The Pubs of Cork: ‘It’s not always about the drink, it’s about the cuppa and chat’

Diplomatically, the Top Of Coom pub is decorated inside by half the Cork colours and half the Kerry colours.

Just a kick of a ball over the border in the Kingdom, the bar is also known as Ireland’s highest pub, at 1.045ft above sea level.

It overlooks the Glanlee Valley to the west and the Muscrai valley to the east, and fifth generation owner Tim Creedon tells me: “If you stand at that tree over there and kick a ball to the next tree, you’ll have kicked a ball both in Cork and Kerry.

I do not possess any of the football skills that the Mayo footballers possess though.

“Doesn’t matter,” says Tim. “It’s only a matter of a few feet. When Yanks come in here and have a drink in the bar, I tell them they are in Cork and if they go into the lounge, they can have a drink in Kerry! They love that!”

The extensive bar and lounge atop its lofty perch has come a long way since its origins in an animal stall.

“In 1846, Top Of Coom was a shebeen opened by my great great great grandad Jeremiah Creedon,” says Tim, who insists I sit down with him and have a bite to eat.

“You’ve come a long way,” says Tim. “The least we can do is give you a bit of grub.”

The locals are hardly local too!

“Our nearest neighbours are a mile away and our locals are 20 miles away,” says Tim, who is just back from judging the annual sheep shearing competition held this year in Donegal.

Eileen, Tim’s wife and head chef, joins us at the table.

“Isn’t it grand for him gallivanting around the country?” says Eileen, who keeps the home-fires burning and the kettle on the boil.

Did he gallivant far to meet the love of his life?

Tim laughs.

“Eileen was working at the Irish college in Baile Mhúirne, and I went to a party there one night,” he recalls. “That was it. We got married in 2001 and took the pub over in 2006. We have four boys, two of whom are twins. They are good to row in when we need extra help.”

Tim warms to his subject, the pub history.

“Long ago, this was a traditional meeting point for Cork and Kerry people,” says Tim, who was born and raised here.

“They would stop at the pub on their journeys to water their horses here and then have a drink of a different kind of water in the bar! The first pub licence for the premises was procured by Eileen Creedon. The Creedon name carried on over the generations. All the generations added on to the premises.

My own mother died in 2019,” says Tim. “And my dad died in 2020.

“Mam was known for her baking and for visiting old people. She loved going to bingo and visiting her bachelor rother, Mattie, who lived on his own.”

She died the year before covid, and Tim says she would have hated it “because she could never stay put!”

He adds: “Every Christmas, she would fill boxes for the neighbours and include a home-made Christmas cake and a bottle of whiskey, or pint bottles of Harp, Guinness or Smithwicks. Maybe sherry too. Everyone wanted a bottle in their house at Christmas for visitors. There was no off-licence back then. Mam would also put in a bottle of raspberry cordial.

“If the neighbours couldn’t come to collect the Christmas box, Siobhan, my sister, and John, my brother, who drove a lorry, got the job of delivering them. Sometimes we’d end up with no Christmas cake ourselves, because our mother would have given it away! Anybody who came into the bar never left without a loaf of home-made brown bread. She loved baking.”

What was business like at Top of Coom in Tim’s mother’s time in the 1980s?

“It was busy,” says Tim. “Pool was very popular. Music sessions would start up out of the blue every Sunday evening. People came from Kilgarvan, Coolea, and Baile Mhúirne. They all got together to meet up and enjoy the good company and the good cráic.”

Eileen remembers those days too.

“The smoke was huge in the bar,” she says. “If I did the bar on a Saturday night, I’d have to put my clothes into another room until Sunday because they stank of smoke. I was allergic to smoke. The best law that came in was the smoking ban.”

Tim says the pub and farm was always a way of life for him. “And when times were lean, I worked as a builder.”

He adds: “I was the only one in the family with any interest in taking over the pub. I didn’t have any grand plan, only to continue. I didn’t really know what to expect or what would happen.

“I knew Top Of Coom was a good local pub, popular with cyclists and walkers. In 2008, we advertised more to attract tourists, and we get our fair share, especially those travelling to and from Killarney.”

