NEW CAMPAIGN: Comedian Chris O'Dowd, pictured with Sean O'Mahony (Faha Court Hotel) and his daughter Aoife, took part in the new 'Social Spin' service launched online this week.

EXCLUSIVE

By Sean Moriarty

A Killarney pub will reach millions of homes this Christmas – starring TV comic Chris O’Dowd – when it features in a television and online video promoting a new rural drive-home service ahead of the festive season.

The Faha Court Hotel is one of two Kerry pubs to offer the ‘Social Spin’ service where punters at the bar can be driven to and from the pub by a team of volunteer drivers on rota.

O’Dowd spent the two days driving customers to and from the Faha Court and his interaction with locals will be the focal point of both the social media campaign and the RTE documentary.

Social Spin is the brainchild of Faha Court owner Sean O’Mahony who wanted to do something about the decline of rural Ireland and find a way around new and more stringent drink-driving laws.

Earlier this year, with the help of the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) and Guinness distributor Diageo, Sean set up the new campaign and a pub in Causeway soon followed.

The Kerry pilot scheme could be rolled out nationwide in the New Year and will be the subject of an RTE documentary which will be aired in early 2020.

O’Dowd has offered up his driving skills to support a new pilot initiative and, as a result, he was in Killarney last Thursday and Friday to record the promotional video which will be broadcast on social and traditional channels in the run up to Christmas. The first airings of the video appeared on the Guinness and VFI’s social media platforms on Wednesday.

“We have to respect the new regulation but no one seemed to care how they would effect rural pubs and no politician was coming up with a solution,” Sean told the Killarney Advertiser. “I went to a Kerry Vintner’s meeting with my idea and they told me they would help in every way. At this point Causeway came on board.”

Social Spin has seen more than 70 volunteer drivers throughout Faha and Causeway sign up to get behind the wheel of newly bought community cars to drive people to and from the pub so they can enjoy a night out without drinking and driving.

“This is the first pub in Ireland to do this, other schemes exist but they are community run, not by a pub,” Sean added. “It ticked all the boxes for Diageo and I got great support from my local rep, Fionnuala Dwyer. We hope to bring all the stats from our first year to a feasibility study in Dublin where we will look at bringing this to other areas.”