'No weddings, but we will have funerals': How Adare village is preparing for Ryder Cup 2027

A year out, is the County Limerick village experiencing the Ryder Cup effect yet? Gemma Tipton pays a visit

The small village of Adare in Co. Limerick has a population of just 1,129, yet it is expected to draw a crowd of a quarter of a million for the Ryder Cup next year

On a sunny midweek morning in Adare, the village is waking up. Early arrivals are getting their coffees at the Heritage Centre, but the car park has yet to clog with coaches. Hit the streets at the right time and you’ll find a sweet spot between rush-hour tailbacks and the tourist trail buses that trundle through as they make Adare a pit stop en route from Killarney to the Cliffs of Moher.

In just a few hours, innumerable cameras will be brandished, as the pretty thatched cottages that line one side of the road provide the perfect backdrop for selfies.

There’s something else in the air right now, as we are just over a year away from the Ryder Cup. In September 2027, golf’s most enormous extravaganza will descend on Adare Manor, bringing a crowd estimated at up to 250,000 to the picturesque Co Limerick spot: Population just 1,129. The hotel itself drips with luxury behind high walls, with access for residents only. This access will, of course, be extended to ticket holders, when the course itself will be testing the mettle of the US and Europe’s teams of golfers.

Richard Atkinson, the European Tour Group’s chief Ryder Cup officer, has confirmed that the site will host more than 20,000 grandstand seats, big screens, and an entertainment programme.

The purpose-built course-side spectator village, The Green, is billed online as “an explorable Irish experience”, and will include food and drink outlets.

But down in Adare village itself, what is the word on the streets?

The first thing you notice are the roadworks. As much as for its scenic beauty, Adare has also been known for its traffic jams, but soon that will be a thing of the past. While many of Ireland’s towns and villages wait and hope for a bypass, Adare’s is currently on schedule to open in June 2027. Meanwhile, works are in train to widen and improve footpaths, include more pedestrian crossings, put in new street lighting, and add landscaping and new street furniture. Speaking of “in train”, there will also be a temporary train station, on the reinstated Limerick to Foynes Freight Line.

Currently the sound of diggers is most evident outside Andrew Timoney’s Draíocht Gallery ( draiochtadare.ie). Since opening in 2010, Timoney specialises in the work of Irish artists and makers, including ceramists Mandy Cheng and Eibhlín Dunne, and artists Ann Stewart, Louise Barrett, and Ivan Daly. Spot something you like here, and Timoney is bound to have a story about the artist, plus you get the impression that he really wants things to go to good homes. Before the golf tournament announcement, back in 2019, he says that, “people would always ask two questions: is there free parking, and when will this place be bypassed?” Now, he says, they’re also asking about the Ryder Cup.

Andrew Timmony of Draíocht Art Gallery in the village of Adare, Co Limerick, Ireland.

This won’t be Adare’s first taste of flocks of golfers, the Manor having hosted the Irish Open in 2007 and 2008 and, throughout the years, the JP McManus charity Invitational Pro Am, which, Timoney says, “brought a lot of people who weren’t only overly interested in golf. They wanted to see Bill Murray, kiss Jamie Dornan. Emily Hatton spent the entire day here with me, that’s Tyrrell Hatton’s wife,” he continues, recalling the 2022 edition of the tournament. Unconvinced as to whether the Ryder Cup will bring a similarly mixed audience in, and consequently give local traders a boost, his hope is that, once the bypass is complete, people will still see the Adare sign, turn off, and come in to enjoy the village — and maybe leave with some lovely art too.

The Pro Am also brought business, and an exciting life opportunity to Aisling Maher, owner of the Aisling Maher boutique on Adare’s Main Street (aislingmaher.com). Having graduated as an architect during the last recession in 2010, she quickly decided on a change of trade, and began to make hats and headpieces.

Milliner, designer and boutique owner Aisling Maher at her store in the village of Adare, Co Limerick, Ireland. Picture: Larry Cummins

“They were stocking them at the Adare Manor boutique when Catherine Zeta-Jones came in and bought one. She wore it to the gala dinner. That,” she says, with a smile, “catapulted me into the fashion industry.”

Maher, who opened her shop in 2013, anticipates that the Ryder Cup will be like the other major tournaments hosted at the Manor, “our local trade does get affected, as it’s too hard for people to get into the village, but we’re hoping that there will be a different sort of trade around. People will be coming by train and walking up through the village, and there’s campsites and glamping spots, so there will be an awful lot of people.” With a workspace in the back of the boutique, all Maher’s headpieces and hats are handmade, and she also makes custom pieces to commission, for sale alongside a standout array of women’s’ wear and accessories. On the Business Liaison panel for the 2027 Ryder Cup, Maher is unsurprisingly excited about the possibilities it brings.

“It’s a positive thing,” she says. “There’s still a lot of nervousness with the retailers and traders, about what the day-to-day events will be like. But we have to look at it from the overall picture: Every day, we’re already having people coming from the United States, from Europe and the UK, because they’ve heard of Adare, because of the Ryder Cup.” Maher is also appreciative of the allocation to locals, who (within a specific catchment area) have been gifted tournament tickets. “It’s something they’ve never done before, and it was extremely generous.” So will she be going? “Definitely,” she says.

Spend time in Adare, and you quickly realise there’s a lot more going on than mere golf- anticipation.

Lynda O’Mahony is parish secretary.

