{"id":9900,"date":"2025-09-09T12:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/9900\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T12:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:52:12","slug":"if-not-for-places-like-this-some-people-wouldnt-meet-anyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/9900\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018If not for places like this… some people wouldn\u2019t meet anyone\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

O\u2019Donovan\u2019s bar stands at something of an apex point in West Cork.<\/p>\n

You reach its Fishers Cross location by heading from the Clonakilty side, in the parish of Ardfield, a few kilometres past the village, and not a million miles from Rathbarry either.<\/p>\n

Long Strand is off to its right, Red Strand off to its left.<\/p>\n

At the crossroads here is O\u2019Donovan\u2019s, a family-run pub, four generations in – five, actually, when you include a great grand uncle, an O\u2019Sullivan, who willed it to an O\u2019Donovan. And here it is still.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Dennis O\u2019Donovan, with his wife Marie and their two teenage sons, Mark and Cathal, who run the show today.<\/p>\n

Both boys pull pints when needed, and 15-year-old Cathal might be the one who takes the reins for the next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has that comradery with people. He enjoys being part of it,\u201d Dennis smiles.<\/p>\n

Where we chat, in a side parlour off the bar, portraits of past generations of the family hang on the wall.<\/p>\n

Dennis\u2019s father and grandfather were men who poured pints for the same local families generations earlier.<\/p>\n

The pub\u2019s story goes back to the late 19th century, when Dennis\u2019s grandfather, born in 1890, came to Ardfield to live with his uncle, an O\u2019Sullivan, who first ran the bar.<\/p>\n

It was then passed to Dennis\u2019s father 100 years ago, in 1925, and eventually came into his own hands in the mid-1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was about 11 when I started working here,\u201d Dennis recalls. \u201cI\u2019m 54 now. I probably took it over around 1995, when I was 25 or 26.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the time when Dennis took over, West Cork\u2019s pub scene looked very different. There were more public houses open across the region, and they had a steadier flow of midweek customers.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThere were older people in here every day, that\u2019s all gone now,\u201d he says. \u201cHabits have changed. But, thank God, the social side of it hasn\u2019t. People still come out to meet each other, and that\u2019s the important part.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

Ardfield village had another bar, which shut its doors in recent years. In Clonakilty, Dennis says, the night-time drinking isn\u2019t what it used to be, and the absence of taxis hasn\u2019t helped.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, you\u2019d be here until 1pm and then heading into Clon\u2019 for a band or a disco. Now there\u2019s nothing like that. The taxi thing has destroyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Younger people, too, drink differently, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not out as much during the week,\u201d Dennis explains. \u201cWhen they\u2019re out, they\u2019re out, but it\u2019s different.<\/p>\n

\u201cYears ago, fellas might have been out two or three nights. Now, unless there\u2019s something on, they stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"O\u2019Donovan\u2019sO\u2019Donovan\u2019s Bar in Fishers Cross, which has been in five generations of the same family – four of them called O\u2019Donovan<\/p>\n

Yet, Dennis believes younger people are returning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a spell of young people staying at home drinking. But it\u2019s changing. You can see them coming back into the pubs. After covid, especially.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan\u2019s has learned to adapt. Dennis understands that, these days, people want more than just a pint. \u201cYou have to give them something with the pint,\u201d he says. \u201cMusic, food, whatever it is, a reason to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that this idea was new to him. Music has long played a central role in the pub, thanks to Breda Cooney, a local woman who has run a trad session every Thursday night for the last four years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the best things that ever happened here,\u201d Dennis says. \u201cBetween six and 20 musicians some nights, most local, and it brings people in from everywhere and anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summer weekends bring music too, while outside the front door a mobile pizza van provides customers with nibbles. \u201cHe brings his own crowd,\u201d Dennis says, \u201cand it all combines together. Drink, music, food, and fresh air. It seems to be working.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, Dennis teamed up with a local caterer to run a takeaway pizza service from the pub\u2019s old kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe made them, we cooked them,\u201d Dennis recalls. \u201cThe first three weeks, we sold thousands. We were out of business, he was out of business, so we made it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ardfield has long attracted a summer population through the caravan park and the nearby beaches, Dennis says he sees more continental visitors too, families with camper vans who veer off the traditional tourist trail looking to experience the real West Cork.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, you wouldn\u2019t see too many foreigners here,\u201d he says. \u201cNow you\u2019d see French, Dutch, not so many Germans this year but plenty of them. They\u2019re spreading out more. Cork has a bigger element of that now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MarieMarie and Dennis O\u2019Donovan in their pub in Castlefreke, near Clonakilty. Their two teenage sons also help out behind the bar.\tPicture: Noel Sweeney<\/p>\n

On entering the pub, one of the things that strikes you is the large size of the bar. What was once a small, two-room bar was expanded in 1976 by Dennis\u2019s father. Since then, smaller additions have been made, including covered outdoor space that is often packed, even in the rain.<\/p>\n

Ask Dennis what role O\u2019Donovan\u2019s plays in the community and he doesn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cIt\u2019s a meeting place. Like the creameries once were. Only for places like this, some people wouldn\u2019t meet anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dennis says covid played a role in making O\u2019Donovan\u2019s more of a community hub.<\/p>\n

\n \u201cAfter covid, when we reopened, it was unbelievable. People weren\u2019t on their phones. They were just talking to each other. It showed how important the social side of a pub really is.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cChange happens, and it\u2019s up to you how you want to do it. Music is easy enough to organise. Food, we\u2019ll leave that to someone else. But you keep an eye on what works and go with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What works at O\u2019Donovan\u2019s today is a simple formula: fair priced pints, a bit of food and regular music, with the wild Atlantic nearby,<\/p>\n

\u201cThat combination is what keeps people coming,\u201d Dennis says. \u201cAnd as long as it works, I\u2019m happy to leave it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"O\u2019Donovan\u2019s bar stands at something of an apex point in West Cork. You reach its Fishers Cross location…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,10414],"class_list":["post-9900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pub"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9900","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=9900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}