye, from 10:30 onwards it was busy, constantly busy, y'know?" "so, em, now it's office crowd it's students, it's workers it's a good mix of everything which is the main thing, y'know?" "and they all come for the pint of Guinness which we have a reputation for being the best pint of Guinness in Dublin which obviously means the best pint of Guinness anywhere so we have a high reputation it's consistently very very good" "and every now and again I do sample it myself just to make sure, quality control, y'know?" "so, cheers!" "ah, tastes like more, as they say" "What's the secret in a good pint?" "pull it...so far and let it settle and then put a head on it" "good creamy top" "but you're the same, always kept a good pint" "Now, Danno, thanks very much" "well it's great Guinness alright, but when Niamh is here it doesn't be good at all" "always a great pint here that's ok, we're well used to each other" "oh, I like honesty, that's ok ah, we do be always having the craic here" "Well, we're here in John B Keane's bar in Listowel which was given to me by my dad about 20 years ago as he had enough of it himself working behind the bar and trying to write himself and my mother bought it in 1955" "Dad came home from England spared up his money and got a loan from the bank and the two of them, she was a hairdresser, and the two of them set it up and we've been here since" "it's a great little bar not the biggest bar in Ireland but people think it is because of the name outside the door the price of drink went up 10c the other day and the customers were complaining and whinging" "so I said I'd give them free drink for the night if one of them could tell me the price of a sliced pan of bread not one of them knew the price, they guessed and guessed and they got it all wrong" "to be honest I didn't know the price either but this fella, Sean Moriarty started all the trouble, so I said "Sean, there you are, you know the price of a pint of Guinness but you don't know the price of the staple of life" "the very staple of life, bread"" "and he says "I don't, Billy but then again," "I wouldn't eat 7-8 sliced pans every night, would I?"" "The worst one used to be, not that many years ago you had to close between, of a Sunday you had to close between 2 and 4 that was the hardest one because everyone would come up and they'd double-up on their drinks" "that was always the sweetest drink, in any pub was the one after hours or the one you got on a good Friday they are the sweetest ones the best one that was ever told about 2 o'clock of a Sunday" "and 4 o'clock was this wife, the husband was coming home coming home around 5 or 6 o'clock and she said, that's the last time you're going to do this the pub closes at 2, you're coming home at 5" "your dinner will be in the bin next Sunday if you're not here at 2 o'clock he comes home the next Sunday at half 5 where's me dinner?" "it's in the bin so he gets her by the scruff of the neck opens the door, gives her one good kick up the arse lands her in the middle of the street and who's walking down only the PP (Parish Priest)" "and he says "Father, I'll make sure she goes to mass every other Sunday"" "Old lock-ins, there was always them" "it used to be a big offence,now, after hours and that there was a big raid here one year think they done 3 pubs in the town the same night the place was full here but everyone escaped out the back" "at the time it was a major crime to be caught in a pub" "I think they caught 5 people that night we used to have hens out the back there was a vicious rooster but one of the fellas went in and hid in the hen-house but the rooster never made a sound the Guards never checked in the hen-house" "and the boys reckoned the next day that your man had the rooster by the throat that's why there was no noise out of the shed because the rooster would normally kick up a racket he wasn't caught, but there was 5 other people" "caught that night" "I think the fine at the time was a fiver or something but it was a big thing around the town at the time sure, nobody passes any remarks at that anymore nobody passes any remarks" "I suppose the Irish pub more so than English pubs is just the sense of humour and y'know?" "the Irish, they have a great sense of humour personally from me, anyway, I'm not a TV addict or anything do y'know?" "and I like to come out and meet people my neighbours and that, and have a chat" "I don't come for the drink really" "I'd have a drink, but it's for the chat I come" "It's for when they have nowhere to go they don't get around much anywhere it's terribly important to me because I come down here and have a chat a few nights a week, have a drink very important for me because" "I'm not interested in TV" "I'd be sitting at home looking at the wall" "A pub is a social outing, so it is where people come to relax and spend time and settle down look at your man it's unique because the pub in Ireland everybody comes to meet in the pub everybody says hello to their friends" "sorry, how are ye, Frankie?" "Great game class game...magic...wasn't it?" "class, class...but, em ask me that question again" "You go into a pub abroad they'd nearly ignore you you go into a pub in Ireland and they'd go up in your arse to find out who you are name, address and number before