Glaslough couple call time on pub life

There will be tears when Ron and Diane Kendrick turn the key on the Coach House and Olde Bar for the final time. After 38 years of pouring pints, hosting celebrations and welcoming famous faces, the local couple are retiring and the Glaslough landmark is on the market.

They leave behind a thriving business and a building steeped in more than six decades of family history.

Diane, née Wright, became part of the story in 1962. The premises, then operated by David Patton Limited as a shop, hardware business and commercial hotel, was managed by her uncle Jim Wright. When the company decided to sell, Jim asked his brother Wallace to join him in buying it. Wallace left the linen trade, sold his farm and moved to Glaslough with his wife Ruby and their baby daughter, Diane, who grew up on the premises.

“I promised my husband I would retire in 2027, when we're 65 years here,” she reveals. “I thought it was a fair innings.”

The business provided both a livelihood and home to her parents. Although the hotel closed, the grocery, bar, petrol, coal, animal-feed and delivery trades continued.

Diane recalls: “They used to have a van that went round the country selling groceries to the people who couldn’t get into the shop. I remember the horse and cart coming in and getting the coal.”

Ruby worked throughout the premises, while Wallace, described as “ahead of his time,” developed the bar and in 1967 transformed the coach house hardware store into a singing lounge, one of the earliest and largest in north County Monaghan.

Ron’s path to the pub was less direct. Born in England, he moved to Monaghan age eight.

He and Diane had built a bungalow and were preparing to move in when Wallace, then seriously ill, asked them to take over the business, keep it in the family and look after Ruby.

Diane remembers her father’s final wish: “I’d like to live my last days in Glaslough, in the business.’ So, in 1988 we took over the business, Ron and I, and we bought Uncle Jim out. He retired and we got married in 1989… Daddy got his wish.”

Over the decades, the Kendricks kept the place moving with the times. Music, parties and quizzes drew people through the doors, while the olde bar retained its character, partly due to Wallace’s collection of antique clocks.

The pub also enjoyed brushes with showbusiness.

Spike Milligan’s Puckoon was filmed in the olde bar, with many villagers featuring as extras. Diane reminisces: “It was a great laugh because there was barbed wire running up the centre of the bar. The Protestants were on the left-hand side and the Catholics were on the right, all having a drink. The whole thing was just very comical.”

During filming, actor Elliot Gould took a shine to the ‘Goulding’s Manure’ clock and offered Ron a blank cheque. Ron refused, telling him: “There’s nothing in here for sale other than a drink.”

Another memorable visit began with an unlikely message from Castle Leslie. Diane, a Westlife superfan like her late mother Ruby, recalls: “Ron comes to bed on the Saturday night and he says: ‘The castle says, would we mind if a band come up to do a video in the olde bar on Monday?’

“And I said, ‘Who are the band?’”

Ron said he thought it was “the guys in the white suits” they had just watched on television.

Diane retorted: “There’s no way Westlife’s coming down!”

When Diane arrived home from teaching History at Monaghan Collegiate, paparazzi and screaming fans greeted her. The visit nearly became memorable for the wrong reason when Ron realised there was a problem with a keg of Guinness. He recalls: “Everybody thought Westlife were drinking Coke but they were downing the pints… I had a look at the pints and they just weren’t right… It tasted like disinfectant… I was so lucky I copped it.”

TV presenter Cat Deeley accompanied the band, while Ron had given his shift to a local barman hoping to chat her up!

Celebrity encounters aside, the couple’s strongest bond is with their community. They travelled to Mexico to adopt their daughter, Alexandra.

Diane says the difficult and costly process was “well worth it.”

Alexandra was about five months' old when they finally brought her home. Glaslough marked their return in unforgettable style with Simon Murray of Universal Graphics hanging a large ‘Free the Mexican Three!’ banner across the street.

Alexandra wore a little sombrero, neighbours brought sandwiches and the village gathered for a party in the bar.

Alexandra, who is now nearing 21, studies in the UK and lives with her boyfriend Oscar.

Asked how she and Ron met, Diane tells the Celt: “He was a cousin of my best friend and we used to keep him a seat on the school bus. He went to Beech Hill College and I went to the Collegiate.”

She adds: “That’s my first boyfriend… I’m with him 50 years, so I need a change now!”

Ron is just as quick with a line. Asked the secret to their long and happy marriage, he quipped: “She goes on a lot of holidays, absence makes the heart grow fonder!”

Cooking is not among Diane’s many talents, he added: “She couldn’t make a cup of tea.”

Diane admits: “I’d burn an egg… but he still loves me.”

Diane is a lifelong Pioneer, while Ron drinks very little. She loves fashion and dreads downsizing her extensive wardrobe, while Ron’s motorcycle collection also needs new storage space.

They will remain on the outskirts of Glaslough, having bought a bungalow, where they will move with Mila the cat and Max the cockapoo, stay active in the community groups they love and retain other business interests.

The pub’s last major reinvention came after Covid lockdown, when the covered courtyard allowed them to reopen with social distancing. It became the Birdcage, an atmospheric venue for day-two wedding celebrations, birthdays and anniversaries.

Alexandra’s upcoming milestone birthday will take place in the Birdcage - a fitting farewell.

The Coach House and Olde Bar on Main Street, Glaslough, is on the market with a guide price of €2M. Dating from about 1860, the sale includes a seven-bedroom residence, landscaped gardens and patio along with the business.

Leaving will not be easy.

“I’m going to miss it,” Diane admits, with her husband echoing those sentiments.