“There won’t be weddings during the Ryder Cup,” she says. “All the hotels, guest houses, beds in the sheds, all the B&Bs, they’ll all be booked up. Limerick, Cork city too, probably as far as Dublin. They’ll park and ride, take the train, or helicopter, if you’re rich. So no weddings, but we will have funerals. You can die,” she says smiling, “if the occasion arises.”

Plenty of local people, she says, are thinking of renting their houses. “People are excited, but also daunted. Logistically it’s a lot of people coming in, but now is the opportunity to reap the rewards [...] Yes, it’s an opportunity to make a few extra bucks, maybe go on holiday, but it’s also an opportunity to give someone somewhere to stay for a week.”

Alongside the ticket allocation, home rentals are a topic of conversation in the town, but from O’Mahony’s point of view, the real benefit will be in the legacy: The bypass, the footpaths, the seating, and street lighting. “It’s for now,

and for the future, not just that week in September.”

It was a little early when I walked by lovely Café Lógr at the top of the town, but now, catching a quiet moment, I stop for coffee at the Adare Grocer. A relatively new business, the Grocer was opened in July 2025 by husband and wife team Mark Lynch and Anna Coffey. Anna originally worked as a pastry chef at Adare Manor, while Mark’s background is in restaurant operations, having worked with Dillinger’s, Green Nineteen, and Taco Taco in Dublin — experiences that make the pair naturals for their own charming bakery, deli, wine and coffee shop.

Village grocers Mark Lynch and Anna Coffey-Lynch at their Adare Grocer premises in the village of Adare, Co Limerick, Ireland.

“We’re much more part of the community here,” Coffey says, musing on the difference between living in Dublin and Adare. “We get a huge amount of tourists, but also locals who come in every day,” she adds, pointing out the shelf where regulars keep their own cups and mugs.

The coffee is, indeed, excellent, as is the miso infused caramel cookie, which I try out of pure curiosity but finish because it’s so delicious. “We have people who’ve lived here for generations, and people who have moved for work, because of places like the Manor. So you never feel like an outsider.”

Between the Tidy Towns and the business owners, there’s a great deal of local pride, and Lynch says the mood is overwhelmingly positive about the Ryder Cup. “We’re getting the bypass, new trees, widening the paths. We’re very, very lucky as a village,” he says. “I think we’ll do great.”

Just across the way, the Arches Restaurant is setting up for lunch. “I grew up here,” says John O’Connell. “My parents opened the restaurant 35 years ago. Going back, there’s a lot more traffic now, but we might go back, with the bypass, to the quieter way it was. You have to go with the changes,” he continues, adding that even now his international visitors are talking about “having to come back next year”.

John O'Connell at The Arches Restaurant in the village of Adare, Co Limerick. Picture: Larry Cummins

“Most people would mention the Ryder Cup. How many little villages in Ireland, or the world, would not love to have the Ryder Cup,” O’Connell says.

O’Connell’s daughter will be making the most of the pair of tickets gifted by the organisation. “I’ll be working here, and she’ll be enjoying the whole thing,” he says wryly.

Aoife McNamara ( aoifemacnamara.com) is selling her own contemporary-yet-classic designs, made with Irish fabrics, in her signature cottage boutique.

Aoife McNamara pictured at Aoifes Cottage, in Adare, Limerick. Picture: Brian Arthur

The Ryder Cup has given her business a definite lift, and with Adare’s international profile it has given her the boost she needed to ramp up — to the point that she is now preparing to bring her designs to New York Fashion Week in September. “It’s a huge opportunity for us to focus on the US market. That’s a really exciting part of the year-long journey of preparing for the Ryder Cup,” she says. The proximity of Adare Manor is also excellent for business, recalling JP McMahon gifting vouchers for local shops to Pro Am participants, ensuring both goodwill and sales.

McNamara is now taking the Ryder Cup into account as she designs her next collections. “We’re really focusing on our Irish wools, and the beautiful textiles we have. And we’re looking at blazers, the jumpers, and the ‘Paddy Caps’ that the women might wear. It was probably last summer that I first heard visitors coming in talking about the Ryder Cup. I think it brings a certain type of person that really suits my brand. It is very exciting.”

Aoife's Cottage, Adare, Co Limerick offering clothing by Irish designer Aoife McNamara. Clothes inspired by nature. Picture: Larry Cummins

A sign outside Aunty Lena’s Bar, further reads “Last Watering Hole Until Dublin”, which may indeed have been true, once upon a time. History is still alive upstairs, where a small local museum tells colourful tales of the former lords of the manor, the Earls of Dunraven, who numbered archaeologists and adventurers in their ranks. I settle down in a side snug, which bar manager Rod Brosnahan tells me was originally a holding cell. “Everyone who comes for the Ryder Cup, I hope they’ll have a great time and enjoy the experience, because the people around are putting their heart and soul into it,” he says.

Rod Brosnahan, manager at Aunty Lena's / Charlie Chawke Bar in the village of Adare, Co Limerick. Picture: Larry Cummins

Brosnahan describes advising visitors on their tours of Ireland on places to visit, from beauty spots to bars. The name recognition from the Ryder Cup, he says, is adding Adare to the likes of Killarney, Kenmare, Dingle, Galway City, and the Aran Islands. “Tourism has changed,” he says. “People want to feel part of something now.” And as to the Ryder Cup itself? “People don’t know what to expect,” he says, agreeing that it has been so long in coming, it is almost like a really, really far away Christmas that is, nonetheless, getting closer at last.

“But people will come, and some will come into the village, and most will go away to their hotels, their B&Bs; their busses and coaches will take them away. The outcome I most wish for? That it doesn’t rain.”