Retired Metropole plumber on Cork hotel life: 'I doubt you could find the likes of it anywhere else'

Sitting down with the Irish Examiner, John Keogh, who was a plumber on the maintenance team at the Metropole Hotel, reminisced on serving his time as a tradesman in Cork and the many famous faces he encountered

John Keogh is one of four tradesmen named in a note hidden behind wallpaper at the Metropole Hotel in 1969, uncovered more than 50 years later. Picture: Chani Anderson.

One of the men behind the mystery of the note dated 1969 found in the walls of the Metropole Hotel has reminisced on his time working in Cork in the 1960s and 1970s.

John Keogh from Blackpool on Cork’s northside was one of the four tradesmen who worked at the hotel in the 1960s who signed a note on a piece of wallpaper and hid it in the wall of the hotel more than half a century ago.

A plumber by trade, Keogh was part of the maintenance crew at the hotel, alongside electrician Tommy Ross, carpenter Jerry Higgins, and painter Steve Casey.

Keogh became a man in demand after the note was found hidden in the hotel’s walls during recent works as part of a long-term restoration project of the ground floor and upstairs ballrooms.

Sitting down with the Irish Examiner, he reminisced on serving his time as a tradesman in Cork, the unique experience of working at the Metropole Hotel, the friendships that were formed, and the many famous faces that he encountered.

Sitting in the cosy sitting room of the house where Keogh’s wife Phyllis was born, it quickly became apparent that the 86-year-old is a true family man, proudly showing me photographs of his family that lined the fireplace mantelpiece and windowsill.

It was his family, he explained, who shared in the excitement of the past 10 days after he became Cork’s most wanted - the only man still alive with the keys to open the door to the past and tell us what it was like to work as part of the maintenance team at the historical Metropole Hotel.

It all came about when the hotel put out a call to find the four tradesmen. It was soon discovered that Ross, Higgins, and Casey, who worked alongside Keogh, had passed away.

And while Keogh says he “couldn’t believe” the reaction to the discovery of the note, he says he doesn’t specifically remember signing it.

He jokes that there could very well be a lot more of them in the walls of the hotel, saying it was “just something Tommy would do”.

“He was nostalgic, he was that way inclined. So, he probably handed it to us and said, ‘Sign that there’. 

I didn’t even remember signing it until I saw it. I couldn’t believe it - it knocked me for four, for six. I couldn’t believe how anyone would have an interest in it. 

“And the hotel wanted to find out what the hotel was like at that time,” he says.

Speaking about what life at the Metropole Hotel looked like back then, with a look of nostalgia in his eyes, he says: “They had their own man preparing vegetables. They had their own florists where two ladies would grow and do up the flowers then everyday. It was a unique hotel. It was a dry hotel - no drink whatsoever.

“Douglas Vance then came as manager of the hotel in my time. He was my ideal type of man because what you saw was what you got, and you could talk straight to him. He and his wife had a penthouse on the roof of the hotel, and they lived there, and they had a little cottage out in Inniscara, a beautiful little place, rustic, with a big orchard and everything.

“There was a shop down alongside the hotel at the time called Hadji Bey's. I used to often work inside there. He had a special recipe, and he used to make beautiful Turkish delight and especially the fudge, a beautiful fudge. I used to bring it home here to my wife.” 

Speaking about his time as a plumber, he says he remembers when he started serving his time quite well. It was 1954 and he was working on a housing scheme out in Ballyphehane.

John Keogh: "There was a shop down alongside the hotel at the time called Hadji Bey's. I used to often work inside there. He had a special recipe, and he used to make beautiful Turkish delight and especially the fudge, a beautiful fudge."

“At that time, we had to do seven years, and you would do every one of them. Any you missed, you’d have to do it again because you were doing every part of the trade, such as drainage and plumbing. It was a great experience,” he says.

Keogh went on to work for different companies and spent some time working in South Africa, saying he would have done “a fair bit of travelling” with the job, travelling all over Ireland also.

“I worked in every county in Ireland. When I would be staying somewhere, I would always prefer to stay in these little guesthouses. I could stay in the big hotels if I wanted to. Still, it was very comical when you stayed in a local area in a bed and breakfast and would go into the pub that night. They’d be all very wary of you, and there would be nothing said, and then the next night they’d know who you were working for, and they’d have the whole history. They’d be sizing you up first, but you’d be one of the boys then after that. They’d try you out,” he laughs.

Touching on the type of work they carried out at the hotel, which included some late nights that led to bumping into some famous faces, he says: “Tommy and myself would be needed for the vital things, if something happened in the middle of the night, like a breakdown or something. They’d send a taxi up in the night to collect me if something had to be done in the hotel, and sometimes the taxi would have to come to the pub to collect me, and I’d have to come up home and then go there.

“One night, at about 2am, I was finishing what I was doing, and inside in the bar were Peter O’Toole, Trevor Howard and Noel Purcell. And Peter O’Toole got a vase with flowers in it, threw the flowers out, didn’t even wash it, and filled it with stout, and sure there was drink pouring all over him. I doubt if you could find the likes of the hotel anywhere else. It is just completely unique.

“You could be doing a job, and the water would be off. When guests would try a tap and nothing was coming out, they’d never think to turn it off and next thing when the water would be back on, you’d be running around the hotel listening for the water because the taps would be running and the guests that had gone out would be after locking the rooms so the emergency key was needed to open them.” 

John Keogh recalling how his late colleague Tommy Ross was an awful trickster and would often write messages on the back of wallpaper. Tommy’s name appeared on a note discovered behind wallpaper in the Metropole Hotel. Picture: Chani Anderson

When asked what his favourite memories are of his time at the hotel, he sits back in his armchair and smiles, saying: “Everyone knew everyone. We just knew every one of the waiters and waiteresses and house maids and concierges - you’d meet them out on the street. You wouldn't have seen that anywhere else. 

"Anything they wanted, they’d just give you a shout, and they knew who they were shouting for. It was unbelievable. We looked out for each other. A small bit of respect for one another goes a long way.” 

Keogh worked until retirement and says he often still gets a knock on the door from apprentices he served his time with down through the years.

“There would often be a knock at the door and it would be apprentices I served my time with who might be back from America and it’s lovely, especially when they say, ‘I was on a job John, and I always say to myself ‘what would Johnny do in this situation’?' And that’s lovely to hear. I always believed in everyone getting a fair crack of the whip,” he says.

Still modestly soaking up the recognition he has been receiving, Keogh says that he and Phyllis have been invited to the hotel to enjoy a full board experience once refurbishments are complete, which he says they look forward to.