you'd nearly get a drink" "y'know, where you're from and who you are and if you're evasive at all they'll keep asking you questions you might as well just put your credentials up on the counter when you go in save a lot of trouble" "that's what I notice with them here anyway there was a man here one day and he was fairly inquisitive and he was sitting over the far side there and this stranger came in, I don't know who it was" "your man called me over anyway and" "I went over and said "what's up?"" "he said "who's that?"" "I just turned around and says to your man" ""hey, will you tell this fella who you are, he wants to know"" "your man says "no I don't, no I don't"" "I says "what the hell else did you call me out for?"" "you should see the face going red on your man he never asked me again" "I'd say myself, that" "Carmel and her husband, Lord have mercy on him, Jim they regarded the customers as an extended family" "and the staff were" "they'd do anything for the staff and the staff would do anything for them yeah, we're kinda like family, yeah" "Your customer is your friend your customer is your family basically and you get to know every one of them and they know you so well it's whatever Pete says, or Pete doesn't say he was quoted in a lot of things" "it would be better if he kept his mouth closed" "There's people come in to me for a drink, and I get talking to them and they'll stay for the night just to be talking" "maybe that's the bit of charm I have" "I can talk to people and relax people and that's all they want and maybe sing a song." "I suppose the history of this pub dates back to 1840 originally the building was a grain-store" "I'll be the 4th generation hopefully the kids will be the 5th if we stick it out my great-grandfather turned it into a pub, shop, grocery, feed-store, machinery, everything went on here at the time" "I suppose through bad times, good times, whatever" "I came back from Dublin in 92 and started chipping the plaster away from the building as things were quiet, or whatever, so" "I restored it by hand over X amount of years and probably not finished yet, if the truth is told, but" "it's been good to me in ways we've had good years and bad years, tough years, whatever the pub trade is tough at the moment but look at it, it's a vocation what I find is very important" "I like going in to family run business's" "I find that there's a connection of respect and of hard work ethic, and you need a hard work ethic to survive within the pub trade, or whatever" "Rory, will you get out of the way please, good boy it just brings a little togetherness within and I feel people feed off that if they feel more secure within themselves or if they're in that sort of work place" "boys and girls, now, just move out of the way" "I came back here in the early 90s and I have to say the trade here was very, very, very poor for various reasons, it was just a combination of my parents being old and not interested in the pub" "so it picked up from me and I've gone full circle where it's gone probably back quiet again-ish due to the economy and due to me losing a little bit of sparkle or bite" "and I'm getting re-energised again and hopefully, if I can get my energy back into it that hopefully it'll pick up again." "The pub's name is O'Shaughnessy's pub and it's affectionately known as The Captain's and the captain, he was my father" "and he inherited the pub in 1952 after his brother died and he was an eccentric man, my father, really because he closed his pub at 6 o'clock in the evening he never opened after 6 o'clock" "and they all knew that and they all left quietly at 6 o'clock so I'm keeping the tradition going and" "I feel I'm only caretaking it for him" "I said to him "when you die" and I said" ""Dad", I said, "the name is over the door now" says I" ""and it'll be there when I'm going."" "a lot of the stuff here has been left in by locals and by people who were interested in the pub and had no more use for them that's actually the confessional from the church, that's the original piece" "there, the confessional from the church." "of all the pieces and trinkets that were given into the pub this actually wasn't given however, there's an amazing story behind this piece this is from the penal laws in Ireland and it's an alter from when" "there was religious persecution in Ireland and it was forbidden that they say mass in churches and the priest went to the houses and to private places or in woods, whatever to say mass for the locals and this was what they call a travelling alter" "and it's, everything is original in it it hinges down like that and the crucifix is here and the paten for when you receive the holy communion and there was a little alter cloth an amazing little alter cloth" "all original, these were all inside back from the 1800s it's all embroidered, t'is beautiful and there's the original spoon for the holy oils" "Well, I don't know, they must've been there for years probably my grandparents got them and they were up there the one that's most popular is this one here with the Mitchell's whisky because it has 2 lovely views" "one of Howth and the other one of Ireland's Eye there's one mistake there, we think it is anyway" "Ireland's Eye, as people know it, but it's Irelad's that's written