Morton's of Firhouse since 1865 (Part II: 1943-1999)

Morton's of Firhouse since 1865 (Part II:  1943-1999)

....Continued from Part I

From 1943, Over the next five years the Tavern would pass briskly through 5 different hands: Conlon to Nolan, McKenna, Farrelly and Ennis.

Conlon's 1943

In September 1943 James Conlon applied for a transfer of a 7 day license.  Conlon was one half of J. & P. Conlon, a construction firm based in Clondalkin, mostly engaged in the building of public housing for local authorities.  In March 1944, only 10 months after Conlon purchased the premises, Rita (Margaret) Nolan, daughter of Jack Kennedy of Kennedy’s Corner (Old Mill / Bridget Burke's) announced the opening of  a new bar in the premises- “Nolan’s of Firhouse”, and the following September an interim transfer of the licence was granted to Rita Nolan.

Nolan’s of Firhouse (March 1944- June 1945)

Rita (Margaret) Nolan’s brief tenure in Firhouse would be a troubled one, but notably would see the first proposed “beer garden” in the district. While this young lady, not yet 30 years old, with a one year old daughter, baby June, was a competent and commended landlady, her husband “had no idea whatever of conducting a public house” and this would give rise to serious issues with the licence, among other things.  As had been the case for many years Firhouse remained a rough enough quarter, but a neighbourhood Rita Nolan was well acquainted with.

While Rita's plans and ambitions for the redevelopment and launch of 'Nolan's of Firhouse' (complete with Beer garden) were being progressed,  Mr. Nolan's day to day and operational involvement in the enterprise was causing increasing concern  for the local Sergeant, who would have known Rita Nolan and her father Jack Kennedy very well.  

During the 'interim' period, as Nolan awaited confirmation of her licence at the next licensing session, a number of incidence of anti-social activity occurred in and about the premises- largely attributed to Mr. Nolan's involvement in the business.  When the time for Rita Nolan's 'confirmation' of the licence came, the licence was reluctantly granted- on one condition only- that Mr. Nolan had no hand, act or part in the running of the shop.

Around the same time, Jack Kennedy, Rita's father had taken the decision to 'retire' from Oldbawn due to ill health, and to repair to Blackrock, where he had acquired new premises.

Ultimately Rita Nolan’s departure from Firhouse in 1945, was the first of a number of complex and related moves undertaken by the wider Kennedy family (with her father Jack Kennedy, sister Sarah (Sid) and brother Seamus) relating to licensed premises in Oldbawn, Blackrock, Lucan, Dublin City and Waterford City.  By October 1946 Rita Nolan would announce the opening of a completely redeveloped and renovated Pearl Bar, beside the Savoy Cinema in Waterford City. 

Rita Nolan (nee Kennedy), daughter of Jack Kennedy of
Kennedy's Corner (Old Mill/ Bridget Burke's).
Mrs Nolan held the Firhouse Inn for 18 months in the 1940s
 before becoming a successful hotelier and proprietor of Dooley's Hotel in Waterford City.
You can now enjoy a drink in The Rita Nolan Suite, in Dooley's Hotel

In June 1945 Nolan’s "Firhouse" sold for £4,100 to Mr. Mel McKenna.  

McKenna’s “Firhouse Bar” appears to have remained closed for 18 months, before passing to Mr. Patrick Farrelly in February 1947.  Farrelly was not the man you would want to buy your whiskey off!

Farrelly’s of Firhouse-               1947- 1950

In August 1947 Mr. Patrick Farrelly applied for a transfer of a licence to the establishment. Farrelly had previously held a bar at 26 Bath Avenue Sandymount, which he had sold ten years earlier for €4000. In October 1949 he was fined £20 for a breach of the licensing laws, only one of a number of regular, and serious breaches.

‘Mala Fides’ (Bad Faith)

(Evening Herald, July 1950)

By July 1950 Patrick Farrelly had already accrued five prosecutions, and had only weeks earlier won an appeal against a prosecution for selling adulterated (watered down) whiskey, won it should be noted, on a technicality. The writing was on the wall for Farrelly in Firhouse and he anticipated as much, in advance of his most recent court appearance. He had already put the Firhouse Tavern up for auction a month earlier. The land opposite the premise had recently been acquired by the County Council for the erection of about 30 dwellings- offering favourable prospects for the growth in the immediate local population.  The premises would be withdrawn from auction at £5,500, shortly after which Patrick Farrelly would be declared a bankrupt.  The premises would return to the market, at the direction of the High Court in March 1951.

