Wogan drops in to legendary bar

TWO legends spent the afternoon in an Irish institution yesterday chatting about life for a new TV series due to be screened around the world.

Broadcasting legend Terry Wogan interviewed legendary publican Brian O’Donnell in his landmark Hi-B pub in Cork city for a new travel series for the BBC.

Brian, 77, is one of the city’s best known characters and celebrated 50 years behind the bar this year.

His pub was closed for the day as a select group of Hi-B regulars, including resident piano player Dick O’Sullivan, were filmed by a BBC crew.

Brian was joined by his daughter, Rachel, and her husband, Barry. His devoted wife, Shirley, who has helped him run the character-filled bar for over half a century, was at home minding their first grandchild, Rachel’s four-week-old son, Freddie.

The Hi-B’s equally legendary bar staff, including Susan Cuneen, who has been pulling pints in the pub for more than 20 years, also featured in the shoot, as did her daughter, Stephanie, who was on bar duty last night.

Rachel said it was a huge honour for her family’s bar to be chosen to feature in Terry’s new series.

“This pub has been in the same family for over 80 years. It is an old pub with a lot of character, with real people in it. It’s not manufactured.

“It’s great that we were chosen. The crew was filming in Cobh earlier so it’s great that this series will feature the old, as well as the new Ireland.”

She said her dad is still in fine form. “Ah, he always has some ailment,” she joked, “but he is still in the bar every day overseeing things.”

And she said he dotes over his first grandchild. “He had an old saying: ‘Sure grandchildren are no good to me when I’m dead’. He is in awe and wonder of Freddie.”

Brian presented Terry with a bottle of Jameson Reserve, courtesy of Irish Distillers, when filming ended.

The pub has been in the O’Donnell family since 1924.

Nestled upstairs on Oliver Plunkett Street, across the road from the GPO, little has changed inside its walls.

The place has retained its character, with jazz and opera regularly featuring on the sound system. Notices behind the counter read: “Those who drink to forget, kindly pay in advance” and “Absolutely positively no mobile phones”.