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| 02-03-2011, 21:37 | #713 | |
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![]() Sinnott’s pub Duncormick: Still open after 216 years by David Looby The Sinnott’s of Duncormick know how to do business. How else have they survived the vicissitudes of keeping their door open every day for 211 years. Stepping inside Sinnott’s is like stepping back in time. More like a living room than a modern pub, what makes Sinnott’s tick is the personality of the owner Sammy, who has time for everybody, the only problem is nobody wants to leave once they get inside. “It’s still here,” Sammy tells The Echo with a smile when we call to him. “Not bad considering we’ve been open since 1795.” Located on the corner of Duncormick village, this thatched pub, with its four windows peeking out, has been the hub of the community ever since Mary Murphy opened it in 1795. Stop in any morning and you’ll find six hardy local men drinking tea and chatting with Sammy, and John Kenny who has worked on the farm and in the pub over five decades. “I have lads who had their first drink here 50 years ago who are retired now and who come in for a chat every morning,” Sammy says. Pull up a stool and by the time you’ve taken a sup of your drink you’ll feel as relaxed as you’ve been in ages. The TV is seldom on, there are no pub promotions. The only rules are be in early (for tea). If you want something stronger Sinnott’s opens at 10p.m. and stays open. He gets mini-buses of people coming from Wexford town some weekends, but it is the regulars which keep Sinnott’s open. Along the aged walls are photos of locals, hundreds of them, stretching back through the decades. The faces of those who worked and frequented Sinnott’s have come and gone and yet the pub remains. There is a preservation order on the premises which can claim to be one of the oldest shebeens in the country. Fighters in the battles of Horetown and Ross quenched their thirst here, as did the hundreds of men who built the Bridgetown Canal and the Rosslare to Waterford railway in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Generations of Wexfordians have knocked on the door knocker at the side of the pub to gain entry to Sinnott’s down through the centuries. The same people have left the pub, faces red from drink and laughter in the early hours of the morning, waved farewell by Sammy. Now 81, he is always around the pub, but spends a lot of his time in the kitchen behind leaving the work to his trusty friend John. Sinnott’s was originally a grocery shop, carried on by generations of Sinnotts. His grandfather John used to sell coal there which he got in through nearby lake, Bar of Lough, from Newport in Wales. He also sold bottles of whiskey from Devereux’s Distillery in Bishopswater at a time when a gallon cost 17 shillings. Sammy produces a well-worn ledger from this period, containing the names of hundreds of locals who relied on Sinnott’s for their supplies “It was the computer of those days,” he says. Sammy tells me of all the characters who have visited his pub through the years. On busy nights, the tap room, located at the back, is full, as is the kitchen, but you never get the impression there is any hassle or stress in getting a pint. The former manager of the Rolling Stones certainly didn’t think so anyway, staying with Sammy for a time every year for 25 years. The band’s drummer Charlie Watts also visited the pub and invited Sammy up to their Slane Castle gig in 1983. “I was on the stage with them with Mick Berry from the Wren’s Nest,” he adds. The secret to Sinnott’s success lies in looking after your neighbours, even at short notice and before we go Sammy passes on this pearl of wisdom: “We have been through a lot of recessions and a Famine. It’s easier to keep a small place like this open. This is not a great business to be greedy in, because the greedy pig is the first to the slaughter!” |
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| 15-12-2011, 12:44 | #719 |
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