Bars info please

Sunderland Mad

Hello All

I'm a fella from the North east of England, and have some great pals in Waterford, and used to regularly get over to see my mates here, and we had some great times in the bars here and travelling around different places watching the Deise hurling, and because I've not been over for some time, I was wondering if the bars I used to get in, are still there, or have maybe changed their names since I was last in Waterford, around in the late 1990's ?

The bars I can remember are

The Old Rogue
Geoff's bar
T&H Doolans
Bobby Grace
Doyles bar
Jack Meades
The Stand

Cheers for any info on them bars.

snuggles09

Sunderland Mad wrote: »

Hello All

I'm a fella from the North east of England, and have some great pals in Waterford, and used to regularly get over to see my mates here, and we had some great times in the bars here and travelling around different places watching the Deise hurling, and because I've not been over for some time, I was wondering if the bars I used to get in, are still there, or have maybe changed their names since I was last in Waterford, around in the late 1990's ?

The bars I can remember are

The Old Rogue----Closed
Geoff's bar--Still there
T&H Doolans---Still there
Bobby Grace--Closed but under different name possibly
Doyles bar--No clue
Jack Meades--Still there
The Stand--Closed

Cheers for any info on them bars.

Don't know how good the above will be to you:)

foghlu

Yeah the Olde Rogue is closed but there is a bar in the same premises now called 'the wacky apple'

Sunderland Mad

snuggles09 wrote: »

Don't know how good the above will be to you:)

Thanks for that Snuggles, I don't know when I'll get back over to Waterford, but I still think of the place as a 2nd home, and am pleased some of me old haunts are still thriving.

I remember one St Pats day in Jack Meades, I was singing Sally MacLennane with a backing band behind me and everyone in the room all clapping and singing along, something I'll never forget

Bobby Grace was a fearsome old man, and he used to give people a whack with his stick if he thought they were being too noisy in his pub, lol (I don't know if he's still alive and taking life easy nowadays)

And when we stumbled out of the late bars, we always ended up in Sizzlers 24hour cafe for a good fry up, to soak up the drink, lol

Cheers again for the info, much appreciated

Sunderland Mad

foghlu wrote: »

Yeah the Olde Rogue is closed but there is a bar in the same premises now called 'the wacky apple'

Thanks, Foghlu for the info about the Rogue, it's in a canny spot, and was always busy especially on a weekend, and hopefully the Wacky Apple will do good business too.

Did you ever get into Bobby Grace's bar up at Ballybricken ? he was a proper character and used to bar people from his pub or wack people with a stick, if they were making too much noise in his pub, lol, and we used to drink our beers in near silence as if sitting in a library.

seanybiker

The chap that used to own the old rogue is now a counsellor. Tom. Sound chap

Funfair

Sunderland Mad wrote: »

Hello All

I'm a fella from the North east of England, and have some great pals in Waterford, and used to regularly get over to see my mates here, and we had some great times in the bars here and travelling around different places watching the Deise hurling, and because I've not been over for some time, I was wondering if the bars I used to get in, are still there, or have maybe changed their names since I was last in Waterford, around in the late 1990's ?

The bars I can remember are

The Old Rogue
Geoff's bar
T&H Doolans
Bobby Grace
Doyles bar
Jack Meades
The Stand

Cheers for any info on them bars.

Doyles in Barrack street is still there but now called Alfie's, also the Deise hurling team has vastly improved since you were last here, sorry to tell you, you missed some great days out over the last 10 years

ArtVandelay76

All those pubs are still there except the stand. That place has been shut and boarded up now for a few years which is a shame really.
Doyles bar and bobby graces are both owned by and called alfie hales.
The pub scene isn,t what it used to be in waterford, not many people going out these days.

dayshah

foghlu wrote: »

Yeah the Olde Rogue is closed but there is a bar in the same premises now called 'the wacky apple'

Totally different atmosphere. I deffo wouldn't recommend the wacky apple.

Sunderland Mad

Funfair wrote: »

Doyles in Barrack street is still there but now called Alfie's, also the Deise hurling team has vastly improved since you were last here, sorry to tell you, you missed some great days out over the last 10 years

Thanks for that info, Funfair, it seems a lot of them pubs have changed hands and names but at least they're still standing.

I know of the Deise's improvement because I watch the games on tv, and have been to a couple of games recently.

One of the trips we went on to watch the Deise playing in Cork, the manager of Doyles, put 2 crates of beer on our bus for free just as we were about to set away from the pub, to go to Cork, and us lads from the North East of England were well looked after wherever we went in Waterford, there's some very generous and genuine people in Waterford, something that didn't go un noticed by us all.

A load of us Sunderland fans were in Dublin in 2006 to watch Sunderland playing in a pre season game, and it just happened that the Deise were playing in the All Ireland senior hurling quarter final against Tipp at Croker, and one of our pals in Waterford got us tickets to go to the game, and I remember the Deise just edging out Tipp by a couple of points, so straight after the game ended we all booked flight tickets to go back to Dublin for the semi final at Croker when the Deise lost by a single point to Cork in the semi final.
I really thought the Deise would reach the final but it wasn't to be, but as you know when they did reach the final for the first time since 1963, Kilkenny won by a big margin.

