Fresh start for Dingle’s oldest pub

ALMOST exactly 150 years after it first opened and almost two years after it closed, Dingle’s oldest pub bar is to reopen this Saturday with a new generation of the McCarthy family behind the counter.

As well being the oldest pub in Dingle, McCarthy’s also became the most missed pub in town after it closed in difficult circumstances on the eve of the Dingle Races in 2015. Refugees from the much loved bar were forced to scatter throughout the town in search of alternative watering holes and, truth be told, many have found it hard to settle. We even know of one couple who despaired and gave up going to the pub altogether because they felt the same special ambiance was to be found nowhere else.

Shortly after it closed down, McCarthy’s was put up for sale and Daniel and Cian McCarthy – nephews of the former proprietor Tom McCarthy - immediately set their hearts on buying it. “The pub has been in the family since 1867 and we absolutely had to keep it,” Daniel said on Monday as he put down a paintbrush to talk to The Kerryman.

Completing the sale was a protracted process and the purchase was only finalised last week but, with Tom’s blessing, the brothers have been working on refurbishing the bar since last December, in anticipation of the sale going through successfully.

The changes are subtle rather than dramatic. They won’t be serving food, so the small kitchen has been turned into a snug. The popular music venue at the back of the bar has been insulated and sound-proofed and now has a small bar, which will make it more suitable for hosting small events as well as the regular gigs which made it a magnet for music lovers. There’s a fresh coat of paint… and then a whole heap of unseen work has gone into meeting a dizzying array of ever more stringent fire and safety regulations. “It has to be the safest pub in Dingle,” said Daniel.

On Monday Cian, Daniel, John O’Connor who will manage the bar, and several others including John’s son Joshua were busy working on the final preparations for Saturday’s reopening. Locals dropped in to view the work and wish them well, and they have lots of offers of help if they need a hand in the coming days.

“Everybody is behind us, there’s a great town spirit,” said Daniel. “We’re a new generation coming into the bar with fresh ideas and now it’s our job to make it work.”

Daniel has been working in the hospitality industry since he qualified in hotel management in 2011 and Cian works as an engineer with Borg Warner in Tralee. They’ll be keeping the day jobs and entrusting the running of the pub to Dingle-based Killarney native John O’Connor who has a lot of experience in the trade behind him.

Photos by Declan Malone It was all hands on deck in McCarthy’s this week in preparation for next weekend’s reopening of the bar which has been closed for the past two years. Among those on the job were, from left: bar manager John O’Connor and his son, Joshua, and bar owners...