The Village Pubs of Cork: A pub should be warm, friendly, comfortable... every village needs one

The crossroads in the East Cork village of Mogeely, once populated by three lively pubs - The Sportsman, Forde’s and The Imokilly Tavern - used to be fondly referred to as the ‘Bermuda triangle’.

If you landed into one of those pubs, all adjacent and not even a stone’s throw from each other, then it was said there was a fair chance you would roam between all three for an indefinite period of time. For eternity, possibly!

Today, only one of those pubs remains.

On the corner where the Killeagh road and Mogeely roads intersect, a blue two-storey building stands tall and defiant, The Imokilly Tavern.

The pub itself dates back to the early 1900s and has changed hands numerous times. At the helm today is Hilary Kelly.

She began leasing the pub a few years ago as covid restrictions were loosening. A brave move during a time when the trade was surrounded in uncertainty.

For Hilary, who has lived in Mogeely since 2005, a vital factor in her decision was the sight of older neighbours walking the roads with nowhere to gather and meet friends.

“A village needs a pub. It needs a community place for people to gather, and a pub is one of those places where it can be good,” she stated.

“Seeing people walking the roads because there was nowhere to go, it just made me feel I had to step up.”

Hilary had never owned a bar before, but she had spent much of her working life running some of Cork city’s best-known and best-loved pubs, including the legendary Hi-B and Sin é, where she managed for years.

When she approached the owners of the Imokilly Tavern about taking over the lease, she found a property that had been kept alive not by commercial ambition, but by a sense of duty to the village.

The pub had originally been owned by Donal and Mary Sweetnam, who lived in the adjoining house and expanded the building in the early 1980s.

Their bar, once divided into the traditional lounge and public bar, was well known locally for its atmosphere and character.

When they eventually sold in 2006, a small group of local men stepped in to buy it, ensuring the village wouldn’t lose its social anchor.

One of those men was Mogeely native Ricky Forest, whose father, Dick, is still remembered locally as a good employer. The other owners are Joe and Eamon Hickey and Pat Shanahan

“We bought it 20 years ago,” says Ricky. “For some of us it was for the craic, and for others it was a commercial decision.

“But, for me personally, I grew up in a village that had no shops and three pubs and a church. I’ve sentimental value to it. It was about keeping the pub going,” Ricky adds.

When the pandemic hit, the previous tenants did not return after lockdown and the building fell idle.

The owners were not in receipt of the pandemic support payment because the pub wasn’t open. The chance that it may never reopen loomed. It was felt throughout the community.

Enter Hilary Kelly, the Imokilly Tavern’s fifth tenant since 2006.

Hilary knew that there was life in the pub, yet.

Understanding the community; the mix of farming families, retirees, newcomers to the village, the wide age demographic, and being a resident herself, she felt confident that she could take the reins.

She started simply, by making it homely, cosy, and inviting.

“I think a pub should be somewhere you want to go back to,” she says.

“Friendly, comfortable, warm. That’s always been my ethos.”

She removed the large pool table dominating the centre of the floor and opened up the window seating.

The result, she says, was “space, light, and conversation”.

Her staff, all local, are the backbone of the place.

Rachel, who has worked in the village for 18 years, has seen the pub change hands multiple times. Hilary trusts her completely. “She’s outstanding. And all the young people who work here are local, my own children included,” she says

Since reopening, the pub has become a vibrant community hub and the go-to venue for christening, funerals, vintage days and tractor runs... everything.

Hilary’s favourite so far has been the rise of the ‘Vintage Ladies’, a group of seven local women who cater for the village’s tractor run entirely for free, preparing mountains of soup, sandwiches, tea, and treats.

“They’re the backbone of the place,” she says. “Amazing women.”

If Hilary has brought anything to Mogeely, it has been a steady stream of music acts to perform at her pub.

Her years of booking acts for the Sin é in the city provided her with plenty of contacts, and she hasn’t been shy about bringing new acts to rural East Cork.

“In the beginning, they thought I was mad,” she laughs.

“All this music - ska bands, bluegrass, stuff they’d never heard. I threw lots of different people at them.”

The turning point came with a ska band from Clare; a group she had booked many times in the city.

“They loved them. Absolutely loved them. The place erupted. And from then on, they trusted me.”

Ever since, the pub has hosted regular music nights including a casual bluegrass session every second Monday, alongside regular gigs that draw crowds from Mogeely and the satellite villages around it - Castlemartyr, Killeagh, Dungourney - as well as even further afield.

What changes has Hilary noticed in the pub trade in recent years?

“We sell so much more zero-alcohol stuff now, you have to. Younger couples don’t go out as much because of mortgages. In midweek, my busy time is between 4.30 and 8pm, then they’re gone home.”

And while many older customers slowly returned after covid, others never did.

“There was an awful sense of fear and isolation. Some people are still afraid to come out.”

Of Mogeely’s original three pubs in that famed ‘Bermuda triangle’, The Sportsman’s closed before lockdown and was replaced by housing. Forde’s pub followed soon after. Their stories, told by the older customers at Hilary’s bar, are hilarious.

“We do miss them,” she says. “There was something nice about wandering from one to another. If you fell out with Joe, you could go across to John. Now it’s just us.

“Another pub would actually support us, and we them, it’s not a competition that way.”

How does Hilary wish to continue at The Imokilly Tavern?

“I think a pub should be somewhere you want to go back to. If you can get somebody to come back, you’re doing something right.”