History

James Long was born in 1861 in the Garrai, which is the area behind the restaurant. He was married to Mary O’Shea. His father Patrick Pad Long was a fisherman and James became a fisherman as well He built this premises on land leased from Lord Ventry and ran it as a public house, grocery shop and ship’s chandlers. His sister Mary married Pat Sheehy and they owned the adjoining building.

At that time the fishing boats were powered by the wind. Jamesie was an accomplished sailor, bringing fishing boats from the Isle of Man and Cowes.

His knowledge of the fishing grounds was foremost among the Dingle fishermen. He sailed Ketches, Nobbies and sailing trawlers.

The picture of him hanging in the bar was taken in the Isle of Man.

Joseph O’Connor in his book Hostage to Fortune described him as a quiet spoken man who knew more about ships than the men that built them.

He could handle a boat in calm or storm as well as any Cowes yachtsman.

In a great storm in 1924 his fishing boat The Madonna was blown with the winds. Jamesie sailed her to take shelter in Bantry Bay. The boat and crew were presumed to be lost at sea.

Two weeks later James sailed the boat into Dingle Harbour with crew and boat intact. He exported fish to Billingsgate fish market in London, carried out a salted fish business and supplied the boats and ships in Dingle with provisions.

He fished the coast line from Dunmore East to Galway.

He died on 19 January 1943 and is buried in Ventry cemetery.

A new era on the quay at James Long’s bar!

CATHAL Ó FIANNACHTA THE NEW PROPRIETOR AT RE-OPENED LONG’S BAR

Source: The Kerryman – 5th June 2019 – Declan Malone

ONE of Din­gle’s older pubs be­gan a new life last Friday when Cathal Ó Fian­nachta from Ven­try opened the door to James Long’s bar, which has been ex­ten­sively re­fur­bished over the past three years.

The bar, which has one of the most en­vi­able lo­ca­tions in Din­gle, looks straight down the pier and was once the haunt of lo­cal fish­er­men and for­eign sailors who made it their first port of call after step­ping off their boats.

Dur­ing much of the pe­riod of Din­gle’s de­vel­op­ment as a tourist des­ti­na­tion the pub was rarely open and so it re­mained an un­touched relic of the past un­til now.

In the re­fur­bish­ment that has just been com­pleted, the pub was gutted and re­built to mod­ern stan­dards, but with a view to re­tain­ing its for­mer char­ac­ter. Echoes of the for­mer pub still re­main in some of the old fit­tings that were sal­vaged, pint glasses from the 1960s and in an old ac­counts book that con­tains fas­ci­nat­ing de­tails about vis­it­ing ships and the drinking habits of lo­cal fish­er­men.

The ac­counts book re­veals, for ex­am­ple, that the mate of the schooner ‘Emily’ paid 1s 3d for six pints of stout when the ship vis­ited Din­gle in 1900.

He clearly liked the pints in Long’s and was back on each of the fol­low­ing five days for more porter be­fore set­ting sail again.

Long’s is now be­ing leased by Cathal, who pre­vi­ously worked be­hind the bar in Paidí Ó Sé’s pub in Árd a Bhóthar.

He will still be serv­ing pints to sailors – and any­one else who ven­tures in – but they can also sit down to a meal in the pub or in the up­stairs restau­rant where the fare in­cludes the best of Cístí Ceann Trá bread and scones baked by Cathal’s fa­ther, Muiris.