Sale of the Firhouse Tavern, 1951 at the direction of the High Court.
The premises would be purchased by Philip Ennis, and extensively refurbished
 by his wife Johanna in the coming decade.

Ennis’s Firhouse Tavern (1951- 1963)

In 1951, the Firhouse Tavern was acquired by Mr. Philip Ennis.   Born in Drumkilly, Crosserlough, Co. Cavan in 1898, he had come to Dublin as a young man.  Ennis had been in the IRA movement from 1918 and had served “H”, “K”, and “M” Coys, of the 1st battalion, Dublin Brigade and had been Captain of the latter company.   He remained with the Republican Forces at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1922 and was a member of the garrison at the Four Courts.  On the fall of the Four Courts he was arrested and served a prolonged period of imprisonment in the Curragh Camp.  During the 1939-1945 Emergency he served with the 26th Battalion. 

Before coming to Firhouse, Ennis had a licensed premises on 21 Parnell Street in the City of Dublin.  He was the treasurer of the Cavan Men’s Reception Committee in Dublin, and was one of the foremost organisers of receptions, on the occasion of the Cavan Football team visiting Dublin.  Ennis was an official with the G.A.A.

Sadly the 53 year old Cavan man would not get the chance to acquaint himself with the regulars in Firhouse, as he would die within a couple of months of acquiring the Tavern.  When he died in August 1951, his remains were brought with no little ceremony to Glasnevin for burial, with full Republican honours.  His coffin, draped in the Tricolour, was escorted by members of his old IRA units, and full military honours were accorded, with a firing party ceremoniously firing a volley of shots and a bugler sounding the Last Post at his graveside.  Mr. P Burke, T.D, Senator Dr. Jimmy Lynch, and Monseigneur Eugene Galligan (Australia) were among the mourners.  He was survived by his wife Johanna, son Michael and daughter Joan.  Ennis left an estate of £ 6, 416.

In September 1952 Johanna Ennis, Phil's wife, applied for confirmation of an ordinary licence, and she would continue on the business for the next ten years.  In February 1962 she was fined £2 for a breach of the licensing laws.  Two punters were found on the premises at 11.15pm on the 15th November the previous year.  Ennis  claimed that no drink had been served and that the two men (Mahony and O'Neill, neither locals) were on the premises "waiting for a chicken".  Both men were fined £1.  It marked the end of an otherwise unremarkable period in the Firhouse Inn.  With changing times, the name "Tavern" had been dropped and by 1963 the establishment was now called "The Firhouse Inn". 

Sale of The Firhouse Inn in March 1963.
Space for a car park was by 1963 recognized as an important asset

Morton’s of Firhouse – March 1963- Present Day

The original “Morton’s” was located at 108 Upper George’s Street, Dun Laoghaire. In April 1962 Morton’s of Dun Laoghaire was put up for sale.  It failed to sell and was again put up for auction the following year, only weeks after the Firhouse Inn was acquired in Trust on behalf of Henry Morton in March 1963. 

There was a packed house when bidding started, in Daniel Morrissey & Sons auction room, for the sale of the Firhouse Inn in late March 1963, a month after Johanna Ennis had announced her retirement from the trade.  The opening bid of £5000 was quickly dwarfed.  After a heated round of 60 bids the price just passed the £20,000 mark.  Bidding slowed, as the packed room hushed.  A further 9 bids quietly pushed the price up further.  The gavel finally came down at £22, 800 and 'Morton's of Firhouse' was born.

In September 1963 Henry Morton, originally from Ballyhale, Co. Kilkenny, applied for a certificate of transfer of a 7 day licence for the Firhouse Inn.  Harry Morton wasn’t, as they say in the trade, a wet day in the district, when he got a sense of the neighbourhood. In August 1964, Morton would, as a witness, give evidence in a manslaughter case- in which the deceased had been drinking in the Firhouse Inn,  where Morton had to 'chastise him' and had declined to serve him any more drink, before he moved on to the Blue Haven, outside of which a fatal exchange  occurred.   

