Clonakilty from Collins to Covid: Town with storied past looks to the future

Dena O'Donovan, with her brother Joe O'Donovan and his son Joe at O'Donovan's hotel in Clonakilty Co Cork.

O’Donovan’s Hotel has been at the centre of life in Clonakilty since the 1850s with a famous guest list matching its colourful history. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, the hotel and the West Cork town have adapted to deal with Covid-19 and lockdown, while also planning a safe and successful future.

The history of O'Donovan's

Giants of history such as General Michael Collins, Charles Stewart Parnell and Guglielmo Marcon, the man who pioneered the radio, all stayed here — but they’ve been eclipsed in the annals of O’Donovan’s Hotel by a monkey called Tojo.

Along the way one of the longest family-owned hotels in the country has hosted a number of famous guests and some unusual ones, like the crew of an American World War Two bomber and their mascot, a spider monkey called Tojo, named after the Japanese warlord Hideki Tojo who was executed at the end of the war by the Americans for genocidal war crimes across China, Korea, and the Philippines in particular.

War of Independence hero General Michael Collins was a regular visitor to the hotel, which is hardly surprising as he was born a few miles away, and delivered many orations from a first floor balcony window to huge crowds below.

An earlier patriot, Irish Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell, also gave an oration from the same window about the struggle for Irish Home Rule.

He was so popular at the time that on his arrival he was escorted into the town by a local fife and drum band.

Another guest, albeit by mistake, was the man who pioneered the radio, Guglielmo Marconi.

Tojo the monkey at O'Donovan's Hotel and Lt Col Sean Cosden, US defence attache at the 70th commemoration for the B17 bomber Taint a Bird which landed in White's marsh in 1943 near Clonakilty, Co Cork. Picture Dan Linehan

He was on his way by train to Crookhaven where he was supposed to help work on the famous transatlantic wireless station.

However, at Clonakilty Junction he mistakenly took the train directly to Clonakilty, instead of proceeding onto the Bantry line to get to Crookhaven.

He was directed to O’Donovan’s Hotel, where he stayed, and was later provided with a car and driver to get him to his intended destination.

While Marconi was a bit off track, it was nothing compared to that of the crew of an American Flying Fortress bomber which had to crash-land close to the town in 1943.

The crew of a US Air Force “Boeing B-17f-25-DL Fortress S 42-3090 U 334/95BG” named “T’aint a Bird,” was forced to make an emergency landing close to the town on April 7, 1943.

The bomber was on its way from North Africa to England when it strayed off course and ended up hovering over Clonakilty. Very low on fuel its pilot was eventually forced to land on White’s Marsh, between the local mainland and the island of Inchydoney.

The 10-strong crew survived unscathed along with Tojo, an Egyptian spider monkey, who became a celebrity on his arrival in the town, as did, to a lesser extent the Yanks.

They’d bought him at a flea market in Morocco a few days earlier as a mascot.

Being local celebrities in the town and Éamon de Valera’s government taking a soft line on the Americans — even though we were supposed to be neutral — the crew and Tojo were put up in O’Donovan’s Hotel and treated like royalty.

A local garda was supposed to follow them around all the time and make sure they were not getting up to any monkey business.

There was no shortage of garda volunteers for this particular mission, as they had to do what the American did — like visiting the pubs. It was just manners!

The Yanks, delighted to be out of the war at least for a short spell, decided to thoroughly enjoy the hospitality that the people of Clonakilty were offering.

Unfortunately it seems the monkey, more used to a hotter climate, succumbed to the Irish weather and developed pneumonia.

Despite the best efforts of Clonakilty vets, doctors and even chemists, Tojo sadly died just a few days later after his arrival.

Such was the “out-pouring of grief”, that several hundred locals attended the monkey’s wake, and filed past his body which was laid out in one of the hotel bedrooms. He was buried with full military honours in the backyard of the hotel.

Eventually a mobile runway was laid and the plane took off for England via Shannon on May 2, 1943.

On Sunday, July 17, 1988, the Warplane Research Group of Ireland erected a plaque to commemorate the landing of Taint-a-Bird.

The guests

Moldovans Igor Rotaru, 44, and Veceslav Alli, 30, said it was “good to be able to have a pint after a hard day’s work”.

As essential workers it’s a luxury many of us can only envy. But there’s not the same craic downing a few beers after their meal.

Igor Rotaru and Veceslay Alli.

“There’s no fun in Irish pubs (hotel bars) now,” Igor said.

“It’s very strange to be in here with nobody around. It’s a different feeling, it’s a bit lonely. Before there was great fun in Irish pubs and hotels.”

Hardly surprising as people are socially spaced in the hotel and don’t talk to each other like they did when nobody had heard of Covid-19. There’s no band, no sing-song.

