27/10/2024
Hi everyone. Bit of a big announcement for you. Sadly Sunday November 3rd will mark the final day of this particular chapter in the history of this mighty little country pub.
We’d like to acknowledge our phenomenal staff (past and present). I have always said there must be something in the water out here. We have had a constant stream of fantastic young people through the place over the years. They are genuinely a credit to our community and it has been a pleasure to get to know and work with so many of them over the years. We’d also like to recognise our fantastic regulars and locals. We will be eternally grateful for all your support, particularly those of you that stuck with us through the challenges of the last four and a half years.
It’s been a wild ride with memories to last a lifetime; the Christmas tree lighting ceremonies, the New Year’s Eve banquets, huge community barbecues, weddings, big corporate events for the likes of Apple, EMC & Blizzard. Not to mention christenings, communions, confirmations & graduations (some of you have even celebrated each one of those milestones here with us). And how about the weekly impromptu Sunday night ‘have ye no bloody homes to go to?!’ sing songs of yesteryear? And those legendary Monday night ‘packed to the rafters’ trad music sessions? God, I’m off on a tangent now, but we had some great musicians over the years. The Stargazers, John Spillane, the Polyphonics, the Second City Jazz Band, the Cork City Jazz Band, Jimmy Crowley, the legendary Irish Weavers (Barry playing the spoons off the heads of bemused tourists was always a highlight) and of course the fabulous Laughing Shamrocks (their haunting rendition of the Lonesome Boatman on those famous Monday night trad sessions used to stop me dead in my tracks every single time). And the people we’ve met along the way from the four corners of the world. Special mention to our friends in Milwaukee; what an amazing experience that was.
My favourite though was always the chats across the bar with the locals. We’ve solved Brexit (every major global issue there is going in fact), managed premier league winning soccer teams, won All Irelands & come up with gold medal winning strategies for the likes of the O’Donovans & Katie Taylor; amazing what you can do over a few pints! Oh and God help you if you even touched the “London” (as dad would say) Times crossword before Joe had a chance to look a it. Lads, the craic has been just mighty. It really has been a pleasure to be at the heart of such an amazing community for so long.
We’d also like to acknowledge our supporters in the industry; the McKennas, Lucinda O’Sullivan, Joe McNamee, Tom Doorley (can’t tell you the lift that review gave all of us Tom, slap bang in the middle of Covid)… and of course, last but certainly not least, Georgina Campbell. I didn’t think we could surpass the feeling of winning the Pub of the Year award back in 2013. But winning the Happy Place award after we came careering out of the blocks after those seemingly endless lockdowns in 2021 was definitely one of our proudest moments. That summer of ‘21 with the garden looking better than ever, the wood fired pizza oven at full blast, local craft beers being sold by the barrel full, the quality & variety of the food we were producing in the kitchen, our burgeoning little country store laden with the very best of local produce and the massive support of our community & friends will live long in our memory. That ‘Blairs Inn 2.0’ which emerged from the struggles of the lockdowns genuinely reflected the very best of what we had to offer.
I hope you appreciate that we haven’t taken this decision lightly. We have simply given it our all. As for the future of this magical pub; well that’s a conversation for another time.
Thank you all again sincerely from the bottom of our hearts.
The Blairs ❤️
