![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5137044_4_articleinline_HC_20Maple_20Leaf_20Midleton_205.jpg\" "\\"The")
The bar has been in the hands of Gary and Brian McCarthy since 1994.<\/p>\nBest friends and business partners, Gary Johnston and Brian McCarthy, operate an open-door policy in their pub, The Maple Leaf in Midleton.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe local older gentlemen like availing of our open-door policy,\u201d says Gary, originally from Dublin, now living in Midleton.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll they have to do any morning from 10.30am onwards, is to push in the front door. The Maple Leaf is like another Men\u2019s Shed!\u201d<\/p>\n
As we speak, a customer, John, pushes open the pub door carrying his bag of messages.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow are you doing, John?\u201d says Gary. \u201cWill I put your messages in the fridge for you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Obviously, this is not an unusual request as John hands over his shopping bag without question and settles into his familiar spot in the bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cNice to meet you too, Missus,\u201d says John, as I sip a freshly brewed coffee with Gary, who tells me how he came to be in East Cork and open the popular Main Street premises with Brian.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother is from Killeagh,\u201d says Gary. \u201cDuring my summer holidays I came to East Cork to stay with my aunt where she was farming in Ballinacurra. I had a huge draw to farming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary went to agricultural college and then started work in the Midleton meat factory, where he met Brian, who is from Midleton. The two men formed a close friendship.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe both played rugby,\u201d says Gary. \u201cAnd we became great friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI worked in the meat factory wheeling and dealing and organising transportation. I enjoyed it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Is wheeling and dealing in his genes?<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother\u2019s father was a cattle dealer, so yes, maybe it is in the genes!\u201d<\/p>\n
Dawn Meats then took over the Midleton meat factory and Gary says: \u201cThat prompted Brian and I to go into business together, and we bought this pub from Billy and Theresa Walshe in 1994. I can\u2019t believe that was 32 years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember thinking, what the hell are we doing, when the pub went up for sale and Brian and I decided to buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Apart from their shared love of sport, the two friends value community connections.<\/p>\n
The bar has been in the hands of Gary and Brian McCarthy since 1994.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur barman, Jack, is a great asset to us,\u201d says Gary. \u201cHe has a word for everyone, and he operates all aspects of the bar very well.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife, Mary, helps out too part-time, and when we did food, she was very busy in the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian was a dab hand in the kitchen too and we employed a chef. We were famous in town for our bangers and mash, and half toastie and cup of soup.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter covid, we didn\u2019t continue doing food. It changed things. I miss the food trade in a way. We had great fun and craic during the busy lunchtimes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another enthusiastic part-timer often lends a hand in the bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy granddaughter, who is 13, comes in when she\u2019s on holidays from school,\u201d says Gary. \u201cShe helps stack the bottles on the shelves and empties the bottle bins. I can\u2019t wait until she is 16 so that I can make more use of her!\u201d<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, given Brian and Gary\u2019s rugby background, The Maple Leaf is sports- orientated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe show the live games on our big screens, rugby, golf, soccer, GAA, and of course, the World Cup. Our Sky package is a huge success.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember the place being jointed at 7am in the morning when the World Cup was on in 2002. Drinking pints that early was a very unusual occurrence!\u201d<\/p>\n
More than three decades in business is a mighty achievement. Did the close friends ever fall out?<\/p>\n
\u201cNever!\u201d says Gary. \u201cWe may have had a minor disagreement or two in the beginning, but we never fell out.\u201d<\/p>\n
What stands out most for Gary during those 32 years?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fabulous friends that we have made along the way,\u201dhe says. \u201cWe have been to friends\u2019 weddings, their christenings, their parents\u2019 funerals. They are part of our family, both Brian\u2019s and mine.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe have the same friends for 32 years. We got to know their children and their grandchildren. In fact, many of them worked here as students.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWe like seeing the students progressing in their careers and we keep tabs on them even when they have left us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary\u2019s memory serves him well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had one great customer,\u201d he says, \u201cHe had the habit of disappearing into the gents for 30 seconds whenever he felt disgruntled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe staff and some of our regular customers had great fun seeing who could get him to head to the loo!\u201d<\/p>\n
The bar is known locally for its early starts. Who are his early birds?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tend to be more elderly people who come in for a chat and to socialise,\u201d says Gary.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey like the company. The kettle is always on.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is always a welcome on the mat at The Maple Leaf.<\/p>\n
\u201cFriends enjoy playing music together once a month on Wednesday nights,\u201d says Gary.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone enjoys the music and the singing, and everyone joins in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did anyone famous ever come in?<\/p>\n
\u201cEnda Kenny visited us,\u201d says Gary.<\/p>\n
What was his tipple?<\/p>\n
\u201cClub Orange!\u201d says Gary laughing.<\/p>\n
\u201cLondon girl Chantelle Cameron who handed Katie Taylor her first professional defeat in 2023, called in when she was visiting friends in Midleton. I couldn\u2019t believe how petite she was.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t keep her on to act as bouncer at the door?<\/p>\n
Gary enjoys the cr\u00e1ic.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo need,\u201d he says laughing. \u201cOur customers are very well behaved and always in good form.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if they aren\u2019t?<\/p>\n
![\"Gary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5137047_2_articleinline_HC_20Maple_20Leaf_20Midleton_202.jpg\" "\\"Gary")
Gary says they have always had great support from the local community.\u00a0 Picture: Howard Crowdy<\/p>\n
\u201cA neighbouring publican, Niall, gave me good advice on that score,\u201d says Gary.,<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said always go by your gut if you think trouble might be brewing. If you get the butterflies interacting with someone, then pay attention before anything untoward happens in the bar. It works.\u201d<\/p>\n
Good conversation, like a good pint of Guinness, flows in the bar.<\/p>\n
\u201cLads could get talking to one another even for ten minutes, and after that short time, discover that they are related to each other!\u201d says Gary.<\/p>\n
Connection between people happens organically. \u201cCustomers can be sitting at opposite ends of the bar and if they go to the beer garden for a cigarette, they come back in chatting and sitting down together. They have become buddies outside in that short space of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Maple Leaf has been good to Gary and Brian and their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pub has provided a good living for all of us in the last 32 years,\u201d says Gary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always had great support from the people of Midleton.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, there were a few ups and downs like when the recessions hit, when covid hit. The rising cost of fuel and the rising cost of overheads proved challenging.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember at the time we built on, I was terrified. I thought is this a joke? We actually renovated the whole place twice. Our first major overhaul was done before the Tour de France in 1998, an incredible event.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was no joke, and the beer garden is a great success where people mingle and take in the evening sun enjoying a cold drink, a soft drink, or a freshly brewed coffee.<\/p>\n
And it was no joke when the floods hit in October, 2023, and Storm Babet wreaked havoc in the East Cork town.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrior to that we had never been flooded,\u201d says Gary.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe got a fair shock. Some fright. It was a mess, no electricity. We thought we\u2019d leave the clean up until the following day, but I met an engineer friend of mine on the street, and he said it would be worse the next day.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cWord got around. In 20 minutes, there were 20 people here with squidgy mops ready to clean up. Youngsters going to school the next day stopped in and asked could they do anything to help? The community spirit was just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary is content with life, after so long in the pub trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a way of life,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m 63. Brian is 59. We enjoy having family time out too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The close friends are in it for the long haul.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor another 10 years at least!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Best friends and business partners, Gary Johnston and Brian McCarthy, operate an open-door policy in their pub, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[74],"tags":[18,19,17,17827,82],"class_list":["post-561165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pub","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116837824347544122","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561165","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=561165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}