“I miss the sing-song, the music,” Veceslav said.

Dena says they usually stop serving in the bar by 9.30pm, because everybody’s gone up to their room by then.

The two men were staying in O’Donovan’s as they work for a company that specialises in fire-proofing buildings and has contracts in West and Mid-Cork.

They were working on three different social housing construction sites in Skibbereen, Macroom, and Clonakilty.

One week they’ll be staying in O’Donovan’s because it’s very central to their workplaces in Cork, but another week they can be in a hotel in a different part of the country. Igor said:

The service is good. We are enjoying it here the best we can.

Both men said they were very happy with the hotel and loved its old style and great history, Igor pointing out that he’d seen and liked the Michael Collins movie.

Both men live in Clane, Co Kildare, and are married. Igor and his wife live in Clane with their daughter, 17, and have an older child who’s currently in Romania.

Veceslav’s wife and three-year-old son are back in Moldova. He’s “missing home and them very much”.

He said he spends a lot of time texting his family and watches television to pass the time.

Both are working on no-limit contracts. Veceslav hopes to go home for a bit soon.

“We have a good boss so if we need to go at any time we just have to ask,” Igor said.

They are grateful as essential workers they can stay in hotels, otherwise they’d be facing a near three-hour each way commute to West Cork from Clane, which would be extremely tiring.

They said the Covid-19 situation wasn’t much better in their home country and had led to a lot of political infighting there, which wasn’t helping the situation.

Moldova has a few Irish pubs which they said are very popular, but like Ireland all their pubs are locked down as well. Vaccination is also proceeding at a slow rate.

‘You miss meeting friends — it's dead now’

Noel Kiely lives in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and works for McAree Engineering, based in Co Monaghan.

He works on selling upgraded meal storage systems for diary, pig, and poultry farmers and as such can be all over the country.

“We weren’t considered essential workers during the first lockdown, but that changed in June when the Government realised the importance [of us] to the agri-industry,” Noel said.

He has stayed in O’Donovan’s Hotel “many times over the years”. “We do external feeding systems like silos etc. I work as a sales rep for the company and have been in the job for the past 16 years,” he said.

Pre-Covid-19 Noel used to love coming to Clonakilty on Tuesdays especially because there would be music sessions in the hotel and nearby pubs.

“It’s dead now,” he said of the social life. 

"I pass the time by going for walks and enjoying the views and having the odd pint.

“If you want to meet somebody for a meal (a client or other sales rep) there’s nowhere to go. You can’t meet contacts in a hotel because they are non-residents.

"You can’t meet somebody downtown, or meet other reps you’ve known over the years. You miss meeting friends on the circuit, that’s all gone,” Noel said.

“If the weather is good, you can go for a stroll around the town to pass the time.”

He usually stays in O’Donovan’s two or three times a month when he’s covering the South-West region.

You could say I’m nearly part of the family at this stage.

"I like to stay in a place which has character and this has loads of it. I’m treated very well here, otherwise I wouldn’t stay here,” Noel said.

“I consider their Covid-19 protocols top class. I would be very careful where I stay because of Covid.”

He’s looking forward to music sessions in pubs and hotels again, but isn’t holding his breath.

“I think pubs as we know them won’t return to normal until well into 2022,” he said.

‘It has been tough going but the staff are lovely here’

David Fitzsimons, 54, fits farm equipment, such as cubicles for cows, calf sheds, cattle crushes etc.

He was staying in O’Donovan’s Hotel with a work colleague as they were working at the Teagasc centre on the outskirts of the town.

David Fitzsimons.

He has been working for the past 20 years with Condon Engineering, a company based in Co Louth and as such has spent a lot of time away from home staying in hotels.

On top of having to deal with Covid-19 he’s also suffered a recent tragedy in his life.

He explained that his wife, Mary, died 18 months ago, at the age of 53. The couple had one son, Ross, aged 19.

“It has been tough going. It’s a bit lonely at home as a result. The young fella is working away and has a girlfriend, so it’s OK for me to get away,” David said.

Although he’s been all over the country for his job and stayed in multiple hotels, both here and in the North, this was the first time he’d been in O’Donovan’s.

“They are lovely people here (the staff) I must say. I’ve been in other hotels where you just get a bed only for the night (no evening meal) and I don’t like going to the chipper,” David said.

He said he was “a great one for a sing song”, but during the current pandemic people are reluctant to talk to each other in hotels and therefore “there’s no craic”.

David said he hopes the pubs will be able to reopen before the end of the summer because he misses meeting his mates and the singing,” even more so now as his wife is not around.

The hotel worker

Sinead Watton is very grateful for having a job in O'Donovan's, even though her hours have been cut from full-time to 24 hours a week as a result of the pandemic and decrease in the number of guests.

