The Flying Horse still flying it in Dromore West and still very much part of the lifeblood of the community

EVERY village could do with a Flying Horse, it’d remind you of the theme song of the American TV series about the pub Cheers “where everybody knows your name”.

But there the similarities end, because The Flying Horse is every inch the traditional Irish pub: cosy, homely, a fire going, timber floors, a horseshoe-shaped bar – and the Guinness is great.

And then you’ve Seanie Connolly (pictured right) behind the bar pulling the pints. He took it over only last October and as Seanie says “It’s going mighty for me”.

It came up for lease, Seanie had been working in pubs all his life, and luckily for Dromore West it felt like an opportunity he didn’t want to let go by.

Seanie has two other major strings to his bow and is a familiar face in the area.

He works full-time in Dromore West Farming Supplies “and I do a bit of farming as well”, says the understated Seanie.

He opens the pub at 7.30pm in the evenings, at 6pm on a Saturday and 5pm on a Sunday with more than a helping hand from his young adult children Aoife, Fionn and Sean Óg. Seanie takes the Monday and Friday nights off and can rely on Kenny Sheridan to take over the reins for him on those nights.

Before Sean took over the lease The Flying Horse it had been in the Beglane family for generations, and it was Gerry Beglane who handed over the reins to Seanie last October.

There’s a lovely bit of history to the pub’s name, from a beautiful white stallion that belonged to Gerry Beglane’s father Joe.

The horse was ‘a flier’, known for its exceptional jumping ability. On the wall of the pub there’s a beautiful photo of the eponymous horse being jumped over a big stone wall. What a lovely origin story for the pub’s name.

Some pubs are synonymous with the word ‘community’, and The Flying Horse is absolutely one of them.

It’s not just that it’s enjoyed by all age groups from all walks of life, a lot of young people enjoying the pool table and darts, but Seanie opens the pub during the day for all the functions a community needs a venue for: birthdays, christenings, wakes, engagements.

“We had two 21sts last Saturday night and a Month’s Mind after Sunday Mass” he says, and people can bring their own food or caterers in.

There’s even a group of 25 women who come in on a Thursday night and bring their own scones and cheese and crackers and make tea for themselves in the kitchen. “They do things like craft work, knitting, painting, make up demonstrations and things like that – they’re called the ‘Flying Crafters’,” says Seanie.