Striving to maintain a successful rural pub

Ever since he was tall enough to reach the bar taps, Kevin Daly has been serving the local community at his family pub, Daly"s Tavern, in Kiltoom. The full-time proprietor of the pub since 1988, Kevin has witnessed both the Kiltoom area and the rural pub trade change significantly during that time. Kevin and his wife Mary have grown their business over the last decade to incorporate a bar food service and purpose-built bed and breakfast accommodation. A building project in 2000 trebled the size of the pub and added four double rooms to accommodate guests. Late last year the pub"s food service, which was previously leased to an outside contractor, was taken into the control of the family and a full-time chef was hired. 'I felt that our food offering had slipped, and so we hired an excellent chef last autumn and it"s now a totally family-run business. The days of leasing out our food service are over,' he said. While he feels that these changes have helped to improve Daly"s, Kevin believes that some broader trends which have developed in the country in recent years have been to the detriment of the rural pub industry. One of the issues which he says is damaging the rural pub trade is the strict enforcement of drink driving penalties. 'We"ve all suffered with the demise of the Celtic Tiger, but I think rural publicans are suffering unduly, not because of drink driving, but because of the unfair penalties for drink driving,' he said. 'I think it"s only right people don"t get drunk and drive, but a guy in a rural area who"s a mile from home and had four pints gets the same conviction as a guy who"s ten miles from home and had seven or eight pints. 'I"m not for one minute advocating that there should be a free-for-all when it comes to drink driving, but as a rural-based publican I do feel that the penalties for drink driving should be reviewed and applied on a more gradual basis. The punishment should fit the crime, whereas at the moment the penalties are across the board and there"s no consideration given to the person"s distance from home, the amount that"s been consumed, or whether or not there"s an accident involved. 'In any other area of criminal activity the overall circumstances of the case are taken into account, but when it"s drink driving they are not and these blanket penalties are imposed. 'Years ago in cases where someone was just a little over the limit, their car was in perfect working order and they were not far from home the guards would use their discretion, but now there"s a "zero tolerance" approach and it"s having a major effect on rural pubs,' he said. 'It"s almost reached a stage where the State is interfering too much. There are so many rules and regulations in rural life today and that"s something you hear from farmers. The amount of bookwork they have to do now is ridiculous. It"s almost as if Big Brother is watching you, and I think rural people are becoming - to say the least - annoyed by it.' Irish society was very different when the pub was taken over by Kevin"s grandfather, Patrick Donohue, in 1935. Patrick had previously emigrated to America and when he returned home he purchased the pub with money he had earned from a Speakeasy in the Bronx, New York. He and his wife Annie operated the pub and were licensed to bottle Guinness on the premises - a time-consuming practice which was still being carried out on site when Kevin was a boy. The pub was passed on to Kevin"s mother, Patricia, who continued the business with her husband Frank Daly. Kevin said that when he was young Daly"s was a typical bar and grocery with land attached. 'It was your old, traditional country pub,' he said. 'I can remember deals being made for cattle here - it was all part and parcel of being a country pub in those times. There were thousands of deals made here over the years,' he said. Many entertaining stories are told about Daly"s pub in times past, including one which Kevin recalled last week. 'There"s one man who still calls here with his family today. About 60 years ago his father had a pony and they used to come here regularly on their way home from town. The pony would never pass here without going into the yard. 'One day another man, a non-drinker who felt it was almost a crime to be seen at a pub, borrowed the pony and went to town. He was merrily coming out from town when the all of a sudden the pony shot into the back of the pub. The man didn"t know what was going on, but the pony wouldn"t budge from there for about five minutes!' Kevin has now been a full-time publican for over 20 years. In addition to himself and his wife Mary (a nurse who"s currently on a career break) the business employs a full-time chef and four part-time staff. Some renovation work was carried out in 1988 and Kevin decided to complete an extensive redevelopment of the premises in 2000. 'It was a huge undertaking. There were a lot of days and nights I lay awake wondering if it was the right thing to do but I"m not sorry I did it now,' he said. The pub"s trade mainly consists of local residents, while customers for its pub food are a mixture of locals and people passing through the area 'We don"t see ourselves as a restaurant proper but rather a very family orientated place where people can come for Sunday lunch and things like that. There"s ample parking and it"s safe for kids,' said Kevin. The B&B accommodation at Daly"s benefits from the wedding trade at the nearby Hodson Bay Hotel. Looking to the future, Kevin said he has concerns about the increasing amount of drinking taking place in people"s homes. 'I know for fact, from a social worker, that the increases in domestic drinking and domestic violence mirror one another,' he said. 'Drinking in a pub is controlled but there are no controls when it comes to drinking at home. There"s no closing time, and people tend to drink more at home than in the pub. Once a bottle has been opened, people tend to finish it. This social worker has noticed an increase in the number of cases of domestic violence and in the severity of those incidents,' he said. 'A pub is a social outlet and for many people in rural areas it can be their only outlet to meet their neighbours, have a chat and have a drink. The way things are going now is slowly throttling the life out of rural Ireland,' he said. Changes which he"d like to see locally include the development of a rural public transport service and the creation of a walkway along the shore of Lough Ree. 'There"s a fabulous lakeshore stretching from Hodson Bay to St John"s. It would be a very nice walk of 3-4 miles if people could walk along the lakeshore. In my opinion the land should be fenced back to allow space for public access as a walkway. It could be made into a lovely walkway. Developing it to make it accessible for pedestrians, tourists, and people who want to fish from the lakeshore wouldn"t be a difficult thing to do and wouldn"t require a big investment,' he said. Looking ahead, Kevin feels that there may be opportunities to grow the food and accommodation side of his business in future. Despite the challenges facing the pub trade, he hopes to see Daly"s Tavern remain an important part of the community in Kiltoom in years to come. 'My family has had this pub for the over 70 years so I suppose my aim is to make it to another 70 years!' he laughed.