Limerick fans helped GAA pub to takings high

JOYOUS Limerick fans helped a famous Dublin GAA pub record its highest-ever weekend takings, its owner has said.

Louis Fitzgerald, who runs the Big Tree in Dorset Street claimed celebrating Treaty supporters helped bring trade to over ‘the €200,000 mark’ last weekend.

The hostelry, which is just a stone’s throw away from Croke Park, is to close down later this year and be replaced with a hotel. But the businessman – who has owned the pub since 1993 – said Limerick fans toasting the county’s first AllIreland hurling success since 1973 helped him go out on a high.

‘Last Sunday was the biggest number of people we ever had in the Big Tree in all the years I have been there,’ he said.

Asked about the business he did on the day, he added: ‘It was not under €200,000.’

He confirmed last Sunday’s Croke Park decider against Galway is the final time it will be open on a senior hurling final, with Dublin versus Tyrone next week being the last ever football final.

Mr Fitzgerald, who is from Tipperary but went to school in nearby Doon, Co. Limerick, says he will make a donation to the hurlers’ holiday fund.

‘I thought it was a fitting way to go out because of my connection to Limerick,’ he said.

The bar was bought last May in a multimillion-euro deal that will see it transformed into a 163-bedroom hotel. The majority of the bar, which was built in 1453, will be transformed. A short walk from Croke Park, the spot has been a firm favourite among GAA fans, as well as students at Dublin City University and St Patrick’s.

Back in Limerick, meanwhile, pub owners were also toasting massively increased trade following the county’s success.

Pub and restaurant owners across Limerick took advantage of a late licence being awarded allowing them to remain open until 2am on Monday as a result of the Treatymen’s first appearance in an All-Ireland hurling final since 2007.

Jerry O’Dea said trade at his family pub in Mulgrave Street rose by 150%.

‘We didn’t anticipate such a huge crowd. It’s been fantastic. It puts Limerick on the map as a sporting, cultural place to go in the Mid West, if not the whole region,’ he said.

‘It has put Limerick on the map’