It’s Happy Hour again
Singer Heaton pays for hundreds of drinks for 60th
BY SEAN MURPHY and SHANE JARVIS POP star Paul Heaton toasted his 60th birthday by paying for hundreds of free pints across pubs in Ireland.
The singer for bands The Housemartins and The Beautiful South set up bar tabs in 60 pubs, including Kehoe’s in Dublin and Bonner’s Corner Bar in Co Donegal.
Heaton, whose birthday was yesterday, said he chose to “celebrate this coming of age” by “handpicking 60 pub across the UK and Ireland and put a given amount of money behind the bar of each one”.
He added that people “can enjoy a birthday drink on me until the money runs out or the bar runs dry”.
Well-known Dublin boozer Kehoe’s, off Grafton Street, handed out free pints from 6pm as punters raised a glass to Heaton.
A barman in Kehoe’s told the Irish Mirror: “We’ve been singing Caravan of Love to celebrate. It’s a bit of craic.
“We decided to give out one pint per customer, but we can’t say how many free pints there are. That information is not to be disclosed.
“But I will say that Paul Heaton has been very generous. Why did he choose Kehoe’s? We’ve been told that we’re one of his favourite pubs in Dublin.”
PARTY
Music by the Beautiful South was blaring yesterday at Bonner’s Corner Bar when pub boss Pat Bonner told the Irish Mirror: “We’re having a wee party for him. He contacted us and asked us. We were told that he had been here one night and, I suppose, he must’ve had a good night.”
Of the 60 pubs that Heaton selected, nine of them are in Ireland while the rest were in Britain.
The Irish pubs include Kehoe’s in Dublin; Eddie Murphy’s in Thomastown, Kilkenny; Peadar O’donnell’s in Derry; The Punter’s Rest in Tipperary; The Sky on the Ground in Whitewell, Wexford; Tigh Coili in Galway; and Bonner’s Corner Bar in Ballybofey.
Heaton told his 110,000 Twitter followers: “The hope is to bring people together on the day, whilst recognising that many folk who bought my records or showed me support over the years, could do with a wee party, as we come out of Covid and hit potential financial struggles.”
We’ve been singing Caravan of Love to celebrate. It’s a bit of craic