For three years she's been doing most jobs in the hotel, from waitressing to bar work, helping out in the kitchen and in housekeeping.

Sinead Watton serves Noel Kiely.

“I'm glad for it. Without a job your motivation goes. This job was perfect as I'm doing drama studies and it was a perfect fit with shifts here to suit,” Sinead says.

The 30-year-old lived in Birmingham, England, until she was 12, when she moved back to Clonakilty. Her father was born in nearby Dunmanway and mother is from Birmingham. Sinead says she is far happier living here.

She lives with her parents on the outskirts of Clonakilty. Her father David works in Eily Lilly, while her mother, Linda, is a frontline worker at Care Choice in Clonakilty and has received her second Covid-19 vaccine.

“I'm thankful for that, not just for her sake but for the people she's caring for,” she said.

Unfortunately, Sinead's face to face drama classes have shut down like most other things and auditions are non-existent.

I was completely cut off from my creative side and creative friends. 

"Even with Zoom (online meetings) you can feel the disconnect. I'm hoping to do an 'acting for camera' course.

"Getting the job back here was a mental health crutch. I'm glad to be here, it gives me a purpose,” she says.

She hasn't been happy up to now with different government members giving conflicting information over the lockdown “which isn't helping". 

“I think we (the country as a whole) may open up for a couple of weeks in the summer and then shut down again,” she said.

Fighting food waste

A special initiative to cut down on food waste is being undertaken in Clonakilty with the goal that every business will have its own digester producing compost for allotments.

Orla O'Donovan, chairperson Clonakilty Chamber of Commerce.

This Cool Clon project is being led by Orla O’Donovan, chairperson of Clonakilty Chamber of Commerce, who owns the popular Fig and Olive restaurant, close to Scally’s SuperValu.

Food waste is the third biggest problem when it comes to climate change.

"As a community we wanted to do something to address this.

"We worked with Norma Crowley of the Cool Plant Experience in Co Wicklow who is a climate change expert. We organised workshops for schools which the chamber paid for and held a public exhibition on the subject as well,” Ms O’Donovan said.

Plans to introduce a pilot project were held up when Covid-19 hit. But now those involved are “re-energised and raring to go”.

Eilish Mundy, a tutor with Cork ETB, is working with local businesses to examine what type of food waste they generate and how best to use it. 

“Local allotments are setting up a food digester/composter and we’re hoping all businesses will have digesters to produce compost. 

We’re also looking at purchasing another machine which turns food waste into fuel.

“We want to eventually encourage every household in the area to get a digester. A group scheme might make this cheaper.

"Households which don’t have a composting bin are paying to get rid of their food waste in black bags so getting a digester would save them money in the long-run.

"Now (during Covid-19) is a great opportunity for us to reset what we do (in relation to addressing climate change),” she said.

Covid-19 has cost her and other businesses dearly. She only managed to open for 15 weeks of the past 52 and has been closed three times during that period.

Ms O’Donovan also has a similar business in Carrigaline and had to lose 20 staff. 

She did some outdoor dining, but the Irish weather interfered with that and “takeaway on its own wasn’t viable”. 

Lockdown has cost me and a lot of other businesses a considerable amount of money.

However, she was quick to point out that her landlord, Eugene Scally (of Scally’s SuperValu), “had been exceptionally understanding”. 

Ms O’Donovan plans to open a food truck at the rear of her premises serving US-style burgers, skinny fries and milkshakes.

She’s hopeful businesses like hers will be able to reopen fully by mid-June, but recognises that’s a moveable feast. 

“In June, July and August there’s a 30% increase in people in the town due to tourism and businesses will be hoping to capitalise on that.

"We’re trying to work on a plan to capture the ‘Silver Pound’ market for September and October and also initiatives for November and Christmas.

"We’ve (local businesses) a lot of ground to make up. We need to open with our ‘A’ game,” Ms O’Donovan added.

Chamber plans for better days

Clonakilty Chamber members have been beavering away on a number of projects. These include a major rebranding programme aided by Fáilte Ireland designed to attract more international tourists to the area, further developing a highly-successful shop local voucher system and a scheme to help address climate change.

Michael Scully, founder and MD of  Clonakilty Distillers.

The chamber isn’t sitting on its laurels, despite launching a very successful shop local voucher campaign last year when the first lockdown restrictions were eased.

In an effort to circulate money locally, last year business leaders launched a voucher scheme intended to give people living in the general hinterland discounts which were available at a multitude of diverse outlets.

They sold €320,000 worth of Clonakilty Vouchers which ensured the money went only to support town businesses and their families. 

Unlike many other vouchers, they don’t have an expiry date and don’t lose any of their face value, no matter how long people hold onto them. The chamber says, with some notable pride, this is the beauty of their scheme.

