The Village Pubs Of Cork: 'I’m not worried about bar’s future,' says West Cork publican

High in the West Cork landscape, it’s usually clear to see where The Four Winds gets its name.

Ahiohil’s only pub sits at the village’s four road crossroads and I happen to visit on a calm summer’s day.

“If you were here any day other than today, you’d know exactly why it’s called that,” laughs Mary O’Neill, who’s kept its doors open since 2011.

“We’re very high up. That pitch west of us is one of the coldest pitches in the country,” Mary says, nodding towards St Oliver Plunkett’s GAA grounds. “You could dry your clothes no bother here.”

Inside, the bar of The Four Winds is long. It has a large annex with a pool room at one end and a snug with a fireplace at the other.

The decor gives the place the overall feeling of being in a living room. It’s quirky, and it works.

Mary runs The Four Winds with her partner Andy. She’s the licensee and rents the pub, and she’s very much the publican in spirit.

“It wasn’t broken, so I didn’t change much,” she says of taking over in 2011. “Andy always said it poured the best pint of Guinness, and I always loved the feel of the pub.

“Noreen Slattery, who was here before me, kept it going for 36 years on her own, an incredible achievement.”

And Mary would know; having worked in bars on and off since the age of 16, she eventually worked for Wetherspoons in the UK.

She always wanted to run her own place. Mary, who is a local, moved back from Edinburgh in 2011, at a time Ireland was still dealing with recession.

“We’d lived across from Easter Road football stadium. We bought our apartment in 2005 when it was an up and coming area, but after the 2009 crash, the vibe changed completely. And when you have children, you realise the city isn’t the ideal place to raise them.”

Mary says of her move to Ireland: “We wanted to be near family, and I wanted my own pub.”

Andy, who’s from the UK, wanted to be sure that he could settle here. “There were a couple of times he got homesick,” she says, “and covid hit him hard because we couldn’t just travel back and forth. But having our own kids here gave us new roots. He loves it now.”

From the time the couple took over, the community rolled in and supported them. “There was a fear the pub might close, and they didn’t want that to happen. They really embraced us,” Mary says.

When talking about the community in Ahiohill, her body shifts; her eyes light up, and she seems more engaged. “If we get an idea here, we run with it. There’s a great old heart in this community.”

In taking a second glance at Ahiohill, that community spirit is plain to see.

Where we chat, directly across from the pub, is a small community space with seating and a commemorative wall of stone slabs, each one with plaques dedicated to community accolades such as achievements by St Oliver Plunkett’s GAA, and to the memory of Dick Barrett, an Irish Republican from West Cork who was executed and buried in Mountjoy, and whose remains were returned to his family for reinterment in Ahohill cemetery in October, 2024.

Birthed out of The Four Winds has been many a lasting community project. The pub has been a conduit for ideas to be aired at community meetings.

Each year, Ahiohill hosts a music festival and a harvest festival. “We just had the biggest one yet,” Mary says proudly.

New ideas take shape here too. “I’ve seen brilliant ideas generated around the bar; music festivals, GAA events, you name it. The pub gives people a space to be a bit braver than they might normally be.”

The Ahiohill Music Festival takes place over the first weekend of October. “I remember when it was just an idea,” says Mary. Now it’s huge. We’ve even had Bressie here one of the early years. It all started with people talking in the bar.”

But Mary remains tight-lipped for now as to who is headlining the 2025 event. “It’s closely guarded at the moment.”

Unlike many rural pubs, The Four Winds holds a steady trade all year round.

“A lot of places are quiet in January, but not us,” Mary says. “January’s one of my busier months because St Oliver Plunkett’s GAA club started here in 1974, and it’s the time for regrouping, meetings, dinner dances, and planning the season ahead.”

The customer mix is broad; as varied as the weather from which the pub gets its name.

“I’ve people my own age whose fathers and grandfathers drank here, but we’ve also got what I call treasured blow-ins. They’ve made this place better than it ever was before.

“One Friday night in 2015, there were about 50 people in and I counted 20 different nationalities all connected to locals. It was amazing.”

Younger people are a staple here too, and earlier on in their lives than Mary expected.

“Before, you’d only see them after they’d settled down. Now I’ve 20 to 25 year olds who just love this pub. They like a night here rather than going to the city or Clonakilty. It’s a bit tamer, no taxi hassle, and what have you.”

There’s no food served here - only pints, pool, and plenty of chat; a winning formula for The Four Winds.

“It’s simple. People want the fire on, the drink right, and to be talked to. They want to know who’s behind the bar. You have to put yourself into it,” Mary says.

“I’m enthusiastic about people, and I like talking to them. I’ve been lucky that way. The bar’s a place where ideas grow, where people connect. You can’t fake that.”

The challenges for a rural pub are familiar, transport being chief among them.

“Travelling out of the pub is always going to be an issue. No taxis, no Uber, so people have to organise themselves.”

But The Four Winds is far from struggling. “No, I’m not worried about the place,” she says. “We’re busy. The key is putting yourself into it, and the community responds.”

Construction and agriculture help keep the flow steady.

“There’s a lot of building work around here, and a few lads working in Carbery Cheese,” says Mary. “It all feeds into the business. And of course, the farming community, they’re a constant presence.”

Quirks and all, from its hilltop location, The Four Winds acts as a beacon for tradition and an example of the rural local: for where place, community, and personality meet.