on it so I'd say there's something about that" "Howth head, I think it's Roches store in Dublin one of them had called one time his home, he said, was on that so he would love to buy the mirror but the mirror is there that long it's not for sale" "And as a matter of fact the people that made Ryan's Daughter, Faraway Productions they were the crowd that done it they tried to buy the floor of the pub off my father and they wanted to put it in the pub, in Ryan's pub" "in the famous Kirrary village which is Ryan's Daughter" "and my father says the floor is there before him and it'll be there after him, it wouldn't be moved" "Ah, I suppose there's a lot of stuff we have an old jersey up there that a man up the road was knocked unconscious in 1963 he was 9 days unconscious and they literally couldn't get the jersey off him" "for 9 days, because of his head swelling, whatever and the blood stain is still on the jersey." "We have different bits and pieces, we have a camogie All Ireland winning team, we have a dog here, wearing glasses and smoking a pipe, we've an All Ireland minor winning jersey, we've an old can of Fanta, a box of Calvita cheese," "I have my own grandmother's day-books where she used to book-keep." "They're alright 'til you have to dust them that's when they just become a pain" "and then people bringing in various bits... there's some old trap there, that came from" "I think it was America that came from all the way, and there's tongs over there in the corner they came from Canada, nice tongs just people do bring in bits and pieces just to add to the stuff" "then when you go to paint the place or do it up at all, you take everything down then you don't know where half it goes back so there's boxes of stuff lying about the place as well" "you'd be wondering how it all fitted up in the first place" "Flick on the lights, Brida," "I've a nice collection of old stuff," "Roscommon and Galway hurler we have signed we have an old Bulmer's bottle, old Guinness bottles" "Locke's Whisky, old clocks we have a variety of stuff, I suppose it's a combination of stuff, and I have a lot more stuff to show off because" "I have a good combination of stuff and I'm hoping to develop the pub more" "God willing, or help of God, or whatever" "I'd like to progress it and maybe develop it into being a little bit bigger and a little more progressive, and a little bit more attractive for people to come in to." "That's going to take work but I'm looking forward to the challenge and the help of God." "We always had stuff hanging out of the ceiling there and when people came in, strangers especially tourists, they'd always have their head up in the air looking at the stuff on the ceiling and trying to identify it" "sometimes there might be an odd wellington hanging there, and they'd be looking for the other wellington they always had a bit of a laugh about that stuff up there" "Another bit of history the bar on the front door" "I'll show you this, I'll bring up this close the bar on the front door there's a bend in it" "the bar was burst in, in the year of the black and tans they drove the vehicle through the door and they bent the bar on the door and the bar on the door is still there we'll leave it there" "Yeah, the picture in the background here is a picture of Scythe it was John B's first play it was written in 1958 it was a story about a young girl who was being married off to a far older man" "very much against her wishes and she ran away in the middle of the night and she was drowned and they're lamenting her, there's a song called The Scythe Song" "For they murdered lovely Scythe for she would not be a bride and they laid her dead to bury in the clay unfortunately I can't sing because" "God takes something away from everyone otherwise I'd be perfect" "Oh, Jimmy?" "Jimmy is one of the top characters in the town closet opera singer, a wit," "quiet man spent a lot of time at sea" "retired, comes from an old Athlone family that pose suits him to a tee" "likes a glass of lager that was in the good old days when he could smoke we sort of have an arrangement" "that he imbibes at little or no cost which I don't mind, or my wife, we never mind about which was our, sort of, we started it maybe" "I just informed him recently after 19 to 20 years in the place that if he's making a will, to remember me and he was wondering why" "I just said a small matter of about 12-13 thousand Euros or whatever y'know?" "after my doing my quick maths like, I don't think he got the point anyway, so there's very little hope of me getting it ever not that I want it or anything like that" "one of the nicest little pub ever I was in" "Well, there was great characters coming in here as they say in Kerry, there was gas men coming in here there's one man, he's still here he was in England all his life he reared a big family and worked hard" "he lived to be 88, and he used to drink sitting over there and he said...he used to wear a leather hat that one of the lads brought back from Australia and he said, Finucane, when I die" "hang that hat over where I sit and every pint that's drank, I'll drink it with him so I have the hat hanging it's hanging up there today in his memory, so" "It wouldn't happen, and if somebody was sitting in his seat, I'd move them