The Village Pubs of Cork: ‘When I go, this pub is gone'

After many a sharp turn and shifting of gears driving the windy country lanes of coastal East Cork, the village of Balinrostig suddenly reveals itself.

A few houses, a church, and then the pub - Poc Ar Buile - the village’s only remaining local.

Mind you, that’s been the situation since 1979 when Cashmans, which was then Ballinrostig’s second pub, served its last pint.

Back then, when a village pub closed, it wasn’t due to high VAT rates, breathalyser laws, staff costs, or attitudinal changes towards alcohol, but more often down to the owner’s personal circumstances.

Nonetheless, Poc Ar Buile, which in English means the mad puck goat, stands proudly among Ballinrostig’s homes and church as the last and only pub in the village. And, when I drop in, it’s heaving.

On a warm Wednesday on a late afternoon in May, I found Mike Murphy, the owner of Poc Ar Buile, pulling pints and getting the tables ready for a weekly poker night.

Inside, the light shone low and dusky, while outside the sun beamed brightly.

The doors were open since 12.30pm, and Mike was expecting me. But it took a little while for us to sit down together.

Busy and polite, he served his various customers; city folk after spending the day at a nearby beach, a father and son living locally, a farmer. In the beer garden, a family celebrated a child’s confirmation.

I walked around the pub, taking stock. The walls are green and lined with historical artefacts. Colourful old doors with metal latches lead out back to a beer garden via a smoking area. Loud chart music pumped from the beer garden - the confirmation party was in full flight. Parents were chatting, and their kids, dancing. Tables were filled with food and a DJ kept the party at pace.

After about 40 minutes, Mike and I settled down outside for a yarn. He brought with him a drink he made for me, a sparkling water drink with some razza, free of charge, of course!

For 46 years, this has been the only pub left here in the village, but it also draws people from all over. What’s different about it, I ask?

“What’s different about it?” Mike replied, mirroring my question. “There’s a lot of making, in making it different. But the community is the backbone.

“I’m lucky here because I’ve got just absolutely fantastic customers. I don’t want for nothing. No matter what I’d ask for and what I need, I get. And that’s all part of the community. And I give that back to them then.

“And that’s the way it works for me. It’s very simple.”

“And then, in turn, I’ve gone through the transition here after 20 years now. Of people that were coming down with their daughters and their sons. They’re now other ones that are driving them to the pub. Twenty years later. And that’s all still part and parcel of it.”

A village pub is in tune with its locals.

Mike explains: “We’ve got three lovely lads just after leaving the parish this week now and heading to Oz. Bit of work and experiences as well, I suppose. Something everybody should probably try once in their life. And they’ll be sadly missed.

“But I know they’ll come back on Christmas. And on Christmas Eve here, the mums, the dads, the brothers, will be in here, every single one of them. Every time they come back into this parish.

“And that’s what the parish is known for. Great spirit. And, community,” explained Mike.

Inside the front door, in the corner next to the window, sit locals Vincent Garde and his son Ben, who are having an evening drink together to celebrate Ben’s end of year exams at UCC. They have had lifelong relationships with Ballinrostig’s only pub.

“Well, I’m 54 now, and I’ve been coming to this pub since I was probably about four, with grandparents, parents, obviously, aunts and uncles,” says Vincent.

“This would be our local pub, gathering place for many family events.

“My sister, for example, got married in the church across the road here. We attend our Christmas mass here every year and it’s a great occasion.

“Christenings are held in the pub here. My father’s 60th birthday was here back in the day,” adds Vincent.

“Yeah, it’s a real gathering place. The pub has changed hands a number of times, but the community has remained very supportive, regardless of the owner or the licensee.

“Mike Murphy has been here for the last, I think, 17 years, and he continues in the tradition of supporting the local community, hosting parties such as small gatherings, like a confirmation party here this afternoon.”

Back in the front yard of Poc Ar Buile, a steady stream of regulars flowed in while I chatted with Mike.

He told me that in his time here, he has had to weather the brunt of Ireland’s economic ebbs and flows.

“There’s been massive ups and downs, ” reflected Mike.

“I mean, I suppose I was in the boom trade at the time in 2006. It was a different time, completely. It was heaving here. Boats outside the door on Sunday afternoon and the whole lot coming up after being in Aghada or whatever. Range Rovers everywhere. And then it kind of crashed in 2009.”

While Mike admittedly enjoys a boom time every now and then, he would prefer a steadier, more normalised trade.

“My trade did go down. But it went back and we normalised it,” he said.

Unlike bars dealing with large staff numbers or trading in food, Mike and his wife Monica adopt an approach to their business, which offers them a sustained lifestyle.

“The reason I don’t have a financial problem here is because I have a wife who works with me and myself. We’re the only two that are here,” said Mike.

“And I have no wage bill. Yeah, yeah. We take no wage off it because it feeds us. My ESB is paid for. And that’s basically the way I’m surviving.

Still, survival isn’t easy. Mike believes that the government could support the rural pub trade by helping publicans or communities to buy subsidised minibuses, which could be used to ferry the customers to and from their local pubs.

“You’d want to be doing it for love,” Mike admits of his profession. “Costs are up. Rules are tighter.

“People drink less, which is good in some ways, but it means fewer regulars.

“And with drink-driving laws, people have to think twice before coming out. You can’t blame them, but you feel it.”

Mike has a gloomy take on the future of Poc Ar Buile.

“When I leave this place, if I decide to leave in two or four or five years’ time, this place is gone,” he said.

“Because, as I said to the lads, as I always say to them, they’re never going to find a fool like me who works seven days a week, maybe three years before you get a holiday.

“You can’t whinge and moan about it because a lot of people depend on me here, for them to come, come and have a chin-wag.”

All that said, the steady flow of locals for an evening drink on a Wednesday afternoon suggests that, for some time yet, the lights will remain lit at Poc Ar Buile, the last pub of Ballinrostig.