Poetic licence

FOR many Irish Americans, a visit to salesman turned publican Frank Gallagher in Bantry is a new stop on the pilgrimage between the Blarney Stone and the Lakes of Killarney. Frank (68) is a bit of a phenomenon he introduced green beer to Bantry and, by his estimation, has brought more than 1,500 visitors to the town since he won a pub there last year.

Frank's pub, the Kilgoban, has one of the most photographed gable walls in the country. It boasts a giant mural with a panorama of the town: the square, Whiddy Island, Bantry House and the pier.

When Frank won the Guinness Win Your Own Pub in Ireland contest, now in its third year, he and his wife June swapped their Florida lifestyle to pull pints in west Cork. In many respects, their life is an Irish American fantasy come true.

It's early evening in the Kilgoban and the Gallaghers are entertaining family and friends from the US, along with a sprinkling of locals. It feels like someone's living room. Frank, a large, convivial man, digs out his scrapbook and launches into an account of the contest.

Frank was one of 35,000 aspiring publicans who sent Guinness a 50 word description of the most memorable pint of the black stuff:

"They carried me into the bar. `Make way' shouted one. A pint of Guinness!" ordered another. The rich, cool, dark, white collared Guinness was presented. The first sip awakened my senses, the second brought me to the reality - I had done it! At age 50 I completed the Boston Marathon!"

Frank never ran the Boston Marathon. ("I tried to get something with action," he explains, "after all, Guinness is supposed to be healthy.") But, working on the theory that tall stories and pubs go together, his poetic licence led to a licence of another kind.

At the three event final in Ireland in May last year, Frank and nine others had to pour a perfect pint, score a bullseye (or the next best thing) in darts and write 50 more words on "Why I should win this pub". Serious advance training in darts and pint pulling at Maguire's pub in Fort Lauderdale, Frank's Irish local, had prepared him. He broke the ice by singing a song while his perfect pint settled. There were no bullseyes in the darts event. Last, the contestants had to recite their texts.

"Go on, Frankie, say it!" June cuts in.

"Show time, everybody!" Frank rises, reminds the company that Gallagher is pronounced with a hard "g", and gives an impromptu performance of the winning text:

"It would be bliss

Selling Guinness

In my beautiful Kilgoban pub.

I've been told

I'm cut from the mould

To pull pints and sell pub grub

I've pipe and fiddle,

Have sung a little,

From Bantry Bay to Malaga

Before this verse

Gets any worse

Give The pub to Gallagher!"

"And they did!" whoops June. "Right on those steps!"

Does it feel like a year ago? "No, it feels like yesterday," she replies and the whole pub breaks into a rendition of Yesterday.

Was Frank surprised to win? "Not really. The other contestants all wrote about coming back to their heritage sentimental hearts and flowers stuff."

In Frank and June's first year they hosted quizzes, parties, a St Patrick's Day celebration (with green beer), and a Fourth of July celebration with music and food, and an enormous US flag sent over by President Clinton.

President Clinton? "Yeah, he saw me on national television over there, and sent it over with a couple of his aides who were going to Ireland. It flew over the Capitol on St Patrick's Day."

The programme was a Today Show on NBC, on which Frank taught the host to pour Guinness in front of five million viewers and simultaneously put the Kilggban on the map.

What about the regulars?

"We heard that some regulars weren't happy that Guinness had given their local to a Yank," admits Frank. "But our attitude is to treat everybody with respect."

The couple built up a clientele and some locals who had defected came back. They also employed good bar staff ("to do the really hard work!") and consulted them frequently.

A big wall chart lists regulars' birthdays. "They bring a cake," says Frank, "and we give them a free drink and put up banners. It's fun."

Genial, rotund, singer, writer of doggerel and all round character, Frank is a dream PR coup for Guinness. If they hadn't found him they would have had to invent him. He toured Guinness's US distributors last year, talking about his experience, and was a judge in this year's contest.

However, he resisted the suggestion that the Guinness logo be added to the Kilgoban mural. "That belongs to the people of Bantry," he says.