By Sean Collins
McDonnell’s public house on the Cord Road, or Barney Mac’s as it is affectionately known, is a genuine family-run Irish pub that was already part and parcel of the local community long before the McDonnells took over almost a century ago.
An insight into the atmosphere at Barney Mac’s is that, several years ago, a local woman who was home from New York for Christmas left her coat on one of the hooks in the bar and, typical of Barney Mac’s, it was still there when she returned the following Christmas.
According to Bassett’s Directory of 1886 the premises at 35 Chord Road was owned by Walter Cooney who was a grocer licensed to sell wines and spirits. Cooney was a wealthy man and in 1875 he won a painting of the Sacred Heart at a Bazaar held at the Whitworth Hall to raise funds for the new Dominican Church.
When he died in 1892, Cooney bequeathed £400 to each of four local convents to help feed the sick and poor of Drogheda, £100 to priests and clergymen of each parish in the town, £400 to the local Vincent de Paul, and £100 to the fund for the proposed new church at Tinure – no mean bequests when you consider that £400 in 1892, was the equivalent of €60,000 in today’s money.
Walter Cooney was a single man and he left the pub, along with 18 houses, 160 acres of land and a flour mill, to his niece Anne McGovern who only ran the business for few years before she died in 1898 when the pub license name changed to Bernard Matthews who was a member of Drogheda Coporation and also married to Margaret McGovern possibly a daughter of Anne.
Bernard McDonnell, the original “Barney Mac”, served his time under Bernard Matthews in the 1920s, bought the business in the 1930s and worked it until his death in 1979. The McDonnell family, under the guidance of his wife Enda, have continued to run the premises as an old style traditional local to this day.
Pictures of customers past and present can be seen on the bar walls, for example the Bank’s brothers of Oulster Lane, Harry and Patrick who died in 1967, both in their late nineties. Harry Banks served as a member of the Northumbrian Fusiliers, an army regiment disbanded in 1904.
My good friend John Crilly tells of how in his youth after school, he had to do chores at his father’s Shoemakers Shop in Thomas Street. Among others, Harry Banks would sit and chat with his father who always had a warm fire burning in his grate.
Wellington boots were popular protective footwear for boys. Harry Banks said he saw the Russians wearing them in the war, so they were “Russian boots.”
Billy Mallon and his Pomeranian dog “Pepy” were also regulars. Billy’s father was killed during the 1916 Rising in Dublin and is buried in Glasnevin. Billy worked in Donaghy’s at the shoe trade for most of his life and will be always remembered as the witty, genial doorman at Drogheda Credit Union.
Up to last year Derek Buckley R.I.P and Oliver Berrill R.I.P. were the kings of the front section pontificating to all on Friday nights. Ollie’s legacy is the Christmas fundraiser for the local Wheelchair Association.
With the support of McDonnells and their regulars it has become the social event of the Christmas season with Paul’s chocolate delights sought after in the raffle. Wally (Under the Clock) Murphy leads the orchestra with Mark Shortt and a number of guest appearances down the years from people such as Pascal O’Connor and Dixie Nugent on guitar and the dulcet tones of Ciaran Quigley.
Brenda McGuigan as financial controller, dare you pass and not buy a raffle ticket. Lynn provides a great Christmas pudding as a prize, she swears that she cooked it herself.
If you did your Leaving Cert way back in the 70s or 80s you might remember on the Irish Course “Dialann Deorai” by Donall MacAmhlaigh or Danny McAuley as his fellow navvies called him. In the book there are many references to his friend ‘Weldon from Drogheda’.
Tommy Weldon was a native of Dooley Gate and like many other young men of his time he went navvying with “McAlpine’s Fusiliers”. When he settled back home, Tommy, enjoyed a pint in Barney Macs, with his good pal Willow Cooney.
Nowadays Amy carries on with aplomb her great-grandparent’s excellent service, her Grandfather Brian is becoming her apprentice. Miriam throws in an odd fiddle tune, Lynn is knitting away, with Pio, Fiachra and the Labour lefties, Patrick collecting glasses and Conor O’Dowd eating chocolate.
Cummins the Dean, Andy the snapper, Pascal the Mariner, Conor the Station man and young Cheyenne can be found inside the door……watch out for Joe Murphy’s ghost, your pint might explode and Weldon of Droichead Atha, steady now Margaret…….
See also our article from last October: Barney Mac’s online Bingo goes nationwide with special new app