It may have confirmed much of what Morton had heard about the district.  It was a rough enough quarter, and had been for 100 years.  From the faction-fighting and wrestling in the 1880s, the “Firhouse Rowdies” back in the early 1930s, to the “Mala Fides” of more recent years, one would have to run an “orderly shop” if one wanted to run a shop at all in Firhouse.

Invasion of the Sheep Shearers

The 26th May 1968 was "Sheep Shearing Competition Day", in Firhouse, a popular local event, and one Morton's would now do well to consider, seeing revived in the district.  For those not acquainted with the event- it provided an opportunity for the men of the district to demonstrate their prowess in two particular areas- Sheep shearing and drinking.  When the "Shearing" event was over 94 people packed into Harry Morton's 60 seater establishment and spent a considerable period of time, waiting for food!

Morton was fined £20 for a breach of the licensing laws, for supplying intoxicating liquor and allowing intoxicating liquor to be consumed on his premises at 12.15 a.m. The establishment  had  a limited Restaurant License and was allowed to serve until 12. 30am, provided that a meal was "consumed".  However on the night in question, most of the people had not had a meal. Seven punters were each fined £2 to £3.

A woolly defense

According to Morton's defense, the premises had been ‘Invaded’ due to the sheep shearing competition, and it simply wasn’t possible to cater for everyone. The renewal of Morton’s Restaurant licence would have to be opposed at the next licensing session.  The Restaurant license was a recurring issue for Morton in future years, with the local sergeant asserting, the licence in Morton's and elsewhere, was being abused, and was responsible for "Husbands staying out late".

Morton the Milkman

In October 1978, Henry Morton was fined £7 for selling a pint of Smithwicks draft ale for 43 pence, one penny more than the price shown on the retail list.  In the same month Harry found himself in the news for selling a pint after hours.  But on this particular occasion it was a pint of milk.   In October 1978  1,200 Milkmen employed by Premier Dairies, briefly went on strike, giving rise to an immediate and chronic milk shortage for over 180,000 customer who received daily milk deliveries in the city.  Within days, arrangements were put in places, for "a pint of the white stuff" to be added to the otherwise conservative bill of fare in the Firhouse Inn.

Harry felt strongly that his customers, after a night on the "hard tack" were entitled to a 'Cuppa' with their breakfast in the morning, and had taken a delivery of milk from a local farmer to meet local demand.

Morton’s would go from strength to strength, conservatively expanding their family business, with the joint development of “The Speaker Conolly”, also in Firhouse. After 22 years in the district, nobody knew the market or local clientele better than Harry Morton.  “The Speaker”, a joint enterprise undertaken by Harry Morton and Jim Murphy (of The Dragon Inn, Tallaght), cost £600,000 to develop and fit out and opened on the 30th July 1985.   The Speaker “Conolly” is of course called after The Speaker William “Conolly”, and it remains a curiosity as to why so many people insist on giving it an extra “n” (See Tripadvisor).

Jim Murphy of The Dragon Inn and Co-owner of The Speaker Conolly.
Murphy and Harry Morton developed "The Speaker" together. The first pint was served on the 30th July 1985.  It would be a long week-end!

The Morton’s interest in the licensed trade would be extended further in 1992 with the acquisition from Tony Clegg of “Lamb Doyle’s” in Sandyford, Co. Dublin. The pub had, many years earlier, been held by Reg Armstrong, a former world motorcycle racing celebrity. (The Firhouse Inn provided a HQ for the Dublin and District Motorcycle Club, in the 1980s, of which John Poynton was President).  

When Harry Morton died in May 1999, a three day ‘country style wake’ was held- according to a local and regular- Jim Bartley, the actor best known for playing the part of Bella Doyle in RTE’s Fair City. On the week of Harry’s passing, The Firhouse Inn closed for two days, Lamb Doyle’s closed for 4 hours while the Speaker Conolly closed for 2 hours, all as a mark of respect.

Gerry Mc Glynn- well respected Barman in Morton's for 34 years from 1983-2017.
Humorously dubbed "the best window cleaner' the bar ever had!

Now in the Morton family for 56 years, the longevity of their ownership of the “Firhouse Inn” has exceeded the collective tenure of the previous six proprietors of The Fir house Tavern, Inn and Bar and of what is now more generally referred to, perhaps most appropriately, as Harry’s Bar.

Albert Perris

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