O’REGAN’S Bar at Shannon Town Centre closed down on Sunday night.
The pub, formerly known as Shannon Knights, has been a very popular local establishment for many years.
“It was a very sad day for Shannon to see the place closing after rumours upon rumours,” said Councillor Donna McGettigan.
“It is a big loss to the town, I think it opened in 1972. That’s 52 years and the town isn’t much older. You would find that many couples in Shannon met there. There were weddings and christenings celebrated there. It was a place for everyone to gather and it was very central. The Crossroads would have been the first pub and the Knights the second. There were many good shows in there and the disco was very popular. It was more than just a pub, it was a meeting place for people. People picking up their pension would go in there for coffee and to meet up. It was a special little pub and it’s very sad to see it going.”
She said she would like to see it reopening in the future. “I would hope that maybe someone might find a way to keep it open and to bring it back to being the vibrant place it was.”
Her uncle Blaise Phelan was down on the night of its closure, singing songs in a place he played in many times over the decades. “It’s very sad. It’s not even sold, just closing. On Sunday I was asked to come down and do a few songs because it was closing, I started around a quarter past seven but because of the atmosphere that was there I kept going until a quarter to eleven. There were people sitting at the bar that I knew who built the Town Centre, who are now in their 80s. Their grandchildren now drink in the pub. It’s very sad to see that. There are families who used to meet there on a Sunday if there was a match on, but that’s gone now. It’s very sad.”
Blaise said he started going to the pub in the 1970s and has great memories of it.
“Aidan Quish was fantastic when he had it. There would have been 60 or 70 people working there. You had a Carvery, a night club, two bars and a restaurant at night time.
“Newtown and Park Rangers would have been huge rivals and you’d see them in the lounge, one sitting one side, one at the other side. That was part of Shannon’s history. People would tell you about coming of age and going to the night club there. I remember the Furey Brothers playing there in the 70s, you’d have had Stockton’s Wing there, Johnny Logan played there, Red Hurley, that kind of stuff.”
He said the night of the closure had been an emotional one. “There were people crying there on Sunday night, members of the staff were upset too.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.