The Venue for a new venture for veteran publican Dennehy

Having just stepped down from a three-year term as county chairman of the Vintners Federation of Ireland, publican Con Dennehy has taken ownership of The Venue bar, in Cork’s suburban Ballintemple.

One of Cork’s best-known bar owners, Dennehy is second-generation in the trade and long-associated with Dennehy’s bar on the Coal Quay.

Dennehy’s was run by his father, John, and, later on, by his mother, Maura.

In the trade “since I was a toddler around 1957; it’s like the circus, you have to be born into it!” Dennehy says, he is now moving across the city to take up the taps at the far larger, circa 5,500 sq ft The Venue, while Mary Dennehy will stay on at the Coal Quay/Cornmarket Street bar.

Dennehy and his partner in the new business, Kate Tierney, aim to be trading in Ballintemple by the end of May/start of June, in time for the June 9 kick-off of the Live at the Marquee concerts at the Ballintemple/Marina Showgrounds, which will run up until mid-July.

And while the Marquee’s years may be numbered, given competing bids for a permanent concert venue/events centre in the city, the area will be boosted by moves to redevelop Páirc Ui Chaoimh and the Marina, at a multi-million euro cost.

The Venue bar, sold by the Treacy family, needs modest refurbishment and investment, and suffered roof and water damage during the past winter’s storms, when it had not been trading, and had been rented out in the past several years, along with a first-floor restaurant.

There’s an expected refurbishment spend of about €100,000, and Dennehy says he could not comment on the price he paid to acquire the bar, in a private deal with the Treacy family.

A substantial, non-residential premises, it had been on the market, last year, for €495,000, having been offered, back in 2006, for €2.4m. Since then, the bar trade has plummeted — with the number of licensed Cork premises dropping below 1,000, from a 2005 figure of 1,200. “We want to be a part of the community here,” says Mr Dennehy, who will have a small, traditional bar for locals, as well as a larger section for TV and sports, and will do a limited food offering.