The Village Pubs of Cork: 'We need help or a huge number of pubs will close in the future...'

Albert Lynch’s, owned by Joy and Denis Murphy, sits on a bend of William O’Brien Street in Mallow, next to the courthouse, its facade largely unchanged for decades.

“It’s always been a pub. We think it goes back to the mid-1800s. It was a Protestant school before that. From around 1851 or 1856, it became a pub,” explained Denis.

He is the current owner, but he is careful about how he frames that role.

“I’m the great-grandson of Albert Lynch,” he says. “I came back and renovated, but this place was never just one person. It was always passed on.”

Albert Lynch married a Barbara Brown, whose family had owned the premises before him, Denis explains.

From there, the pub passed down through Albert’s daughter Ellen Lynch, Denis’s grandmother, who kept her father’s name over the door even after marrying Dominic Murphy, the son of the auctioneer next door.

“She kept the Lynch name on the pub,” Denis says.

Growing up, he spent much of his childhood living above the pub with his grandmother.

“I lived with her here on and off, I’d come down from school and give her a hand. She was on her own and she ran it,” he recalls.

It was a classic market pub, with Mallow’s weekly mart taking place a stone’s throw away.

“You had a Tuesday mart. You’d get the drovers in first. They were here early because it was freezing cold.

“We had an early licence. Nana had stables at the back and she’d give them hay and straw for their horses. There were curtains that could be pulled across. The counter went straight across.

“Farmers would come in to do business and they wanted privacy. Money was being passed. They didn’t want to mix with the drovers.”

Women socialised separately in those days.

“The snug was only for ladies. Farmers’ wives would go in there. They were served through the hatch. This went on right up into the 1960s.”

Denis did not grow up expecting to take over the pub.

“I went away and did my own thing,” he says. “I was in AIB for ten years. I had started hotel management in Galway before that.

“I always loved hospitality. My dad wasn’t going to take it over. He was an accountant. He never worked in the pub.

“There was a family meeting. We were going to sell it for small money. I took a career break. I went around the country with a pal of mine. I looked at pubs, designs, spoke to publicans.

“I always had a dream, but I never pulled a pint.

The renovation began, and it was completed in December, 1997.

“We only closed for about five weeks. We kept the front exactly the same,” says Denis.

The materials tell the story.

“We went to salvage yards. The floors came from the Lee Baths. The timber is pitch pine from an old mill. Every cornice piece is separate. They’re heavy.

“We wanted natural light, but privacy too. It’s totally different during the day.”

While Albert Lynch’s has its roots as a market town pub, these days its customer base is much wider.

Mallow is a market town in the heart of north Cork, People come from everywhere, Doneraile, Killavullen, Kanturk, and Abbeyfeale,” says Denis.

“Solicitors from the courthouse drank here. So did road crews, factory staff, farmers and townspeople,” Denis adds.

The closure of the mart in 2007 marked the end of an era for the town, and for Albert Lynch’s.

“That was very sad,” says Joy Murphy. “A lot of elderly farmers had met here all their lives. They said they’d never all meet again.”

“We’re in the entertainment business. That’s what we are. Poker nights, quizzes, board games, music, sport, parties, the calendar is full.

“We have music on Fridays and Saturdays. The best of local talent. Acoustic mainly,” says Denis. .

He tells me about the Draft Rebate Scheme that may offer a lifeline to the pub industry in these difficult times, when many are closing down.

“There’s a Draft Rebate Scheme being talked about by the Vintners Federation of Ireland. They’d give a rebate based on the number of pints sold. It would help pay rates. My rates are €14,000.”

Without it, closures will continue, warns Denis.

“If it doesn’t come in, a huge number of wet pubs will close,” he predicts.

As for a succession plan at Albert Lynch’s pub?

“No interest at the moment,” he says. “Our daughters are doing their own things.”