No sign of Byrnes calling time on their family pub business

TRADE NAMES:The Byrnes behind the family pub business E Byrne Sons will clock up a century of involvement in the trade this year, writes Rose Doyle.

THE WICKLOW Byrnes are a determined lot. Where Wicklow is concerned anyway. No matter the times, or century or consequences, they keep making their way back to the Garden County.

The Byrnes were in Wicklow in 1614 from where, times proving difficult and the living tough, they moved to Thurles, Co Tipperary to become farmers and millers, running Manor Mills.

This went well for a long time, until the early 1900s anyway when Edward Byrne, the youngest of a family of six (the others were Denis, Tom, Joe, Madge and Lillian) and in need of making a living, headed for Dublin. He more than made a living. He started E Byrne Sons, a family pub business that's a notable 100 years old this year. He also brought the Byrnes back to Wicklow.

The return of the Byrnes began in the early 1920s when Edward and wife Ellen rented Bushfield Cottage in Greystones as a country home for their family. The move only lasted a year but it re-established the Byrne foothold in Wicklow. Edward and Ellen sent their boys as boarders to be educated in the Presentation CBS in Bray and, in the 1950s, began to seriously root the family and its business in the county.

Denis Byrne - who insists his two brothers "are the main men" in the business, that he's "honoured to be a part of it", is merely the the one "who shoves and pushes and wraps and loads people's cars" - has a fine feel for the family story and a nicely digressive way of telling it.

It helps that he "loves Wicklow, love it, love it. Every inch of the county!"

A passion for 19th century Irish glass has also given him a well-tuned sense of time and its passage and of events therein. With more than a little help from his mother Ann's memory, TradeNames takes a look at the last 100 years of the Byrne story.

"My grandfather, Edward Byrne, was the youngest of a family of Thurles' millers who came to Dublin in the early 1900s to work for a publican called Kennedy who owned a pub at 36 North Wall. My grandfather bought the pub from him in 1908 and it became known as Byrne's of North Wall. It was very close to where the boats came and went to Liverpool so there was great traffic and business."

Edward Byrne married his cousin Ellen Byrne from Toomevara, Co Tipperary, and they had three boys, one of whom died. The others were Paddy, born in 1914, and Liam, born in 1918 - the latter father to Denis and his eight siblings. More of them anon.

"Things went very, very well," Denis says, "and though Edward owned one of the first Dodge cars in the country (bought from O'Neills in Greystones) and living between Greystones and Dublin proved too much, the seed of a love of Wicklow has been sown. My father learned to walk in Greystones!

"In 1934 my grandfather got a soaking at a rugby match, developed pneumonia and died. The family was absolutely devastated. Paddy was 20 and took things over and Dad, who was 16, left school and jumped in with him."

Paddy McKiernan from Cavan joined the brothers.

"He was fantastic, absolutely fantastic," says Denis. "In his late teens, with the two Paddys running things, my father left briefly to work for Beggs the tea people and also studied farming for a year. Number 36 did fantastic business. Unbelievably popular, it could take in £100 on a Friday night in the late 1930s. Soon, Paddy Byrne and Paddy Mac bought the Liverpool Bar, just up the road from number 36. Paddy and Dad and Paddy Mac were a fantastic trio."

Liam Byrne married Ann Haslam from the Burnaby, Greystones, in 1952, a Tuesday wedding with party in the Woodlands Hotel. They holidayed in Juan les Pins, lived in Delgany for a while until, the family growing too large, they moved to a bigger home in Greystones. Their nine children were Eddie, Denis, Listy (aka Mary Elizabeth), Billy (aka William), Patricia, Jenny, John, Nora and Christine.

In 1958 Liam Byrne, independently but without breaking with the family business, bought the Burnaby in Greystones. Known at the time as the Railway Pub/Hotel it's now simply a pub. E Byrne Sons bought the Beach House in Greystones harbour in 1960 and, later in that decade, the Drake Inn in Finglas, north Dublin.

"Paddy McKiernan was an absolutely dynamic man," says Denis. "The cabaret and entertainment in the Drake Inn was his idea. They went on to buy the Duck, across the road from the Drake Inn, and Barry's Hotel in Gt Denmark Street. At some stage, too, they bought the Village Inn in Finglas. I remember working on a Stephen's Day in the 1960s, I was about 10-11, and Paddy Mac giving me a tenner and saying £5 of that's for you and £5 for Charlie Haughey!

"In 1975, Paddy Mac decided to cut his ties with the company. His children were growing up and he wanted them to be able to do their own thing and we ours. It was all very amicable and the families are still great friends. Paddy Mac died a few years ago; a great man.

"When Paddy Mac wanted out we sold Barry's Hotel. The Duck had been CPOd years earlier. Paddy Mac kept the Drake as his cut out. The Liverpool Bar had gone long before and 36 North Wall had been sold to Micky Galligan. It was CPOd by CIÉ and knocked down for plans which didn't go ahead. We bought the Wicklow Arms in Delgany in 1998."

In 1975 Denis Byrne was 21. His brother Edward was 22.

"We all became involved in the business. Eddie has worked incessantly, fastidiously and constantly ever since. He was president of the Licensed Vintners Association in 1996, 1997 and 1998. He and John run the business now and they're great, Billy does human resources. Uncle Paddy died in 1997 and Dad died on March 19th, 1996, just got up and died, suddenly.

"We've worked hard and developed things since. We've never been afraid to take things on and aren't afraid of change now either. We're proud to be in the service industry and will stay in it. Pubs are getting a hiding at the moment and times are fairly tough. We still have the Village Inn, the Burnaby Pub, the Beach House pub in Greystones harbour, and the Wicklow Arms in Delgany."

The Byrne sons; Eddie, Denis, Billy and John run the business. Liam and Ann Byrne's five daughters are "are completely involved and unofficially very much a part of things and great ambassadors for the business", Denis says, "and everyone worked in the 1970s, everyone".

The service industry might be "taking a hiding but it's also organic and always changing. With the breathalyser and smoking ban, food is a big part of the pub trade, as well as the sale of non-alcoholic offerings. It's all about adjusting. We're wholly and totally embracing non-alcoholic offerings with mineral waters and fresh juices and have taken on a qualified barista to ensure the best coffees for customers. We've got great locations and are on a new drive and have fantastic staff, every single one of them behind the new drive.

"We're upgrading the Beach House to make it a focal point of the harbour in Greystones. The Burnaby is already a very fine pub and the Wicklow Arms has been known for food for a long time. We still own 65 acres and a derelict mill in Thurles. We'd been looking at restoring it before Dad died but he died so quickly. We're very proud of being publicans and, with a fourth generation on the way, the business will definitely continue in the family."