Old hands turn new pub into a winner

A CO MAYO pub which opened its doors for the first time barely 15 months ago eclipsed hundreds of others yesterday to be named Ireland’s best pub Crocket’s on the Quay, in Ballina, beat off strong competition from a field of more than 600 entrants to emerge yesterday as the overall winner of the Black & White Pub of the Year 2002 awards.

The top honour was bestowed following deliberations by a panel of trade and celebrity judges which included Ireland and Lions rugby star David Wallace, Fair City actor Stuart Dunne (aka Billy Meehan) and RTÉ weather girl Evelyn Cusack Brothers Paul and Alan Murphy, along with their business partner David Smith, bought the pub, formerly known as the Riverboat Inn, just last year.

But this was not the Murphy brothers’ first venture into the hospitality industry, nor is winning the Pub of the Year award their only claim to success in the business.