Stalwarts of Waterford’s pub trade bow out
Eileen and Bobby Bohill at the bar of The Holy Cross.
The proprietors of both the Holy Cross on the Cork Road, and Brady’s Bar in St. John’s Park announced their respective retirements in 2024, with both premises set to be passed on to new ownership.
With new beginnings afoot, we looked back on the fond moments, which have been shared within both premises, highlighting decades of Waterford memories forged along the way.
The long-term proprietors of the Holy Cross Pub, Bobby and Eileen Bohill announced this year that they were to retire following many years of service to the pub trade in Waterford.
The Holy Cross, on the Cork Road near Butlerstown GAA Club, was placed for sale recently by Bobby and Eileen. The well-known Bohill family have been running the pub for 30 years.
A cornerstone of the local community, it is understood that The Holy Cross has been in existence for 250 to 300 years.
A property across the road from the premises used to act as a Royal Irish Constabulary barracks, which Bobby quips didn’t always prevent people from breaking the bona fide traveller rule, which stated that pubs could only serve alcohol to people on Sundays if they lived seven miles away from the premises or were travelling.
Reflecting on his admission into the vast history of the pub, Bobby said: “I was offered it in 1994, and thank God now it's going well and it has been for a long time. It was a big decision at the time to take it. I worked in finance from 1976 until 1992, and I was manager of UDT in Waterford from 1985 until I left in 1992. Then I decided to do something for myself."
Speaking on taking over the business, Bobby added: “I took Eileen out for a spin one day. She asked, ‘where are we going?' I said ‘out to the Holy for some lunch'. She didn’t know that I had already been looking at taking it. So that’s the way it was revealed to her.
“After a few months of ownership, the people living around the area started to come in. We built the place up, made a few changes and it just got bigger and bigger.
“We got slowly into food, like soup and sandwiches that Eileen would do. Then we started to take on chefs. It became the social centre for Butlerstown."
Since taking charge in 1994, Bobby and Eileen have made many changes, including expanding the food offerings and transforming the décor.
Tragedy would strike in 2010, however, when a fire decimated the pub's thatched roof. Bobby said at the time that he believed the fire was caused by a hot spot in the chimney, which caused the four-foot thick thatch roof to set alight.
He told the Waterford News & Star at the time: “Thankfully no one was injured, that’s the main thing. If the fire had started in the night the whole thing could have gone up in flames.”
The pub was left with two gaping holes in its roof and a significant amount of water damage to the inside of the premises.
Considerable work was put into replacing the roof and repairing the interior back to its former glory. To the delight of regulars, the pub miraculously bounced back.
Reflecting on those who made the premises their regular throughout the years, Bobby said: “There’s people here who have been coming in for as long as I can remember and we get an awful lot of regulars.
“Fathers and mothers would come in, and over the thirty years now they’re grown up with their own children and they come in. A whole generation has come and gone.”
There are also a number of long-term staff working in the business and Bohill family members have been invaluable to the upkeep of the business.
Speaking on his retirement, Bobby said: “I should have retired about 10 years ago, but the time wasn’t right and we loved working here. 30 years is a lifetime. In January, I’ll be 74, so it's time now to get out."
Publican Mary Brady Sharpe also announced her retirement this year, from an establishment which has served the St. John’s Park and further Waterford City community for many years.
Mary, proprietor of Brady’s Bar, comes from a long line of publicans. Her grandfather, Philip Brady notably ran the Clock House in Maynooth.
Mary moved with her parents, John and Mary, to Waterford in November 1968 when she was three.
The bar premises in St. John’s had been open for several years when Mary’s parents purchased it.
John and Mary would operate Brady’s with great success until their retirement in 2002.
Mary said: “They traded very successfully here and they worked very hard to get it to where it was.
“At age seven I was put sitting on a high stool on Sunday mornings to wash glasses. My three brothers were all born here and we were all raised over the pub.
“My parents worked hard and built a successful business with the help and support of the community and the Brady family are very grateful for that.”
Mary and her siblings would work in the bar during various parts of their lives along with working in various other pubs across Waterford.
“When we all got to about seventeen or eighteen, we all went to work in different pubs. That would have been a dynamic of my family; the belief that you should always work for someone else,” she said.
When John and Mary Brady retired from the bar in 2002, the business was passed to Mary and her brother Philip. Philip would later move on to pursue other ventures as Mary continued running the bar.
The family bond has remained a key ethos of the business she says:
“My three kids worked here just like my brothers and sisters all worked here when we were growing up, and there’s been brilliant memories,” Mary said.
The community of St. John’s Park has of course been integral to the continued success of the bar, as Mary says: “There’s been some amazing customers and some really good staff throughout the years. There is and always was a feeling of community and family here, and a feeling that everyone looks out for each other.
“There’s been fantastic people down through the years. We saw many births, deaths and we even had a few weddings, so it’s great memories. The singalongs were very popular, music on weekends, cards and darts, they were simpler times.”
Reflecting on retirement, Mary says she is looking forward to dedicating more time to Irish Gourmet Butter alongside her husband Billy. The venture has seen considerable success since it was set up in 2017, with butter making in Billy and Mary’s genes.
Mary’s grandmother was an All-Ireland butter-making champion in 1936/37 and she went on to lecture in Dairy Science in Maynooth; Billy also remembers as a child helping to make butter.
The pair took a silver award in the flavoured butter category at Blás na hÉireann for their Garlic and Herb Butter in 2017 and were finalists in 2018.
Reflecting on leaving the pub trade behind her, Mary added: “I am very, very happy to retire with some amazing memories having grown up in Brady’s, and I’m ready for a new chapter.
“I am looking forward to this next chapter in my life, because this is just closing a chapter. Another chapter for the pub will begin, and another chapter for me will begin, I have great consolation in that, and I’m very happy to see it’s going to go into safe hands.”
The baton is set to be passed to Garreth McCarthy, an experienced Waterford city publican who knows St. John’s Park inside and out.
Garreth is the proprietor of popular local watering holes Zanzibar, Uisce Beatha and Adega Wine Bar. He also runs GMC Auctioneers.
Maurice Hayes will be the new manager of the bar, whose parents, Maurice and Helen Hayes ran the shop in John’s Park.
Mary said she is delighted to see the premises go into safe hands:
“A local boy is buying it and a local boy is going to manage it. That’s very positive and there will be a lovely sense of continuity; that makes me happy, to see it’s going to go into safe hands.
“I wish the incoming crew the very best of luck and I hope they enjoy their time here.”
