By Sean Moriarty

After 760 days of closure The Grand - a much-loved favourite haunt for locals and visitors - is finally back in business.

GRAND RE-OPENING: Brothers-in-law and publicans Patsy Sheehan and Dan Dowling have re-opened The Grand after 760 days of closure. Photo: Michelle Crean

Killarney’s top music venue reopened last night (Wednesday). The pub/nightclub closed on March 14 2020 – one of the first pubs to pull the plug a week before Coronavirus took hold of the world – and since last August owner Patsy Sheehan and his team have been busy refurbishing the popular late night venue.

Punters will instantly recognise the layout of the main bar but dozens of framed photos of Irish musicians now adorn the walls.

The positioning of these photos reflect what is happening in the bar. The walls of the front bar are decorated with pictures of some the region’s best loved trad-musicians and this is where the nightly Irish music sessions take place.

Further in guests will admire photos of Irish rockers like The Edge, Hozier and Sinéad O’Connor placed along walls in front of the main stage.

And music is always a central theme in The Grand. New for the 2022 season is a house band with a difference. Local musicians will be joined by better-known figures who happen to be in town for other reasons.

“One night we could have Mike Denver playing with the house band, the next night it could be Daniel O’Donnell’s lead guitarist,” The Grand’s entertainment manager Matt Griffin, a Kilburn-born Irish musician with South Kerry roots, told the Killarney Advertiser.

“We are the only venue outside of Dublin to offer music seven nights a week.”

Upstairs the legendary piano bar remains untouched, downstairs there are further plans to upgrade the nightclub.

Here partygoers will see the biggest change. A new underground tunnel links each side of the dance floor where they will find a new cloakroom and four state-of-the-art toilets.

FRESH AIR INDOORS

The public restrooms now feature fresh air filtered through a brand new climate control technology, influenced by the pandemic in an effort to keep guests safe from potential viruses.

“We believe we are the first pub in Kerry to do this,” said owner Patsy Sheehan.

Another notable change is Patsy’s late father Paddy Sheehan’s name etched on the building’s shopfront.

The décor may have changed, but it is the same familiar faces who continue to run the show.
During The Grand’s soft re-opening on Wednesday night the first person guests met was doorman Shane Manning.

“It was anything but a soft opening,” added Patsy in reference to how busy it was. “Regular customers were hugging Shane, they were so delighted to see him back. We had an elderly woman in her 80s, and her daughter come down from County Clare – huge fans of traditional music and regulars here in the past.”

Long-serving staff member Cathriona Flynn from Faha is back behind the bar - her 27th year as an employee of the bar.

“The new bar is lovely, it is so up to date,” she said. “I am looking forward to meeting old faces and making new friends. And that is the thing, The Grand is one big family. This is a new chapter in The Grand and the biggest change I have seen here.”

Manager Mags Walsh is also making a welcome return to the bar’s team.

“The Grand is an institution, everyone loves The Grand,” she said.

It was all hands on deck to get the bar open in time for the Easter weekend. Patsy’s brother-in-law Dan Dowling, the Lisselton man who owns the legendary London bar The Swan in Stockwell was there to offer his help and advice after years of running one of the busiest Irish clubs in the British capital.

Comic Bernard Casey has given The Grand the ‘Gossip and Nephew’ treatment with a special promotional video on social media.

There are also plans in place to renovate the upstairs bedrooms but that is on the long finger for now as Patsy and his team concentrate on getting the pub back up and running.