Bar scores a high price

MULTI-MILLION euro pub sales are still on the cards despite the economic downturn.

The Queens pub complex in Dalkey sold after auction last week, making close to €7 million though not to Eddie Irvine, as speculated. New monarch at the Queens is Gerry Farrell, who owns Edenmore in Raheny and other bars in Scotland. His partner in the Queens in Tom Mulcahy, a former AIB chief executive and Aer Lingus chairman.

And, in Cork, the Rob Roy bar in Cook Street has new owners, who paid an unconfirmed €2.5 million for the city centre pub, leaving the way open for vendor Finbarr Kearney to make a move to a much larger Cork suburban bar business.

Mr Kearney, who came to Cork city from the pub trade in Skibbereen where he owned Kearney’s Well, is understood to be close to lease/purchase terms on a major Douglas licensed premises, a place loosely valued at up to €6 million but with final discussions being teased out between the intending new operator and the owner over the past several weeks.

Mr Kearney has owned the Rob Roy for the last five years, and has sold it to brothers Sean and Arthur Barrett, who run the Bodhran bar on Oliver Plunkett Street with partner Liam Barry. The brothers were also involved several years ago in running Blackrock Castle, which had been bought by their father Liam Barrett, who had worked with Guinness Peat Aviation. Seán Barrett said they planned to invest further in the Rob Roy, doing up the first floor function room and making the premises even more sporty, tapping into their interest in several sports codes, as members of both Nemo Rangers and Cork Constitution.