The History of the Long Valley Bar
10 Winthrop St, Cork City, IRELAND
For thousands of years the site where the Long Valley Bar now stands was a marshy island. From 1700 it began to be reclaimed from the river Lee and by the time this map was made in 1750, Winthrop St was built. This part of the city was originally surrounded by water and only accessible via three bridges, including a Dutch-style draw-bridge. The Long Valley Bar was originally built as a house about 1730.
The eastern suburbs of Cork in 1750
During the 1780s the area changed when the present Patrick’s St was created by covering over the branch of the river which had run there. In 1789 Patrick’s Bridge was built at its north end, connecting this part of the city to incoming visitors to the city. Over time the area began to develop commercially.
By the 1820s the street was the hub of inter-urban travel across the south of Ireland. Coaches arrived morning and night filling the streets with noise and bustle. To cater for them an hotel and a pub were founded, but the street was also home to attorneys and a dancing master. No.10 is first mentioned in 1812 when it was a wine and spirit merchants managed by a George Clerke. By the late 1840s the proprietor offered the finest imported wines including Chateau Margaux, as well as Pine Apple Jamaica Rum and Guinness brown stout in bottles and hogsheads ( containing approximately 420 pints! )
Trade was sufficiently good that the owners remodeled the outside of their premises in the mid-nineteenth century to create the facade you see today. Over the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the business changed hands a number of times and the focus changed from ‘off’ sales of wines and spirits to ‘on-licence’ sales. The building became a dedicated bar by the 1890s, and the ‘snug’ or private room was built at the front of the building about 1910. Further big changes in the area were to come as the century continued.
Moynihan’s Tailors, c. 1930
In 1908 the Moynihans, a family of tailors with roots in north Kerry, began leasing a prominent corner building at the junction of Winthrop St and Oliver Plunket St (then called George’s Street). In the early years of the century they suffered a great misfortune when the tenement in which they lived collapsed. Fortunately, their business was spared in the Burning of Cork by British forces in 1920. Their enterprise prospered leading the family to set up a number of businesses across the city, and in 1927 they purchased No. 10 Winthrop St – The Long Valley Bar.
John Moynihan, a master tailor by trade, was put in charge of running the bar. John was born in Killarney, but served some of his apprenticeship in Savile Row, London. A dapper dresser and keen businessman, he began to make improvements and renovations to the old venue. Amongst these was the installation in the snug of a pair of doors from the RMS Celtic, which ran aground in Cork harbour in 1928. In 1934 it was extended at the rear, taking over the Crown Hotel at 112, Oliver Plunket St. The unusual ‘saloon’ doors at the rear of the bar with carved hogsheads at the top originally connected the old and new premises.
John Moynihan,
1883-1955
Long Valley staff, including Matt Buckley, 1950s
Wally Cogan, behind the bar, Hayloft, 1945
In 1945, Moynihan innovated again when he converted an upstairs space into the Hayloft cocktail lounge, complete with uniformed stall and Modernist sealing. Upon his death in 1955, his son Humphrey became the proprietor, Humphrey married Rita Byrne and they had three sons, one of whom continues to run the business today. Humphrey encouraged a poetry circle based in the Hayloft and which included John Montague, Sean Dunne and Theo Dorgan.
Humphrey & Rita Moynihan, 1984
Doors from RMS Celtic
Over the decades the site of the Long Valley has also operated as a wine merchants and as part of a tailoring business. It has provided space for an insurance agent, a bookseller and a estate agent, and even the headquarters for a motor club!
We hope that you enjoy your time with us and that we can welcome you back soon!
