Bar talk: Cork's Hi-B reopens but mobile ban remains
Mother and daughter Nancy O'Donnell and Rachel O'Donnell-Barry have reopened with several innovations at Cork's Hi-B bar — but it's also honouring the spirit of the late Brian O'Donnell. So switch off that phone please. Picture: Dan Linehan
Cork’s famous Hi-B bar has finally reopened after a 705-day Covid closure and the 19th-century pub now offers a few modern touches for changing consumer habits.
While the cherished city centre institution now boasts a credit card machine and a coffee machine, it’s still true to its late, great landlord, the charismatic and cantankerous Brian O’Donnell, his daughter, Rachel said, confirming his legendary mobile phone ban remains in force.
“It was his life. He loved the people, the craic, and the banter, so despite some of the modernisation, it’s still very much true to him,” she said.
“This will be a better chapter for the Hi-B. We have something very specific to offer in a comfortable and safe environment."
There's a new sound system too, and a wine list but Rachel said: “We’ll still be playing the old tunes, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, and the old record player can still be wheeled out for the special occasions. It’s quite easy to get a party going in this space.”
Her mother, Nancy, 76, was there too on Thursday as the doors reopened, keeping an eye on things.
Rachel said: “She had the option of retiring but she was having none of it — absolutely none of it.”
Once part of the Hibernian Hotel on the corner of Oliver Plunkett St and Winthrop St, the cosy bar was built in the 1860s as a hotel bar on the first floor to avoid flooding which then, as now, frequently hit the street below.
It was bought by Brian’s parents in 1924 and he took over as pub landlord following his father’s death, going on to run it in his own inimitable way, becoming a legend in the process.
As this newspaper reported in December 2019 following his death, Brian was an occasionally cheerful, but mostly grumpy publican whose exploits and foibles became the stuff of folklore.
The pub has always attracted an eclectic mix of customers, including writers, artists, bankers, and lawyers, rich and poor alike, many curious to feel the experience that was Brian O’Donnell.
Regulars would barely notice if he came downstairs into the bar in his pyjamas, or sat on a bar stool wearing nothing but a grin and a tea towel.
Mobile phones and chewing gum were banned and being barred from the Hi-B was considered a badge of honour.
Rachel believes he would approve of the changes and be delighted at the reopening.
“When he’d tell a story, his timing was impeccable. And even when he checked out, his timing was impeccable,” she said.
“In his lifetime, this business was never closed. Hail, rail, flood, famine, pestilence, we opened. It never mattered if nobody came in — the point was we were open for business, that was the ethos.
“The only days I remember being closed were in 1990, for our grandmother’s funeral, and we closed for two nights when dad died. But that was it.
“So we’re delighted to finally reopen again. It feels a bit like putting on a comfortable old boot again that hadn’t been worn for some time.”
Many of the bar’s long-serving staff have also returned to work.
Among the many high-profile visitors over the years were comics Laurel and Hardy in the 1960s, Eamon Andrews, and more recently, Terry Wogan and Ryan Tubridy.