As I said earlier, I do watch the games on tv over here in England, and it's always good to see your boys winning, and now that Kilkenny aren't the force they used to be, the Deise and other teams can step up to the plate and win the All Ireland, and what a party that would be in Co Waterford, and Waterford city.

Sunderland Mad

dayshah wrote: »

Totally different atmosphere. I deffo wouldn't recommend the wacky apple.

Thanks for that dayshah.

Sadly a lot of good and popular bars, seem to change hands and become theme pubs, with crazy names like the Wacky Apple, just like a lot of pubs in the North East of England, which attracted a good crowd of young and old and played good music and served a good variety of beers, cides and lagers, have now became funky pubs for the young 'uns, with pub names like the Hairy Lemon, and Cowboy Jacks, complete with a mechanical bull.

I know we cannot stand still and things move with the times, like fashion, but I just wish they'd leave good bars alone.

Rant over.:(

Sunderland Mad

ArtVandelay76 wrote: »

All those pubs are still there except the stand. That place has been shut and boarded up now for a few years which is a shame really.
Doyles bar and bobby graces are both owned by and called alfie hales.
The pub scene isn,t what it used to be in waterford, not many people going out these days.

Thanks for the reply ArtVandelay76

The Stand used to a popular spot, when we all went out for a drink, and it's a shame it's no longer in use, but I suppose that's a sign of the times and the recession biting hard for the people of Ireland, just like it is in England, and in my town of Hartlepool, there has been at least 8 once thriving pubs, that have been closed and demolished, because people simply cannot afford to spend their money in pubs as much as they used to do.

So Doyles and Bobby Graces are now owned by the same person and called the same name of Alfie Hales.

I know them two bars weren't in the hotspot of the city centre but they were canny bars all the same, and I have goiod and happy memories of them bars.

Did ye ever go into Bobby Graces bar and did you ever get a whack with his stick for making too much noise, lol ?

My pals in Waterford don't go out as much as they used to do, but I think they go for a few pints on Sunday, when the big football matches are on the tv, or they would be watching the hurling instead.

I'll get back over there someday, and might get over for the Tall ships race in the summer - the tall ships were at Hartlepool last summer and the whole event was superb, with just under 1 million people visiting the tall ships site, and I'm sure Waterfords hosting of the tall ships, will be also a huge success.

Sunderland Mad

seanybiker wrote: »

The chap that used to own the old rogue is now a counsellor. Tom. Sound chap

Thanks for the reply seanybiker.

That's not a bad career change, from a bar owner to a counseller.

I had some great times in he Rogue and the other bars I mentioned, and they had a great atmosphere, something different from English bars, and because my Waterford pals knew lots of people and were regulars in the bars on a weekend, us lads from England were made very welcome, and when Ireland played in the world cup in America in 1994, and beat Italy 1-0, the bar we were in was packed to the rafters, but we managed to get seats, and when Ireland scored and won the game, the whole bar and city went nuts, and everyone in the bar was buying us drinks, just because they thought we were friends of Jack Charlton the Irish manager from Ashington near Newcastle - we told everybody we didn't personally know big Jack, but because we live in the north east of England like big Jack, we were given free drinks because we were supposed lucky omens, lol

Waterford is a great county and city, with great people and great bars.

seanybiker

Haha nice one. Free drink is great.

PatrickD32

t&h's still a nice spot imo.

Funfair

Sunderland Mad wrote: »

Thanks for that info, Funfair, it seems a lot of them pubs have changed hands and names but at least they're still standing.

I know of the Deise's improvement because I watch the games on tv, and have been to a couple of games recently.

One of the trips we went on to watch the Deise playing in Cork, the manager of Doyles, put 2 crates of beer on our bus for free just as we were about to set away from the pub, to go to Cork, and us lads from the North East of England were well looked after wherever we went in Waterford, there's some very generous and genuine people in Waterford, something that didn't go un noticed by us all.

A load of us Sunderland fans were in Dublin in 2006 to watch Sunderland playing in a pre season game, and it just happened that the Deise were playing in the All Ireland senior hurling quarter final against Tipp at Croker, and one of our pals in Waterford got us tickets to go to the game, and I remember the Deise just edging out Tipp by a couple of points, so straight after the game ended we all booked flight tickets to go back to Dublin for the semi final at Croker when the Deise lost by a single point to Cork in the semi final.
I really thought the Deise would reach the final but it wasn't to be, but as you know when they did reach the final for the first time since 1963, Kilkenny won by a big margin.

As I said earlier, I do watch the games on tv over here in England, and it's always good to see your boys winning, and now that Kilkenny aren't the force they used to be, the Deise and other teams can step up to the plate and win the All Ireland, and what a party that would be in Co Waterford, and Waterford city.

Fair play to you Sunderland Mad, Great to see hurling being appreciated outside of Ireland. I was at all the games you mentioned and enjoyed the craic except for the Final v kilkenny which was as you can imagine torture to sit through..

Kingdom Bhoy

Quality city Waterford had some great times there. l love Cork as well but you can't beat Ballinskelligs.