A shop at the front, a pub at the back
MacCarthy’s on The Square in Castletownbere works the way it has for over a century and a half: the front half is a real grocery, the back half is a pub. Aidan MacCarthy’s daughters, Adrienne and Niki, still run it, and you can buy tinned goods, milk and Galtee cheese a few feet from where the stout is poured. There’s no theme and no tourist polish here, just mismatched furniture, a working shop counter, and a back room that fills with locals, fishermen and the odd pilgrim who read the book. That book is Pete McCarthy’s McCarthy’s Bar, which put the pub on its cover in 2000 and sold over a million copies. The place has stayed stubbornly itself ever since.
The sword behind the bar
The most arresting thing in MacCarthy’s is a Japanese katana mounted behind the bar, given to Dr Aidan MacCarthy by a Japanese officer, Isao Kusuno, after the Second World War. Aidan, the doctor son of the house and later an RAF Air Commodore, is the reason a lot of people make the trip out the Beara. If you do one thing here beyond having a pint, ask about the sword, or book “The Aidan MacCarthy Story”, a 30-minute session with local historian Sean Buckley (€8; book in the bar or call 083 843 3092). His wartime years are told in the family’s book A Doctor’s War and the film A Doctor’s Sword, both on the shelf inside.
The family and the building
The business started in 1860, when Michael McCarthy opened a general store on Main Street. Guinness came to him to take out a liquor licence, and the shop grew into one of Castletownbere’s first licensed premises, though his wife Ellen, by all accounts, would rather have kept it a grocery. Their youngest son, Denis Florence (D.F.), took over and rebuilt between 1907 and 1911, using Italian craftsmen who were in town constructing the Church of the Sacred Heart. They laid the floor mosaic that still carries D.F.’s initials at the door. To tell the family apart from a neighbouring business of the same name, D.F. added the ‘a’, and McCarthy’s became MacCarthy’s.
Aidan, sixth of D.F. and Julia’s children, was born in the flat above the shop in 1913. He served as an RAF doctor through the war and afterwards lived in London, but kept his ties to Beara. When his brother Jim died in 1977 the shop and bar nearly closed; Aidan’s daughter Adrienne gave up nursing in England and came home in 1979 to keep it going, joined by her sister Niki in 1991. They’ve held onto the building’s double life ever since, through the long closure of 2020 and a run of recognition: Pub of the Year at the 2016 Georgina Campbell Awards, a BBC Radio 4 Legacy of War episode narrated by Sean Bean, a visit from the UK ambassador.
Food and drink
The kitchen keeps it plain and does it well. The crab sandwich is the local order; there are pizzas (€8.50) and the usual Irish staples besides. Food runs from 11am to 4pm and no later, so arrive at seven expecting dinner and you’ll be having crisps with your pint. On the drinks side the bar leans on West Cork Distillers whiskey along with a rotating few craft beers and ciders, and the grocery counter is still selling bread and milk through it all.
Music and books
There’s a trad session in the back room most evenings, where the small space means you hear every note of the fiddle and bodhrán. A book corner keeps copies of McCarthy’s Bar, Bob Jackson’s A Doctor’s Sword and Beara Historical Society titles, alongside the family’s pug tradition, Bailey, who made the cover of Pete McCarthy’s book, being the best known of them.
Practical information and getting around
MacCarthy’s is open seven days. The shop and bar are open to everyone, there’s a high chair for small children, and free Wi-Fi if you need it. To hold a table on a busy music night or book the €8 history session, call +353 27 70014 or use the website’s contact form.
The bar is on The Square, a short walk from Berehaven Harbour and the start of several coastal walks, and it sits directly on the Beara Way, a natural stop if you’re walking the trail. A short drive gets you to Adrigole on the coast or inland to the copper-mining heritage at Allihies. Park on the surrounding streets or in the small lot near the harbour.
Come in before the evening session starts if you want a seat near the back bar, and order the crab sandwich before the kitchen shuts at four.