if they came in, politely of course but I think anybody local would automatically get up automatically when Danno would come in" "and they would know that it's his seat even people that wouldn't drink here regularly but might come in now and again, would know that that's Danno's seat yeah, if someone came in and sat down, y'know, I'd just" "once or twice I'd say if they weren't from here I'd just say, would you mind that's..." "Danno's chair" "Danno's famous in Ballyduff, I'm sorry Danno eh, yeah, no, I think" "I remember there was a guy that used to come in here and he used to love to bring a pint away in a bottle so my father would get the whisky bottle and he'd fill it with Guinness for him, but he'd say to him" ""you'll bring back that bottle, now, tomorrow"" "but the bottles weren't coming back, you see but this day, anyways, he came in and my father put down his foot, he says" ""you're getting no Guinness 'cos you're not bringing back the bottles to me"" ""oh", he says, "I've the bottle outside"" "and he went out and in the yard gate to the crates behind and he took a bottle out of that" ""now, here's your bottle" he said he was getting his own bottle all the times but y'know, there was some great characters" "but sadly, they have all passed away" "The strangers, now, normally get the brunt of me me bad manners, but, eh there was an American lady came in and she went down to the ladies toilet and she came back up and complained that there was no lock on the toilet door" "and she went to argue with me and I said well, my grandfather started in 1911" "I says, he passed away in the 40s my father took over, he's retired now passed on, and I'm here since, I says and no-one ever stole a shit out of it yet so that was the last complaint I heard from that lady" "in fact it was the last word I heard from that lady" "I never seen her since" "I don't know if she took offence or not, but she went on about her business not that I'd have seen her much as I don't think she would be commuting from New York" "It was a story about a man that bought a bag of coal in our yard where we used to sell the coal and a bag of flour, the same day and t'is a very funny story, he was going home" "with his horse and car, and his family in the car and it poured rain and by the time he got home the flour and the coal mixed" "and the people were so poor they could not afford to throw that flour out it was ruined, the flour, it was black the flour so they thought of a plan they made a cake with the black flour" "and instead of eating it themselves they tried it out on the old grandfather and the gave him an oven cake and when it didn't kill him they ate it themselves" "My dad got all his material for such plays and movies as The Field here on the bar around the time he died, 10 years ago this year an old boy just was wandering around the day he died, outside the front door" "and this journalist stopped him and said do you mind me asking what it is that made John B so special?" "so the old boy thought for a second and he said well, he says, "John B was the smartest man of them all he took down what we said and then he charged us to read it"" "so he got all his material here in the pub his storytelling, a lot of the characters from the plays just walked in the door off the street and found themselves on the stage a few years later maybe a little bit disguised and a bit changed" "by his fertile imagination but nevertheless, it all came from sitting up at the counter, or behind the bar as I am now, talking away" "Yeah, well, Brendan Behan, like, while his father and mother drank here they were lovely people but Brendan in drink was a right bowsey he'd clear a pub, y'know?" "but eh" "I remember I'd be coming in from school my father throwing him out many times and he'd be roaring at my father" ""ye Tipperary bollocks!"" "Yeah, there's a couple of different stories it's supposed to be in 'Ulysses' and 'Dubliners' and a couple of other short stories that were based in here, mainly in the small room behind us" "there's a lot of history, like the thing about crossing Dublin without passing a pub which, a lot of people have tried it but not have succeeded, y'know yeah, we have a good strong association" "with James Joyce." "Actually, my heating wasn't too warm last night my heating wasn't warm last night" "Eileen is getting her photograph taken look somebody is taking your photograph?" "here, look, the cameras are here" "I was ignored completely this time" "I'm in the Irish Times only we have the history of "are ye going for a jar?"" "now that expression is used nearly throughout the world certainly in Ireland and that originated from here because in the first world war we're right beside the cemetary and graveyard, a lot of the employees, salt of the earth people," "frequented here and in WWI there was a shortage of glass but jam was sold in jam-jars so the men from next door, the good grave-diggers, they were the ones that got the pints in a jar so it became the expression from those gentlemen" "are we going for a jar?" "I'll be the 6th generation, we're here since 1833 as a licensed premises well, we're always branded that we have ghosts and things one time here, there was the group with their equipment for the senses, and they had 2 