Closing time for Bog Hotel owner Patsy..
DRINKING DEN 82-yr-old who ran pub in his shed passes away
THE colourful owner of Ireland’s famous “Bog Hotel” which made headlines around the world has died aged 82.
Patsy Brogan passed away peacefully last Saturday at Donegal Community Hospital following a battle with cancer.
Mr Brogan shot to fame in 2008 when it emerged he was running an illicit pub, nicknamed the Bog Hotel, from a shed close to his home in the mountains overlooking Frosses.
The unlicensed watering hole had been a well kept secret until gardai launched an investigation into the death of a man who had visited it after a night out in Mountcharles.
When gardai spoke to Mr Brogan, they discovered he was running the bar with the help of young Polish woman Daria Weiske who was 28 at the time.
She denied she was Mr Brogan’s girlfriend and said she helped the pensioner as a part-time cleaner, cook and “barmaid”.
Images of the pair featured in newspapers all over the world along with photos of the Bog Hotel.
They showed a Bavaria beer sign outside, a hi-fi system and a stack of CDS inside.
The fully-equipped premises also had beer pumps, an unlabelled beer pump and upside-down spirit bottles as well as a stage and dance floor.
Despite the evidence and the constant attention of detectives, Mr Brogan always rejected claims he was running a pub.
He said he had converted the out house for his own use and for the entertainment of his friends.
After being prosecuted in 2011 for selling alcohol without a licence, Mr Brogan said the Bog Hotel remained open for anyone who wanted to pay it a visit.
He added: “If people want to leave money, that’s fine – if they don’t, that’s fine as well.
“My house is a ceili house, not a shebeen. It never has been and never will be.”
Mr Brogan was back in the news two years ago when he was hit with a three-year motoring ban after being convicted of drink- driving.
The pensioner’s funeral Mass was said by Fr Morty O’shea in the Church of the Blessed Virgin on Monday.
Fr O’shea said he had been unaware of the “larger narrative” of Mr Brogan’s colourful life until it was pointed out to him in recent days.
He joked: “Some people have asked whether we are going to see book or a movie at some stage.”
Mr Brogan was laid to rest in Cranney Road Cemetery, Frosses.
Some have asked if we are going to see a book or a movie about him
FR MORTY O’SHEA
AT FUNERAL MASS