Not just surviving, but thriving

It’s an October afternoon and the main street of Fethard in Co Tipperary is jammed with traffic. Heavy traffic isn’t something you expect to see in a small Irish town on a damp autumn afternoon. But Fethard isn’t just any small town. It’s smack bang in the middle of horse breeding country with Coolmore just over the road and Ballydoyle only a few kilometres away.

Irish Country Living is in Fethard to meet Jasper Murphy, the engaging owner of McCarthy’s Bar.

Stepping across the threshold of this well-known watering hole and restaurant is like turning the clock back to when snugs were a feature of pubs and you could hardly see yourself in the subdued lighting.

While the décor has changed little in 100 years, on my visit the place is closed as the existing kitchen is being demolished to be replaced by one that can handle the needs of the business today.

In addition, the restaurant is being extended and under-utilised rooms are being brought into service.

“We are undertakers as well as having our pub, and our pub business is reliant on food and we need to up the ante on our food offering. I know the pub business, but I don’t know food so Conor Sheridan, formerly of the Glandore Bistro is coming on board as chef,” says Jasper.

In a way, this retention of all that’s good while keeping up with modern needs is the secret behind the success of McCarthy’s Bar where the fifth generation of the family is now in charge of the business.

Influential women

Throughout his life you could say Jasper Murphy has been surrounded by very capable woman. His mother Annette, who remains very active in the business; his wife Sarah and their four young daughters. And then there were his three grandaunts.

“I had three influential grandaunts who all lived here at one time or another.

"Aunt Nell was a district nurse and people in Tipperary might remember she rode a motorbike when out on her calls.

"Now the trouble with Aunt Nell was that she didn’t believe in brakes. Instead, she blew a whistle to warn of her arrival and didn’t slow down.

“Aunt Kitty spent her life working on the floor in Switzer’s of Grafton Street and she retired here. She was always a stylish lady. Then there was Aunt Beatty also known as ‘The Boss’. Aunt Beatty took over the business when her brother, Jack, died. She was one of the first female undertakers in the country as was her mother before her and together these three formidable ladies ran the show from the parlour.”

Jasper’s mother Annette, who is a niece of these three ladies, came to live and work in the business in the 1970s and is still heavily involved today. She was the family breadwinner as her husband Stan who was a jockey, lost his career in a bad car crash.

Early start

By the time he was 10-years-old, Jasper Murphy was serving behind the bar, and by 13 he was working in the family undertakers.

“I can still remember the first time I went out with the hearse. I fancied myself as a drummer so I was always easy to find. One day I was told I was going out with Bob, who worked with us. To be honest, it felt really weird but I got used to it.”

Dream job

After primary school, Jasper was sent to Coláiste na Rinne where he shined up his Irish, and then for the next five years he boarded at Cistercian College, Roscrea, where he sat his Leaving Cert. He also succeeded in winning the Gael Linn All-Ireland medal for debating in Irish in 1984. He topped that with a degree in history and English from University College Dublin.

“After college my dream job was to write for Hot Press. I saw every band that gigged in the country. Writing about them was my ambition but it didn’t happen.

“Instead I was all set to go teaching – signed up for the H Dip and teaching hours organised. But luckily before it all kicked off I got a week’s experience actually teaching and it was the best lesson I ever had. Teaching was definitely not for me.”

With nothing else lined up and nothing that he really wanted to do, Jasper began working in the business but he didn’t really commit to it. “It was there, it was busy, and my mother needed help so I stuck around. To be honest I hadn’t anything else to do.”

Boom times

During the 1980s when Jasper was growing up there were nine pubs in Fethard (there are five now) and the business – which by then included a restaurant – was booming.

“There was no fear of the pub business in the 1980s and 90s. Strangely enough, the first kick we got was with the Millennium celebrations when some pubs did the dog on it with overpriced parties and people stayed at home.

“Why bother going to the pub when you can buy what you want in an off-licence? This was the first generation to live and work abroad. They didn’t have the ‘pub culture’ and they got used to drinking at home.”

Thinking back, Jasper says the next blow was the smoking ban which gave pubs a wicked kick and this was followed by the tightening up of the drink driving laws. “It wasn’t so much worries about being ‘bagged’ at night but was more to do with being ‘bagged’ on the way to Sunday Mass. It really hit pubs and restaurants.”

However, he says people have got used to the tighter rules and very few take the chance to drink and drive anymore.

“They won’t risk drinking at all, they will have a designated driver or a non-alcoholic beer.

Back 10 years ago we’d be lucky to sell two crates of alcohol-free beer in a year. But nowadays we could go through a full crate on a Thursday night. People adapted. They had no option but to get used to it.”

History made

Fethard is a small place so the footfall isn’t great and you need to attract people in says Jasper.

“It’s helped that we have featured in a few movies as that brings people here. We have a strong connection to Bloody Sunday as my greatuncle, Gus McCarthy, was on the field of play.

"The morning of that match, Mick Hogan of Grangemockler had his last meal downstairs in the pub. The team then got the train from Fethard to Dublin and Croke Park where a terrible fate awaited them.”

In another bit of family history, Gus McCarthy was the last man to score for Tipperary in an All-Ireland football final when he kicked the final point in the final of 1922.

Looking to the future

With five generations of the family having taken the reins at McCarthy’s Bar, Jasper is easy going about a sixth taking on the family business. “Sarah and I have four little girls and it will be their decision. If any of them decide to get involved, they will first go to college and get appropriate work experience. They will need to understand every bit of the business.”

Despite the vagaries of the pub business for his own part, Jasper is happy with his lot. “I’m glad now. Glad to be here and to have made the decision to stay.”

What helped him settle is a love for flying, which came from a fascination he had for two cousins who were pilots in the Irish Air Corps and were killed on duty.

“I remember hearing about these cousins and when I got a Christmas present of a voucher for some lessons at the airstrip in Moyne I was hooked.”

As well as flying, Jasper has retained his interest in music and is drummer for the Pheasant Pluckers band which can be heard most weekends in the bar. He’s a man of many parts with a business of many parts, a business that has adapted to face not just the challenges of today but of three centuries.

For more contact McCarthy’s Bar and Restaurant at 052-613 1149. Check it out on TripAdvisor or follow on Facebook.

Minding those left behind

When Jasper Murphy began working in the family undertakers it was very different to how it is now.

There was next to no embalming so people didn’t have the space to tailor make a funeral for their loved one. Generally the dead person was moved straight from the hospital mortuary to the church.

“When you think back on it, it was dreadful and unlike now there was no time to mourn before the person was buried. I remember a particular parish priest who was a stickler for time keeping. If you weren’t in the church at the appointed time he’d close the doors, even if there were 100 people waiting to meet the family.

“The thing you need to know about undertakers is that we are not only dealing with a dead person. We are dealing with the living and we have to mind the people left behind.”

Jasper says people are more eco-friendly when it comes to coffins. They are selecting wicker or plain timber coffins, many of which are made in Donegal.

Many people also make their arrangements long before they are needed.

“Cremations are becoming more popular too. People often want their ashes scattered on the roses or in the garden. I advise against this as the roses could be dug up and the garden covered in concrete. In the long run it’s far better to scatter the ashes on a grave and put up a headstone to mark the person’s life.”