Tim and Eileen were temporary tourists in Wicklow.

“We went to Johnny Fox’s pub, reputed to be the highest in Ireland,” says Tim. “It is a great spot, and we got a great welcome. The pub has its own transport for the customers to travel in and out from Dublin.”

They got great news too.

“It was confirmed by the Ordnance Survey authorities that we are in fact the highest pub in Ireland.

“I had a bet with the governor of Johnny Fox’s about who was the highest and that whoever won the title was liable to honour the bet. Now, being the highest pub in Ireland is our claim to fame.”

When Tim and Eileen took over the famed pub in 2006, business was good.

“I wasn’t the most likely candidate to take over,” admits Tim. “I am the third eldest and I had the farm. My brothers and sisters liked working here but didn’t want the commitment. I decided to take a chance on it.”

Was he sorry?

“No. I was never sorry,” says Tim. “The pub is very important in rural Ireland. It’s not always about the drink. It’s about the cuppa too, having a chat, asking after the people we know. I think people like to see a family-run pub. Our customers go to the trouble of coming here so we make sure to make them feel welcome and comfortable.”

Taking over the pub was a sure bet for Tima and Eileen.

“We had a good run for two years and then some regulations came in like the drink driving laws,” says Tim. “Back in the day, people would have a few pints and drive home. That doesn’t ever happen now.

“In 2012, we had a fire caused by old timber in the chimney and were closed for two years while we rebuilt. Some of our friends asked us were we mad? The pub scene had changed so much,” says Tim.

There were other changes to contend with.

“In 2017, the infrastructure of the road changed when a wind farm site was created,” says Tim. “That was a difficult time because the infrastructure of the road was destroyed.

“We were always big on buses and coaches coming here and they weren’t able to drive up our road. We lost a heap of weekend buses because the road was so bad.”

Business suffered.

“I went working for the local forestry service for two years,” says Tim. “They gave me a job.”

It was a job to keep afloat during covid too.

“I remember myself and Eileen were out for a Sunday drive to Bantry,” says Tim. “We noticed a lot of premises opened offering a €9 meal or under. We decided to do pizza and chips in our place for €9 in a room out the back, obviously with distancing measures in place.

“We bought a pizza oven, and it took off. Then we built a bit of a kitchen. During covid we had three sittings and there were 15 customers allowed.”

One outstayed his welcome.

“I was locking up one night and I heard a noise in the back room. My heart stopped,” says Tim. “I thought it was a burglar.”

A customer had crawled under the pool table and fallen asleep.

“I woke him up and Eileen helped me bring him to the car and then bring him safely home.

“In business here, being so remote, and having bad weather in the winter, people find it difficult to get home sometimes, so I oblige after closing time. I didn’t expect that trip though! I got an awful land!”

The food business was the way to go for Top Of Coom.

“The demand was there and we started off with goujons and chips,” says Tim. “Then we added a lot more options to the menu including home-made desserts.”

Eileen took a leaf out of her mother-in-law’s cookbook.

“Everything is home-made that we sell,” says Tim, who gets great delight in seeing people coming back again and again to the highest pub in Ireland.

“We have a lovely elderly couple who come in every second Sunday for their dinner,” says Tim. “When I said it was lovely to see them again, they said the staff were so nice, and everyone so pleasant, they decided to make a regular trip here.”

Good news travels fast.

“Their niece had her hen party here.”

Tim and Eileen’s staff are trained well.

“A young girl working with us one summer came into the kitchen and said the customer wanted his pint out of the middle of the barrel,” says Tim. “She was at a loss to know what to do. I asked her was he wearing a hat? She said he was. I told her take no notice of him!”

With business brisk and Tim often gallivanting around the country judging sheep shearing competitions, he and Eileen usually manage a break in January. “The boys are a big help,” says Eileen.

Tim won’t let me go without a parting gift.

“You must have a t-shirt with our logo on it,” says Tim. So nice of him.

I’ve been to the highest pub in Ireland, and I’ve got the t-shirt to prove it.

BLAST FROM THE PAST: Dan Linehan visited the Top of Coom pub in 2015, more than a decade ago, where he met with customers delighted to see it reopening after the fire there in 2012.