mediums" "and one of them said, and the other fella saw the same the man standing beside me behind the counter" "I went to one and said, you go down there and sketch what you saw and I said to the other, well you go down there and sketch what you saw and they gave me them, identical and I went upstairs and I brought down" "and who was it?" "my step-dad, my dad identical and he was, I had asked my brother now, this is a true story believe it or not, folklore, call it what you like but it's a fact" "he was the man that I bought the place from he was the man that took me out of the orphanage he was the man that took on my mother and 5 children he was God's gift to this house" "and he was my..." "I hardly remember my own dad because I was only 8 years and 10 months when he died but that man was ideal, ideal." "Always lit a turf fire and since then I carried on the old tradition every day I would light a turf fire which was a very, very nice attraction and a direct link with the past" "I think here it's all about the fire allbeit's not blazing now at the moment but, emmm you'd love to be, like, back to the future you'd love to go back, sort of at specific moments" "in time, especially, like, 1798 or 1916 all of the key periods in Irish history and see what it was like, what they talked about around the fire" "The O'Rahillys built this in 1808 and it was in their family until 1898" "and the O'Rahilly was the only leader if the 1916 that was shot in action the rest of the officers and leaders of 1916 were executed and he was shot leading a charge in Moore St." "that's him in full battle dress, uniform he bled to death in 2 days, he had a horrible death" "one of the ambulance men from Trinity college one of the auxiliary they wanted to pick him up and take him to hospital but one of the British officers said "let the bastard bleed to death he must be somebody important"" "when he seen him with the officer's uniform so that's what happened, he died to get nearer here lies the O'Rahilly, RIP" "When Pat's parents started to renovate it in the rubble in the walls, they found this book which turned out to be a visitors book and the first date is 8th June, 1894 by a gentleman, J. Killroy from Dublin" "who was travelling to Connemara and put an entry in here" ""stayed night 21st, very comfortable"" "the most interesting one is Padraig Pearse which signed this book, we think, 29th of August now he doesn't actually give the year, but the previous entry is 1905 so we think it has to be around that time, 1905 or 1906" "actually,his inscription is in a language that" "I can't tell you what it is, but we did have it translated a number of years ago we think it's probably Latin, or Greek." "Sir Winston Churchill, no need to introduce him any further spent his childhood years in that house" "and during his recreation period he would visit The Hole In The Wall and play marbles on a clay floor at that time cement was not introduced incidentally, it's accepted as being the longest pub in Europe." "Well, my dad, he trained as a doctor in UCC and he qualified just before the war, and he couldn't get a job in Ireland, so my dad went over to England to see if he could get a job" "but war was just coming, so he joined up the air force and he had quite a career there, he was in Dunkirk with the battle on the beaches and everything and after that he got sent off to the far east" "and when he was in the far east, in Sumatra the Japanese invaded and he was captured and became a prisoner of war so he was 3.5 years in captivity and he ended up on the Japanese mainland, in Nagasaki" "and he was actually in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped but luckily he survived, came back and lived to tell the tale and we actually have a samurai sword that he brought back with him an officer gave it to him for the" "respect they'd built up between each other so it's amazing to have my dad was 14 stone when he went away and 7 when he came home but my aunt says she remembers him coming up the gangplank in Dun Laoghaire" "his kitbag over him arm and this in the other hand" "People play music here every Thursday for the last 46 years it's basically they walk in at 9 o'clock on a Thursday night, there is a stream of musicianers in through the door and in to here, and they play music" "for 4 hours, and then they're gone again it's a really unique thing that we have in here the room is tiny but we regularly have 20-21 musicianers playing all sorts of instruments in here every single Thursday" "so it's the longest running music session in Ireland it's 46 years and it's only ever stopped twice for 2 funerals of 2 people that played here so that's pretty unique so what we do then is, when we have" "somebody that's died their picture goes on the wall where they sat when they played the music all those years and their memory goes on then, on the walls so we like to do that, remember everybody" "As far as we know, we have a written history and the Smyths been here since 1815 that was the year of the battle of Waterloo and it started off in Newtown" "ah, it would seat 350, easily but they'd be fairly tight in but anyone came after 9:30, they'd have to stand" "we had 6 girls behind the counter one time" "I didn't work behind the counter at all very seldom, we