Fifteen new jobs as one of Cork's oldest pubs get half-million refurb

One of Cork city’s oldest pubs is closing for 10 days to undergo a refurbishment worth almost half a million euro, creating 15 new jobs, with work to begin soon on transforming another city centre hostelry.

At the heart of the city’s social life for two centuries, Clancy’s on Princes St has traded continuously since it opened in 1824, but it is closed this week and next for an extensive renovation.

When it reopens on Friday, July 11, Clancy’s will have benefitted from an investment of almost €500,000 and a partnership with brewing giants Diageo, and it will, its owner says, offer four experiences under one roof.

Paul Montgomery, who owns Clancy’s on Princes St and the nearby JJ Walsh’s on Oliver Plunkett St, told The Echo that it was in uncertain days at the start of this decade that he began to plan ahead for changing times.

“It was during Covid, when pubs were closed for long stretches, that I began to wonder, what would the pub of the future look like?” publican Paul Montgomery told The Echo.

“That has informed a lot of what we’re doing in Clancy’s, and I’ve been very inspired as well by what Oisín Rogers has done in The Devonshire in Soho, in London.” Mr Montgomery said the reimagined Clancy’s would be “a city gastropub with Guinness in its soul and local food at its heart”, and it will create 15 new jobs.

It will include Arthur’s Bar @ Clancy’s, offering what is described as “an immersive Guinness experience”; 1824 @ Clancy’s, a new first floor restaurant serving contemporary Irish food; a premium cocktail lab; and a rooftop party bar in their Sky Bar.

“There’s 150 to 200 pubs in Cork you can go for a pint in tonight, and there’s a renaissance in stout drinking at the moment, with the art of pulling a good pint something that is truly Irish, and what the tourists want, and what the locals want,” Mr Montgomery said.

With interest in the perfect pint at an all-time high, he said, visitors will get a chance to enjoy a Guinness experience available nowhere else in Ireland except in Dublin’s Guinness Storehouse.

“You’ll be able to pull your own perfect pint, do the selfie in the stout, we are mimicking what they are doing in the Storehouse in Dublin but doing it in our own unique Cork way,” Mr Montgomery said.

He added that Clancy’s will operate seven nights a week as a live music venue, open until midnight on week nights and 2.30am on weekends.

And for those who might think Beamish or Murphy’s might be a better fit for Cork, Mr Montgomery said he had good news too.

“I’m going to do a similar experience with Beamish and Murphy’s in JJ Walsh’s, which is a very good pub for us,” he said.

“The minute we have Arthur’s Bar open on Friday week in Clancy’s, we’ll be starting straight away in JJ Walsh’s.

“We’re very much gearing this toward people who like a pint of stout, and we want to boost the whole tourist base in Cork.

“We’ll have something unique in Cork that isn’t in Killarney, or Waterford, or isn’t anywhere else,” he said.