{"id":445204,"date":"2026-05-12T16:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/445204\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T16:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T16:16:08","slug":"new-owner-confirmed-for-popular-douglas-pub-the-south-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/445204\/","title":{"rendered":"New owner confirmed for popular Douglas pub The South County"},"content":{"rendered":"

The South County, one of the best-known traditional pubs in the Cork city suburb<\/a> of Douglas, has been sold in a deal understood to be worth around \u20ac2m.<\/p>\n

The landmark premises, which has been owned and run by the O\u2019Connor family since the 1970s, was acquired by a well-known publican who owns several other licensed premises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speculation that the new owner was Paul Montgomery, who bought The Wilton bar<\/a> at the start of the year, has been dismissed. Mr Montgomery confirmed to the Irish Examiner that he is not the buyer.<\/p>\n

Handled off-market by Sean McCarthy of ERA Downey McCarthy, the transaction is the latest in a series of high-profile pub deals across Cork city in recent months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nearby in Grange, The Grange<\/a> Bar, another popular family-run premises, recently sold for approximately \u20ac1m, while the owners of Paddy the Farmer\u2019s on Summerhill South have accepted an offer of approximately \u20ac1.9m for their premises, which includes nine overhead apartments.<\/p>\n

The South County, run by husband-and-wife team Tom and Maebh O\u2019Connor and employing about 30 staff, has long been popular with both locals and tourists. While widely regarded as a traditional Irish pub, it also developed a strong reputation for food, live music, and hospitality, regularly hosting live music sessions, gigs, and tour groups.<\/p>\n

According to the pub\u2019s website, it has operated as a licensed premises for more than 200 years, with records showing refreshments were served there as far back as 1802, when Douglas was still a small village outside Cork city.<\/p>\n

Family ownership since the 1970s<\/p>\n

The modern era of the business began in the mid-1970s, when John and Mary O\u2019Connor bought the pub from Beamish & Crawford. At the time, the brewery owned a number of \u201ctied houses\u201d \u2014 pubs linked to the South Main Street brewers.<\/p>\n

\"TomTom and Maebh O’Connor, proprietors of the South County Bar. \tPicture Dan Linehan<\/p>\n

Their sons, Tom and Colm O\u2019Connor, later took over in 1997 and 1998 after working in hospitality in the United States. In the late 1990s, they refurbished the pub, expanded the food offering, and introduced regular live Irish music sessions.<\/p>\n

A further major renovation in 2009 added the Guinness beer garden, upgraded kitchens, and eco-friendly features such as solar-powered hot water and rainwater harvesting.<\/p>\n

Over the years, The South County built a reputation as a traditional Irish pub, featuring dark timber interiors, snug areas, open fires, whiskey selections, and live music several nights a week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It became especially popular with locals in Douglas and visitors staying near Cork Airport or the ferry routes.<\/p>\n

The pub has remained in family ownership since 1974, when the O\u2019Connors moved down from Dublin. Tom O\u2019Connor\u2019s wife Maebh, is a daughter of the late Paddy (PJ) Sheehan, former Fine Gael TD for Cork South West.<\/p>\n

Series of Cork pub sales<\/p>\n

Other Cork city pubs to change hands recently include Reidy\u2019s Vault Bar<\/a> on Western Road, which sold to a food operator for around \u20ac600,000; The Viaduct<\/a> on the Bandon Road, bought by Damien Long for more than \u20ac2m, with plans to develop it into a transport and travel hub; and Bull McCabe\u2019s<\/a> on Kinsale Road, which sold for \u20ac730,000 to a husband-and-wife team planning to convert it into residential accommodation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, The Model Farm<\/a> on Model Farm Road is sale agreed at \u20ac1.2m, while Tequila Jacks<\/a> on Lapps Quay remains on the market with a \u20ac1.3m guide price.<\/p>\n

Separately, the Emporium Company announced last week that it plans to reopen the landmark Electric bar on South Mall on May 22 under its new name, The Merchant<\/a>. The group bought the premises several years ago for around \u20ac2m and is currently undertaking a \u201cseven-figure\u201d investment.<\/p>\n

The group also owns Tradehouse Central, JJ Coppingers, The Castle, and Mabel Lane.<\/p>\n

The first pub sale of 2026 was the acquisition of The Wilton Bar<\/a> by Mr Montgomery for more than \u20ac3m, followed by a further \u20ac1m investment in upgrades. Mr Montgomery is currently developing the outdoor area, which he plans to open by June.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have a coffee sheebeen where you will be able to get coffee from 7am and we\u2019ll have barbeques and DJs. We\u2019ll be very much focused on the outdoor area for the summer months,\u201d Mr Montgomery said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The South County, one of the best-known traditional pubs in the Cork city suburb of Douglas, has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[190494,72,4257,79,61,60],"class_list":["post-445204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-pub-openings","tag-business","tag-cork-business","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}