Something to celebrate: Kerry village buys the local pub rather than let it disappear

As one local man says: 'There would be nothing in the place if you didn’t have somewhere to meet. It is the centre of what is a very rural community' 

Sean O'Sullivan's girlfriend, family, and friends threw a surprise 30th birthday bash for him last Saturday in the Inny Tavern. The sole pub in the Gaeltacht village of Dromid on the Iveragh Peninsula in Co Kerry was in danger of closing but the local community rallied together to buy it. Picture: Neil Michael

For a Gaeltacht community of just over 400 people, Dromid is not doing too bad.

While other parts of rural Ireland have seen the slow disintegration of vital services, this part of the Iveragh Peninsula in Co Kerry is raising a glass to toast its fight against creeping rural decline.

One of its local churches, in Mastergeehy, is now an Airbnb holiday let and its nearest post office closed in 2018. But, rather than just accept the closure, members of the community applied for and got the local shop allocated as a Post Point centre for the area. It means it serves as a parcel collection point. It sells stamps and Leap cards, and customers can top up mobiles and pay bills.

Attached to the shop is the Inny Tavern, a pub that is the main focal point not just for the village but the whole area.

Noreen Uí Chonchuir’s husband Humphrey bought the Inny Tavern in Dromid, Co Kerry, in 1996. He has now sold it to the community and social enterprise board, Forbairt na Dromoda. Picture: Neil Michael

Built in 1989 by brothers Jack and Mike O’Connor and their wives Bridie and Brigid, locals like to joke that it is literally “the house that Jack built”.

Set in a large plot of vacant land, it is a short walk from Our Lady of the Valley Church, which was opened in 1990.

Jack O’Connor, who has been manager of the senior Kerry football team since 2021 and has helped guide the county to five All-Ireland SFC titles, stayed on at the pub until 1994, when he sold his share in the business.

His brother Mike ran it until 1996, when Humphrey Ó Conchuir bought it.

Concerns around the future of the pub arose in 2023, when Humphrey decided to put it up for sale.

An aerial view of Dromid, Co Kerry, which Forbairt na Dromoda manager Emir Ní Mhurchú describes as ‘Sleepy Hollow, with a bit of excitement thrown in every so often’. Pictures: Neil Michael

Unusually, the community came together to buy the pub, with their funds gathered from a successful Gofundme campaign and a 15-year bank loan.

Some €20,000 came from money raised by Forbairt na Dromoda, the local community enterprise body, with another €108,405 raised from the Gofundme campaign.

The community beat its own €100,000 target thanks to donations from 792 people — not just in Ireland by also from emigrant communities around the world.

Forbairt na Dromoda manager Emir Ní Mhurchú said the campaign has actually ended up inspiring other rural communities.

Emir Ní Mhurchú of Forbairt na Dromoda, with her children and husband, in Inny Tavern last Saturday, after the blessing of the schoolbags earlier in the evening. Picture: Neil Michael.

“I think we have helped to show people what they can achieve if they put their minds to something,” she said.

“We know some of the donations came from small villages where they had lost their local pub and they wanted to help make sure we saved ours.

“We have also been contacted by communities that are facing losing their pub as they want to emulate what we have managed to do.”

Emir said Ireland has become “Dublin- and city-centred” so it is all the more important for small rural communities to hang onto their local services and amenities.

“Shoving people into cities and towns, shoving up the cost of housing, and then seeing childcare impossible to come upon makes communities like ours all the more relevant,” she said.

“As a community, we’re identifying the things that need improving and saving.

“By allowing anything to slip in a small rural community, by allowing anything to go, you are single-handedly helping in the decline of rural Ireland.

Former Kerry GAA County Board chairman, and current Dromid Pearses GAA Club chairman Diarmuid Ó Sé with regulars at Inny Tavern last Saturday night. Picture: Neil Michael

“We are all invested in this community surviving. So, rather than just stand around and talk about issues affecting us, we tend to do something about it.”

Emir and former Cork City-based accountant Sean Farley, a former treasurer with the local GAA club and the current chairman of Forbairt na Dromoda, were among those who helped lead the fight to save the pub.

“Myself and Emir wanted to do it initially because the pub had been up for sale for a year and a half, and there were no bites really,” said Sean.

“The previous owner wanted to go, and there was an option to sell the property — the house, the shop and the pub — as one sale, and sell the licence. That accelerated things, we just threw a few ideas around.

“If the pub had closed — we got a taste of it during covid — it wasn’t good.”

EMIR SAYS she could see the writing on the wall for the area when it lost its post office.

“If you allow the death of certain things to happen, and you don’t fight back, then they just go bit by bit,” she said.

Dozens of friends of Sean O’Sullivan, centre, greeted him for a surprise 30th birthday celebration at the Inny Tavern when he arrived there with his parents last Saturday. Picture: Neil Michael

“In many ways, the closure of the post office was one of the things that woke me up and made me want to alert as many people to the fact that if they didn’t use their post office, they were going to lose it.”

If the past few months are anything to go by, the community won’t be losing their pub any time soon.

Since the community bought it, it has continued to be a thriving focal point for the community.

Last Saturday night, it hosted a surprise 30th birthday party for one of the area’s senior footballers, Sean O’Sullivan.

While his parents Mary and Paddy and his girlfriend were with him at a meal to celebrate his big day in nearby Waterville, 100 or so of his friends and teammates secretly packed into the Inny Tavern.

The Inny Tavern and shop in Dromid, Co Kerry. Picture: Neil Michael

Mary O’Sullivan said: “He had texted a couple of his frienSds to see if they would meet for a pint but he had no idea a big party had been organised for him.

“It was very hard to keep it all a secret as you can imagine, but he got such a surprise.

“We think it’s fantastic that the pub has been saved.”

Paddy agreed, adding: “There would be nothing in the place if you didn’t have somewhere to meet. It is the centre of what is a very rural community.”

Yesterday, the pub hosted a wedding party, and throughout the summer, it had a steady stream of tourists from Forbairt na Dromoda’s nearby hostel.

Asked to describe Dromid, Emir described it as “Sleepy Hollow, with a bit of excitement thrown in every so often”.

Judging by the past few weeks, there certainly seems to have been a fair amount of excitement recently.