A cosy Tralee bolthole away from life’s daily pressures
BETTY’S Bar on Tralee’s Strand Street has been providing a cosy bolthole from life’s daily pressures for decades and continues to be one of the county capital’s most popular little hideaways.
Owned and run by Seán Fuller and his wife Mary for the last ten years, the bar has a long, colourful and storied history.
The pub takes its name from it’s first proprietors Betty and Tom Sugrue. Betty and Tom Sugrue opened the bar in the early 1950s and following the death of her husband went on to run the pub for over 30 years.
The bar was subsequently bought by Pat Franklin who ran the bar for over a decade until it was bought and refurbished by the present owners.
Sitting by the cosy fire that has become one of the pub’s trademarks, owner Seán Fuller told The Kerryman how he came to find himself running the bar.
A native of Ballyseedy, Seán Fuller spent most of his working life as a civil servant working with customs at Dublin Airport. As his retirement approached Seán and his wife Mary decided to return to Tralee.
Fatefully, it was around then that Betty’s Bar came on the market and despite having no experience in running a pub they decided to “have a go” and bought the pub.
“I was a few years from retiring and this place came up for sale and we decided we’d have a go at it. More or less thinking of it as a fixer upper. We said we’d have a shot at it,” he said.
“We had no experience whatsoever in the bar business but we used to come here for a drink and we liked the place. We came in and thought ‘dear jesus what have we let ourselves in for’,” said Seán.
“I was only pawdawling and learning how to pull a pint. That shows how much I knew about the inside of a bar. But we learned fast,” said Seán.
“We went on from there and there are lovely regulars who come in here.”
“I like meeting people and I’ll sit down and talk to anyone one to one. I’d be here every night. Except for times when we’re away, we’d feature here every night for a few hours. At the weekends my wife would be around as well. She’ll go around to every table and have a few words with everyone, she’s great at that,” said Seán.
Continuity was important to Seán Fuller and two of the staff who had worked in bar before he bought it remain behind the taps to this day, serving many of the same customers who have frequented the bar for decades.
Seán opened the pub’s doors to the public over Easter 2001 and over a few weeks and months refurbished the bar from the ground up, though they managed to get all the work done without closing the bar for a single day.
Since then the pub has gone from strength to strength and ten years on a steady stream of regulars, both old and new, visit the bar on a daily basis. Betty’s, well known as a great spot to enjoy a quiet pint near a warm fire, is equally famous for its weekly traditional music sessions, which have been held every Friday since the pub opened.
Over the years Betty’s has also developed very close links with the fans, members and players of the nearby Kerins O’rahilly’s GAA Club, which is based just up the street on Strand Road.
The bar is a regular haunt for the Kerins O’rahilly’s faithful and when the club’s clubhouse underwent a renovation a few years ago Betty’s became the club’s unofficial temporary home.
“We got a great boost when the club was redeveloping and I suppose we essentially became the clubhouse for a while,” said Seán.
“This had been a traditional place for the club fans over the years, it was almost part of the club. The old place and the place next door were their pubs,” he said. “There are still very close ties between here and the club. The lads will often come in for pint or two after a game.”
While many pubs have been feeling the pinch in recent years Betty’s has fared well, thanks in no small part to a loyal contingent of regulars.
“We’ve been very lucky. We really only noticed any fall off in the last year. We have a lot of regular faces who come in, but the good thing is we also have a lot of young people coming in,” said Seán.