had a small lounge here first and I used to play the piano and then when someone would rap and want a drink" "I'd have to get up and go get him the drink and I'd come back to play again, and someone'd rap again and I'd have to go up again and a very, very, wise and a very old man" "came over to me one night and he said" "you'll have to change your position here, and your attitude you'll have to get somebody to serve the drink and you stay playing the piano" "do you know that?" "Home Sweet Home the name of it" "I don't know what else I could play now" "We've had some great times here over the years and some great characters came through and great musicians" "and Noel Redding living in town was, or just outside of town, was a great boost to us that was huge, really, a lot of people would say, like" "Clonakilty was always a dreary place, but they reckon when Noel came he brought the 60s with him, like, y'know kinda kicked it off, just brought that colour to the area and now you can see as you drive through" "it's so vibrant and colourful" "and y'know, it certainly was one of the catalysts for it it's like anything, like we were saying before tradition is important now more than ever and the musical tradition here is very important it's important to the town, there's a huge" "musical legacy here all the young people know they're coming up and some of the music and the musicianship and the bands it's just phenomenal" "and west Cork, it's become the Nashville of Ireland almost to an extent, like, y'know, I mean" "Christy Moore, like, the most famous quote he said there's the Sydney Opera House, there's Carnegie hall, there's the Royal Albert Hall and then there's De Barra's that's as good a testimony as you'll get off anyone" "This funny-looking man here is Sean Aherne he was the main singer in the National Folk Theatre of Ireland he just wandered in, for a drink so we've managed to persuade him to sing a song what'll you sing for us, Sean?" "I'll sing 'She Moved Through The Fair'" "'She Moved Through The Fair' written by Thomas Moore well, we're claiming him anyway, just up the road off you go" "Our grandparents opened the pub on St. Patrick's day 1900 and we're the third generation" "there was my grandparents, my mother my father, came in here and then there was 4 of us, 3 girls and a boy" "there's two of us always stayed and we've ran the pub from we were at school we all had our jobs when we came home from school and then when mammy died in 62, and daddy died in 82" "and we, the 2 of us took over completely in 82 and ran it, day in day out, 7 days a week we might have a, what would you say?" "an odd, y'know, word, a battle or something like that but no fights we don't do a battle not a battle, but I mean... a difference of opinion" "Yeah, we're together, I suppose, are we 25 years together?" "at least, yeah yeah, I suppose so, we are, yeah well, I haven't killed him yet anyway, so obviously it's very advantageous for the business as regards costs, and that, but" "it can be a little bit hard at times yeah, it's hard, and we try not to, really we try not to talk about it up at the house, but particularly in front of the kids" "because we're kinda all day at it and we do work, Pat works, it's hard" "Pat works, realistically, 7 days a week y'know, we try and have a Sunday off, kind of every so often that we can do something with the family, y'know sometimes I feel like I could be a single mother" "They say there's 3 generations in every family business apparently, so come here while you can" "I suppose, to anyone that's watching it we might not be here for much longer" "I've been working here all my life, since I was a young fella" "I mean, on and off, and then I went to school" "I went to college, and I lived abroad for a few years" "I came back and I just kinda fell back into it so" "I had to go away to realise how much I missed it how much I actually enjoyed it, I suppose 'cos I never really liked it, like anything the last thing you want to be doing is working with your family when you're a young fella" "but over the years, and a bit more maturity I suppose" "I've grown to accept it and enjoy it much more and get on better with the boss" "I suppose, that's the problem, at the end of the day, he's the boss if the boss is being an asshole, you can say, Jesus he's an ass.." "but when your boss is your father it's very conflicting thought process because, of course, I love my father he's not an asshole" "I'm glad you said that" "I only said that because...ah no no" "That's my dad there he was here all his life" "I don't think he was ever out of the country in his life" "he was never out of the country, never went on a holiday out of the country in his life" "I have been out of the country 5 times" "I've been in Dublin 8 times my dad was really the same as myself, we never changed they ask me is he my brother" "My father, he died there about 5 year ago he died, but sure my father knew nothing else he was taken out of school at 13 years of age to work behind the counter me grandfather wasn't well" "so that's all he knew was the bar work from his school days" "and he never hardly ever missed a day behind the counter holidays, now, wouldn't be a thing with him he might go away for a couple of days in the latter