Ballinspittle down from 3 to 1.

Ballinspittle, the village past Kinsale in south west Cork and famous for it’s moving statues, (the Statue of the Virgin got jiggy one day and caused a new wave of Catholic fervour to spread across the country. My family, like many families made the trip to see this miracle but were unable to witness it, my Mother sensibly put it down to our Protestantism) used to have three pubs. In the space of a couple of months it has been reduced to one.
Nash’s was a lovely pub, old style, low lighting, good pool table upstairs, and owned by a friendly biker. It shut it’s doors a few months back.
Not long later the Corner bar announced it’s departure. The Corner bar was frequented by the older crowd. This leaves Ballinspittle with one Pub and one happy Pub owner too. Now there is no choice and the pub left has enlarged and aint very charming I must say.

Nancy Spains gone to Pub heaven.

Nancy’s was a hot spot for many years on Barrack street, especially for the gigs it put on out back. I remember going to see the legendary ‘Scottish Sex pistols’ there, a tribute band. I was thoroughly enjoying the gig when I noticed a friend, Shane O’Brien (seasoned Punk enthusiast) looked completly unimpressed. He later revealed that he had seen pictures of the Scottish Sex pistols and these lads were not them…they were imposters. Alas, their manager confirmed the travesty after the gig. The ‘Real’ scottish sex pistols were unable to play and so he hired in a bunch of musicians who learned the chords the night before. A tribute of a tribute band! Didn’t stop Val, another friend from giving them a detailed interview for a fanzine. Apparently it is being done up and will re-open as a pub, that’s good news…better not be a bleedin’ Tapas bar though, like what they did to the Lobby bar.
Anyone else remember good gig’s at Nancy’s?

Some recent Cork City fatalities…

Planning notice up on door of the Monkstown inn

Here we go again. The sign is up. The owners of the Inn, formerly a grand spot, more recently a rather unfortunate (but still popular) super-pub, hope to get planning to level it and build A-P-A-R-T-M-E-N-T-S. This may be one for a picket. Anyone interested?

PEIGS SAVED!!!

A heart warming story of how a lovely 100+ year old local bar near Cobh, county Cork, narrowly escaped the developers greedy claws.

We had heard that Peigs bar, a pub a few of us used to drink in was due to be sold and the intention was to knock it to build apartments. The area where Peigs is located, in Carrigaloe, used to be a very quite spot even though it is beside a station for the Cork to Cobh train route. In the last 5 years, houses and apartmets have been built all the way along the river front. At least 1000 residential dwellings. Peigs was the only bar in the area and the thought of it too being knocked to make way for yet more residences was grotesque in the extreme. How can you knock the only public facility in an area that has seen huge population growth? Quite easily it seems, just approach the retiring proprieter with a wad of cash.

This is what a certain individual, who goes by the Name of Mr. S***** (who incedentaly also played a role in the destruction of the Tower bar in the city) had done. The proprietor, an elderly gent who inherited the pub from his aunt (Peig, who died recently aged 94 and remembered hiding members of the I.R.A. in the pub during the troubles) had very nearly agreed to sell the place.

The menbers of P.I.N.T. decided to do some investigation, as this was a severely pressing cause, it being our own local. We intended to picket the pub, to highlight it’s looming destruction and also as a platform to formerly launch our organisation. We decided, however that it would be wise to have a chat with the owner before such a public demonstration to avoid unnecessary embarrasment. Crossing the Glenbrook to Carrigaloe ferry I first met local songwriting legend John Spillane, who whole-heartedly agreed with the cause of P.I.N.T. he said he was going off to write a song about getting the ferry over to Peigs bar (I wonder if he has?)

At the other end of the ferry i spotted the owner of Peigs who was delivering the Evening Echo to the ferryman. I approached him, announced myself and told him of the organisation I belonged to. He must have been fascinated because he gave me a spin to the pub and bought me a pint of Murphys.

I asked him was it true that the bar was to be knocked and he told me that it had been the case indeed, but within the last two days he had had a change of heart. he had been upset by the aggression that the prospective buyer was employing, apparently putting down the deposit (of rather a large sum of money) before the deal had properly discussed. Also he had sufferred from pangs of guilt. The locals had actually begged him not to deprive them of the only pub in the area. Billy Love proceeded to buy me two more Murphys while I told him how great he was for turning down Mr. S’s greasy dosh.

He told me the fascinating history of the place, how one of the windows still has a bullet hole in it from abullet that came from Passage west across the river during the troubles and how one of the serving girls was shot in the ass, also by a stray bullet. Billy congratulated P.I.N.T. for ‘giving a shit’ enough to want to picket the place and gave me a spin back to the Ferry. GOOD ON YOU BILLY LOVE!!!

It wasn’t too long though before I spotted the planning notice up on another old local in our area. The Monkstown inn is to be knocked to make way for five houses! For Fuck’s sake.

HANDS OFF OUR PUBS!!!

LETS NOT LET THEM TAKE OUR PUBS AND OUR CULTURE FOR THE SOLE PURPOSES OF LINING THEIR POCKETS AND FORCING US TO DRINK IN CRASS AMERICAN STYLE SUPER-PUBS.

HANDS OFF OUR PUBS!!!