Extraordinarily, €150,000 of vouchers still have to be redeemed. Some may have forgotten about them. It’s even believed a few may have purchased them simply to support the local business community, having no intention of cashing them in.

But there’s a wide belief many are holding onto them for leisure, especially when pubs and restaurants reopen.

Clonakilty Chamber says these unspent vouchers will provide a very welcome financial kick-start to the town’s economy once the pandemic lockdown restrictions start lifting.

Digital voucher scheme

They are also aiming to enhance the scheme. At present it’s a paper-based system and they’ve spent the winter liaising with a digital agency which specialises in tourism and recreational apps.

Currently they’re designing a digital voucher system that will complement the present paper vouchers.

The intention is to have it possible to purchase vouchers online at any time or day and send them by email to friends or family who will be able to load them onto their smartphones and use them for purchases in local shops.

It’s expected this will be up and running by the summer. The digital vouchers will be only one aspect of the new town app which the chamber has under development.

The plan is that it will contain a host of other features such as attractions, accommodation, ‘hikes and trails,’ self-guided tours, shopping features, information on food and drink establishments and a load of other useful information for tourists.

Everything about Clonakilty will be available at the touch of a button on someone’s smartphone.

Michael Scully, a member of the chamber who owns the highly successful Clonakilty Distillery, has helped to set up a team representing a broad cross-section of businesses which are to liaise with a Fáilte Ireland ‘mentor’ to rebrand the town.

“There was a realisation among chamber members that Clonkality hadn’t been rebranded for 20-plus years. The purpose of this is to make it a destination for both domestic and international tourists. We want to figure out our target customers and the best means of communicating to them,” Michael said.

Community 'buy-in'

He’s hoping there will be a full “community buy-in” for the project, especially as rising tides lift all boats.

“The team will include representatives from retail, professional services, the food sector, hotels, B&Bs from Clonakilty and its hinterland. Fáilte Ireland have graciously offered to give us a mentor to help us with this,” he said.

Mr Scully said the project might take a full year to complete, but it will be worth it in the end.

There’s never been more stuff to do around Clonakilty. 

"We’ve a lot of lovely beaches, fabulous walks and there’s more on the way.

Colette Twomey, who owns the highly-successful Clonakilty Black Pudding company, has purchased Lisselan House, a French chateau-style house with an adjoining 315 acres, just 5km from the town.

A former former EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, plans to construct an 18-hold golf course there.

Ms Twomey has created a very successful visitor centre at her factory.

Mr Scully has also created a very impressive one at his distillery.

It greeted 7,000 visitors between April and December last year and he’s looking forward to seeing more and more arrive when lockdown eases.

Plans had been afoot to have a spectacular fireworks display over the bay in Clonakilty over St. Patrick’s weekend where people could watch from the safety and comfort of their own cars.

However, this had to be scuttled with the Covid-19 restrictions being extended into April. It may be revisited in the summer, depending on easing of lockdown measures, but longer evenings are not conducive to fireworks displays.

So it most likely that the fireworks won’t be set off until Christmas when finally people may finally have something to celebrate.

Live music

Clonakilty is renowned nationally and internationally for its music pubs — Shanleys and DeBarras.

Despite the pandemic, the owners of the latter are still hoping to host the 17th annual Clonakilty International Guitar Festival in September.

Ray Blackwell of DeBarras said: “We are currently planning hybrid events with a mixture of live audience shows, at reduced capacity we expect, and live streaming.

"The only way we have managed to keep this festival going last year and again this year is due to support from the Arts Council and Cork County Council so we are very grateful to them.”

Updates will be provided at here

Noel Redding has played at DeBarras for 27 years. Picture: Des Barry

Noel Redding, a member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, played DeBarras regularly for the last 27 years of his life. 

“His influence lives on today in DeBarras and the whole of West cork,” Ray said.

The bar only opened for three days last September, before lockdown kicked in again.

“The most important thing as far as we’re concerned after public health safety is that we cannot afford to open only to be closed down again.

“While government supports have been welcome, including the most recent announcement of the live performance support scheme by Minister Catherine Martin, it’s really frustrating to be one whole year into this and still have no proper road map back to work,” Ray said.

Bill Shanley’s pub has been in the family almost 120 years. It’s seen performances from Paul McCartney’s brother, Mark, (The Scaffold), and an impromptu gig from some members of Status Quo, who arrived unannounced while taking a break from an Irish tour in 1984.

Now, unfortunately, the celebrated pub has fallen silent. 

Bill explained that the pub managed to open for two weeks last September “which was very successful with social distancing.” However, there was no live music, just background stuff.

“Once we get the green light (for reopening) we will work on reinstating live music. A lot of my musician friends are looking to get out and play again. I’ll be working on this,” Bill said.

His mother, Phil, explained she’s been in the pub all her life. “I just want to get back to work,” she said.