years when we grew up a bit" "but now, he wouldn't be one, now, for going abroad on holidays he ventured over to England twice, I think, in his life that was about it as far as he went" "it's not like people nowadays who don't get a couple of foreign holidays they're not they're not happy" "We had a painting done of the old bar with my father standing behind the bar" "and, lord have mercy on him, he gone he's gone 5 or 6 years now, 7 years I think" "I tell you, you didn't hang around when he was around, like y'know, you got on with what you had to do but, y'know, he believed in being straight honest with people and that's very important" "and if he could be of help to them he definitely would be of help to them and he tried to pass that on to me and I hope I took some of it from him" "y'know, that you'll be friendly when people come in and you'll look after them and that they'll go away with a good feeling about the place" "Yeah, you learn things, I would've learnt a lot from my mam and my dad, but... family is important and I think people like to come in and have a chat, maybe with the owner" "just talk about general things, y'know, maybe politics maybe religion, football, football would be a big conversation here" "A pub, seriously, of a Monday morning especially in a pub, anywhere in Dublin, even here you come in, it's like a confession box" "everyone's going "ah, I had to get out of the house"" ""she was doin' me head in"" "all these stories you hear, don't you Liam?" "You could have a person 82 years in there you could have a person 52 years in there and you could have a person 22 years in there and, like, they can all meet they get used to talking to each other" "and interacting with each other and they appreciate each other, and they respect each other and respect is what it's all about in a public place" "The Irish pub is a place where you can talk without any interruption except by everyone" "I know that's a contradiction but if you're at home you're interrupted by one person your wife, your husband or your son or your daughter or your partner or whatever being interrupted by one person you have to shut up" "but when you're interrupted by 50 people and everyone talks together everyone gets to say their piece so it's like a safety valve for the population of Ireland we probably have less psychologists and psychiatrists than any other country in the world" "but there's probably no country in the world who needs them more yet we divulge all our troubles and our worries and our bothers here in the pub have a couple of beers, relax, and talk them through" "that's what people do and I think that's why we're generally a happy nation in spite of all our little economic downturns and the occasional recession." "Pubs, people come in and they've an awful lot of regrets and stuff" "I don't think you should regret anything y'know, everybody comes in and "if I was your age" "I would do this" and "I could've done that"" "y'know, here we live for now, and we don't worry about what's coming in the future and we don't worry if we're going to be in a recession for the next 10 years we just play a bit of music, have a few pints" "and move on, y'know so if my one piece of advice would be to just live it and not worry about what's not happened yet" "Enjoy life, I suppose don't let your life be spoiled by the big picture of things you can't have enjoy what you have and you can't do any more if you can make more out of it, fair enough" "but enjoy it while you have it" "Live it as best you can and as long as you can when you go out in the morning if you can do somebody a good turn, do it but don't do them a bad one you'll get through it, eventually" "I myself, the advice I would give to anybody is peculiar" "I was very active in sport, all my life still am, training a football team here" "I had heart problems, and whatever and thank God I got over them and I'd say the thing that most of us want to do nearly all of our life, is smile and respect each other and always be happy" "no matter what your situation is" "My advice in life if you love your work and I love public house atmosphere" "and when I was working in this pub" "I never classified it as work it was a passion I had for it and I loved every second of the 42 years that my wife and I worked hand in hand behind this pub behind this counter" "Oh advice, the advice one of the things about life that I always think is there's one seriously important thing about life and that's to have a contented mind and be well" "have good health" "I'm 84 would you think I was 84?" "Advice to give them?" "oh you wouldn't have to give anyone advice nowadays" "oh I don't know" "In life, don't rush it don't rush it take your time it was a famous advice an old man from the Blaskets told me" ""Tog go bog e"" "which means 'take it easy' and that was his in life, and I said that's what I'll have don't rush life" "There was one people that had a great idea they bought the poster with all the pubs on it and they were coming home for 3 weeks and their holiday was they were going to have a drink in every one of the pubs" "I think there was about 40 pubs on it round the whole country, just hired a bus turned left at Dublin airport went round the whole country it's a holiday I'd love to go on myself"