Last orders: Speedy and Tom bid farewell to Syd Harkin’s Kilkenny pub

ABOVE: Speedy (Eamonn) and Tom McGrath pull their last pints at Syd Harkin's pub on RoseInn Street - Scroll down to read about the brothers and click NEXT to see lots of photographs from their retirment 'do' last Sunday night. All photographs: Harry Reid.

When messages start to come in from all over the world to wish you well on your retirement you know you’ve done something right in your working life. That’s the accolade for not one, but two dedicated Kilkenny barmen who bid farewell to their counter and glasses, last weekend.

Speedy (Eamonn) and Tom McGrath have been part of the team at the helm of Syd Harkin’s pub on Rose Inn Street for a combined 72 years!

As they sat down to reminisce about those years, just before a grand party send-off, it wasn’t surprising to be interrupted by a customer, wishing them well. Decades behind the bar mean the two brothers are not just service providers, they’ve become friends, to some as close as family.

“I worked here before Syd arrived, when the Manahans owned the pub,” Speedy was proud to say. In fact, so essential was he to the smooth running of the pub, even then, that when the premises changed hands the new owner was strongly advised to keep the Thomastown man on.

That was in 1982, and Speedy went on to work behind the bar for Harkins for another 40 years! He celebrated his 67th birthday last November.

It was a twist of fate that he ended up working at the pub. When another barman broke a leg playing rugby, Liam Manahan asked him to cover for about 10 weeks. Then the pub got busy and “he couldn’t let me go!”

Tom, also known as Tomser, is 66 and has now dedicated almost half his life to the team at Harkins. He was working part time in another pub when Syd needed a barman and asked Speedy if he could work with his brother. Tom pulled on the Syd Harkin’s shirt for the first time in April 1992 and he was a fixture behind the bar until last Saturday.

“We had great years in a great job,” Speedy said, and, Tom added, “good clientele, lovely customers.”
They’ve seen some changes over the years, not least when the pub was renovated in the mid 1990s.
It was a renovation that brought the pub back in time, to the more traditional décor that gives it such atmosphere now and in fitting with a pub that was one of those to receive the very first pub licences issued in Ireland - in 1648!
Locals and visitors like the old world effect, Speedy said, especially the half door when it’s open during the summer.

One of the biggest social changes they witnessed in the pub trade was the introduction of the smoking ban in March 2004.
Popping in to Syd Harkin’s, a local is just as likely to be sitting beside a famous face as another Kilkenny person! “We had Nathan Carter and Mary Black,” Tom said. “Politicians like John Bruton, Micheál Martin. Ryan Tubridy, Pat Kenny, Fr Devereaux from Glenroe, Colm Meaney a few weeks ago,” Speedy listed, adding they’ve also seen their fair share of sporting legends including the Kilkenny hurling team.
But ask if they took selfies or got autographs and you get a swift no! They are all treated like ‘normal people’ and they like that.
“Celebrities come into this pub and nobody comes near them. I remember Ryan Tubridy there one night,” Speedy pointed to a table. “When he was leaving he came over to the bar and said ‘thanks for having us’.”
Pat Kenny was there another night and ‘nobody tormented him’ but as they were leaving he shook hands with people.