April auction action for Lismore's Foley's on the Mall

A West Waterford bar and gastro-pub, in the heart of the heritage town of Lismore, has 150 years of history, a high reputation and year-round trade, and now has an auction date with destiny, as its owners prepare to move to the Southern states of the US — Texas, it seems, has a hold on them.

Going formally to market is Foley’s on the Mall, a sort of Lismore institution, dating to 1870, and which only left Foley family hands in 2013/14.

That was when local man Eugene Lyons, and his Dallas, Texas-born wife, Caitlin, acquired the Victorian era licensed premises, upgrading to an even higher level and running a gastro pub/food trade, and backing it up with a large beer garden, allowing also for functions.

They met at a wedding in Ireland, when a friend of Eugene’s was marrying a American friend of Caitlin’s: within months, they were engaged, and were married before that other couple’s first anniversary came around. Oh, and not long after, they bought a pub. As you do.

The business seats 100 customers with indoor and outdoor dining spaces.

In excellent order, and trading well, Foley’s on the Mall is due for sale by public auction with joint agents Denise Radley and John P Younge, on April 2, with a guide price of €700,000. The agents say certified trade has grown year on year.

The couple are seeking to travel to Caitlin’s home city of Dallas, and aim to take on a new, as-yet unspecified, business there, with their two young daughters, who arrived after the business reopened (it had been shut for a year before they took it on), in train.

“When we started the business here in Lismore, we were young, happy and free,” laughs Caitlin, with the unfilled update that they are still youngish, happy but a bit more committed.

The vendors have between them nearly 30 years experience in the trade with Eugene Lyons having spent over 20 years in the Dublin licensed market, including over a decade leasing the Quarry House bar in Finglas.

Agent Denise Radley says Foley’s on the Mall is being sold furnished, fitted and equipped to a high standard, with “a sustained volume of business.” Trading over two levels, and extensively upgraded in 2004 and improved again in 2013/14, the 1870-established business now seats 100 with indoor and outdoor dining spaces.

DETAILS: Radleyauctioneers.com, jpyounge.ie