![\"One](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4872804_1_articleinline_Copy_20of_20Untitled-150.jpg\" "\\"One")
One of the owners of the Imokilly Tavern, Ricky Forest<\/p>\nThe crossroads in the East Cork village of Mogeely, once populated by three lively pubs – The Sportsman, Forde\u2019s and The Imokilly Tavern – used to be fondly referred to as the \u2018Bermuda triangle\u2019.<\/p>\n
If you landed into one of those pubs, all adjacent and not even a stone\u2019s throw from each other, then it was said there was a fair chance you would roam between all three for an indefinite period of time. For eternity, possibly!<\/p>\n
Today, only one of those pubs remains.<\/p>\n
On the corner where the Killeagh road and Mogeely roads intersect, a blue two-storey building stands tall and defiant, The Imokilly Tavern.<\/p>\n
The pub itself dates back to the early 1900s and has changed hands numerous times. At the helm today is Hilary Kelly.<\/p>\n
She began leasing the pub a few years ago as covid restrictions were loosening. A brave move during a time when the trade was surrounded in uncertainty.<\/p>\n
For Hilary, who has lived in Mogeely since 2005, a vital factor in her decision was the sight of older neighbours walking the roads with nowhere to gather and meet friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cA village needs a pub. It needs a community place for people to gather, and a pub is one of those places where it can be good,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing people walking the roads because there was nowhere to go, it just made me feel I had to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilary had never owned a bar before, but she had spent much of her working life running some of Cork city\u2019s best-known and best-loved pubs, including the legendary Hi-B and Sin \u00e9, where she managed for years.<\/p>\n
When she approached the owners of the Imokilly Tavern about taking over the lease, she found a property that had been kept alive not by commercial ambition, but by a sense of duty to the village.<\/p>\n
The pub had originally been owned by Donal and Mary Sweetnam, who lived in the adjoining house and expanded the building in the early 1980s.<\/p>\n
Their bar, once divided into the traditional lounge and public bar, was well known locally for its atmosphere and character.<\/p>\n
\n When they eventually sold in 2006, a small group of local men stepped in to buy it, ensuring the village wouldn\u2019t lose its social anchor.\n <\/p>\n
One of those men was Mogeely native Ricky Forest, whose father, Dick, is still remembered locally as a good employer. The other owners are Joe and Eamon Hickey and Pat Shanahan<\/p>\n
\u201cWe bought it 20 years ago,\u201d says Ricky. \u201cFor some of us it was for the craic, and for others it was a commercial decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, for me personally, I grew up in a village that had no shops and three pubs and a church. I\u2019ve sentimental value to it. It was about keeping the pub going,\u201d Ricky adds.<\/p>\n
One of the owners of the Imokilly Tavern, Ricky Forest<\/p>\n
When the pandemic hit, the previous tenants did not return after lockdown and the building fell idle.<\/p>\n
The owners were not in receipt of the pandemic support payment because the pub wasn\u2019t open. The chance that it may never reopen loomed. It was felt throughout the community.<\/p>\n
Enter Hilary Kelly, the Imokilly Tavern\u2019s fifth tenant since 2006.<\/p>\n
Hilary knew that there was life in the pub, yet.<\/p>\n
Understanding the community; the mix of farming families, retirees, newcomers to the village, the wide age demographic, and being a resident herself, she felt confident that she could take the reins.<\/p>\n
She started simply, by making it homely, cosy, and inviting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a pub should be somewhere you want to go back to,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriendly, comfortable, warm. That\u2019s always been my ethos.\u201d<\/p>\n
She removed the large pool table dominating the centre of the floor and opened up the window seating.<\/p>\n
The result, she says, was \u201cspace, light, and conversation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Her staff, all local, are the backbone of the place.<\/p>\n
Rachel, who has worked in the village for 18 years, has seen the pub change hands multiple times. Hilary trusts her completely. \u201cShe\u2019s outstanding. And all the young people who work here are local, my own children included,\u201d she says<\/p>\n
Since reopening, the pub has become a vibrant community hub and the go-to venue for christening, funerals, vintage days and tractor runs… everything.<\/p>\n
Hilary\u2019s favourite so far has been the rise of the \u2018Vintage Ladies\u2019, a group of seven local women who cater for the village\u2019s tractor run entirely for free, preparing mountains of soup, sandwiches, tea, and treats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the backbone of the place,\u201d she says. \u201cAmazing women.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Hilary has brought anything to Mogeely, it has been a steady stream of music acts to perform at her pub.<\/p>\n
Her years of booking acts for the Sin \u00e9 in the city provided her with plenty of contacts, and she hasn\u2019t been shy about bringing new acts to rural East Cork.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning, they thought I was mad,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cAll this music – ska bands, bluegrass, stuff they\u2019d never heard. I threw lots of different people at them.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
The turning point came with a ska band from Clare; a group she had booked many times in the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey loved them. Absolutely loved them. The place erupted. And from then on, they trusted me.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Hilary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/4872807_1_articleinline_Copy_20of_20Untitled-148.jpg\" "\\"Hilary")
Hilary Kelly in the Imokilly Tavern. She took over the place after the pandemic and says: \u201cSeeing people with nowhere to go, it just made me want to step up.\u201d Picture: Noel Sweeney<\/p>\n
Ever since, the pub has hosted regular music nights including a casual bluegrass session every second Monday, alongside regular gigs that draw crowds from Mogeely and the satellite villages around it – Castlemartyr, Killeagh, Dungourney – as well as even further afield.<\/p>\n
What changes has Hilary noticed in the pub trade in recent years?<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe sell so much more zero-alcohol stuff now, you have to. Younger couples don\u2019t go out as much because of mortgages. In midweek, my busy time is between 4.30 and 8pm, then they\u2019re gone home.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
And while many older customers slowly returned after covid, others never did.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an awful sense of fear and isolation. Some people are still afraid to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of Mogeely\u2019s original three pubs in that famed \u2018Bermuda triangle\u2019, The Sportsman\u2019s closed before lockdown and was replaced by housing. Forde\u2019s pub followed soon after. Their stories, told by the older customers at Hilary\u2019s bar, are hilarious.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do miss them,\u201d she says. \u201cThere was something nice about wandering from one to another. If you fell out with Joe, you could go across to John. Now it\u2019s just us.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother pub would actually support us, and we them, it\u2019s not a competition that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
How does Hilary wish to continue at The Imokilly Tavern?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a pub should be somewhere you want to go back to. If you can get somebody to come back, you\u2019re doing something right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crossroads in the East Cork village of Mogeely, once populated by three lively pubs – The Sportsman,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17,17827],"class_list":{"0":"post-199565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-pub"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115611072487917667","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}