Some of the best yarns have been told after a few scoops, and the new owners of The Southern Star on High Street have first-hand knowledge of one of the most ingenious betting stings in horse-racing history as one of them is the son of the late Cork developer Tony Murphy, mastermind of what became known as “the Gay Future Affair”.
Conor Murphy and lifelong friend Ernest Horgan have acquired the well-known pub in an off-market lease purchase agreement with publican Niall Murphy, and the plan is to reopen it by the end of November.
The pub had closed its doors in March 2020 and endured a prolonged pandemic hangover in the face of stiff restrictions imposed on the hospitality sector.
However the threat of a final “last call” has now been lifted as Mr Horgan and Conor Murphy gear up to fulfil a long-running ambition to open a pub together.
“Myself and Conor had spoken numerous times about getting a pub, and we see huge potential in the High Street area, and we look forward to welcoming the old customers back to The Southern Star,” said Mr Horgan.
Regulars can look forward to propping themselves up against the old familiar bar counter — the original bar and oak flooring is being retained –— but there will be some changes, principally in the beer garden.
The late developer Tony Murphy, mastermind of the Gay Future betting scandal“I brought my various suppliers in, and their advice was not to do a rip-out job,” said Mr Horgan. “There are beautiful oak floors, and it’s a lovely old-world pub and I want to keep that. It will get a facelift but that will be it, apart from the beer garden, which will get a major overhaul.”
That overhaul will include the introduction of stretch tents (more open than a marquee, typically seen at music festivals), retractable awnings, and a food truck (“mainly burgers”). It will be a different offering to the Leaping Salmon, which does a stellar trade in pizzas.
The future of a pool table — a long-standing feature of the beer garden — is undecided.
Mr Horgan is hoping that work on the premises will begin next month — it’s currently out to tender — with a view to reopening at the end of November, in time for the traditionally busy Christmas period.
Acquiring the pub took a while. Mr Horgan initially approached Niall Murphy around the time Covid set in during March 2020 and was turned down, but progress was made after the lifting of the first set of restrictions. Negotiations and legal work finally concluded last month, in the form of a lease-purchase agreement which runs for five years. Typically a lease-purchase agreement is a rent-to-own legal contract which allows buyers to rent for a few years before purchasing the property from the seller.
The two-storey building includes a 1,500sq ft bar downstairs and two overhead apartments, which Mr Horgan may rent out in the long term, with the focus initially on getting the bar up and running.
Both Mr Horgan and Mr Murphy have a background in hospitality: they worked together in what was the Goat Broke Loose on Grand Parade (now Deep South), and at the Mardyke Entertainment Complex, as well as in security.
Mr Horgan has been involved in the revitalisation of a number of Cork pubs in recent years, including Goldbergs (formerly the Marina Bar on Victoria Road, he’s no longer involved there). He’s currently in partnership with Eoghan Connelly at the reinvigorated Leaping Salmon pub in Blackrock village.
His decision to take on The Southern Star was prompted by an affinity he has with the High Street area, having lived there in his single days, and because he views it as a part of the city with a bright future.
As for Gay Future — he was a racehorse at the heart of an ingenious plot to scam the bookies in the 1970s, but you’ll have to visit The Southern Star for the inside story.
Pierce Brosnan in the 1974 movie Murphy’s Stroke, based on Operation Crock of Gold, an ingenious scam to outwit the bookies, devised by the late Cork developer Tony Murphy.Or you could watch the movie based on it, , starring Pierce Brosnan and Niall Tóibín, where two jockeys, two trainers and a remote racecourse, with just one phone line into it, all formed part of an elaborate scam.
