“Late nights are coming ‘home’ to Carrick”

Meet the four friends who aim to reinvigorate the night time economy of Carrickmacross, by opening a late bar.

The quartet - Jonny Tavey from Inniskeen, brothers Ronan and Jason Hughes and Paul McGlynn, all from Carrickmacross - named their pub Abhaile because they want to bring hospitality home.

Jonny was credited with conceiving the idea six years ago, but Ronan encouraged them to get serious about it and form a plan.

Ronan recalls: “It started with a drunken thought, Tavey was the person to start talking about it.”

The lads had their eye on the premises formerly known as Jayz on the town’s Main Street, for a while. However, when a planning notice for change of use went up in the window, Jonny recalled thinking: “That dream’s dead.”

However, when a ‘For Lease’ sign went up on the same building, the dream was rekindled.

“Ronan created a group chat and we said: ‘Right, if we’re serious about this let’s make a plan and go for it,” Jonny says.

The future publicans met Ciaran Marron, Activ8, who owns the building in June and it took six months before they signed on the dotted line, but Jonny concluded: “We’re where we need to be now.”

The young men have deep roots in the town. The Hughes brothers met Paul in Scouts when they were still in single digits.

“We’re well established, but don’t age us,” quips Jonny.

The friends are not giving up the day jobs for now, Jonny is a building surveyor, Ronan is cabin crew with Aer Lingus and Paul is a crane driver. Jason is a barber, qualified plumber and a DJ - a few of those skills are bound to come in handy. Regardless of their other responsibilities, they aim to be on-site as much as possible.

In terms of timeline the earliest they anticipate launching, would be late April as they have yet to secure licences. They aim to have a soft launch and a bit of a run-in before “the chaos” of Carrickmacross Street Festival over the June Bank Holiday weekend.

Jason reveals they have plans for a range of craft beers in collaboration with a local brewery, the first one being Abhaile Lager. The venue will feature a cocktail bar too, with the strongest drink on the menu called Slán Abhaile.

The four have big plans for their new home from home. Upstairs they will run a nightclub two nights a week, and it will be a late bar the rest of the time. First floor will provide a sports bar, complete with wide-screen TVs to draw in the match crowd. The ground floor will have a modern industrial aesthetic, Jonny said, and will lend itself to one-man bands and background music - lively or chilled, depending on the crowd.

Johnny envisages 18–25-year-olds being more drawn to the upstairs space which is “Instagramable”, although they do plan on hosting Over 30s discos, for those who want to party all day and be in bed at a reasonable hour.

Jason hopes their business venture will encourage people to stay in town to socialise, rather than taking buses to neighbouring towns. They all remember when Carrick was a social hotspot.

“We were in the middle of doing up the pub. I was walking up the town and there were six 52-seater coaches taking 300 kids out of the town. It made me feel happy with what we’re doing,” Jason says.

Ronan adds: “Buses are going to towns. Those towns used to come in here. They used to come into Carrick, The Oasis and the Fiddlers.”

There will be more than enough room as Abhaile will have a capacity of over 500.

Jonny chips in: “We’re filling the void that Vanity (the Fiddler’s) left. We’re trying to bring back everything that Carrick lost and bring something new to it as well, things that Carrick doesn’t have like boozy brunches, the Over 30s discos, all that sort of thing.”

News of the opening has reportedly been well received.

Jason says: “We’ve got some serious positive feedback.”

Some of that feedback came in the form of an online poll to see if there was an appetite for a late-night venue in the town. Between Instagram and Facebook, 2,000 voters gave a 91% positive response. The guys are also social media savvy, and a video of the four of them taking the old Jayz sign down off the building after they leased it, received thousands upon thousands of views. They also have clever teasers posted online.

The lads acknowledged the trend of many people drinking at home since COVID, but they felt confident that Abhaile will provide a more attractive alternative.

Jonny concludes: “There’s a market in the town here and in the local area. People are crying out for something new and different. We’re expecting to be very busy for the first few months, people will want to see what it’s like and then it’s up to us to provide a good enough offering to keep them coming back for years to come.”