A well-known Co Fermanagh publican says he has no plans to retire while he still enjoys what he does every day.
Tom McNulty, 83, runs the Silver Swallow pub on the Sligo Road near Enniskillen and has done for more than three decades along with close family members. The pub itself is more than 150 years old.
Tom still keeps a watchful eye over proceedings at the well-known pub which he says caters for all sides of the community in the county.
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The publican and funeral director purchased the premises from the Gilleece family in 1991. While he says there have been difficult days in recent years, he enjoys what he does more than ever - and that’s what keeps him behind the bar.
“I think I feel fit enough. If you’re fit to do work I think you should keep going on,” Tom told MyFermanagh.
“As long as you’re mentally and physically fit, I see no reason why I should give up. It’s coming to an end I know obviously, but I’ll wait until that happens.
“We enjoy it certainly, there’s great people and great characters. They do appreciate the place and we appreciate them.
“Enniskillen has always been a great community town. There has never really been a problem down here and thankfully our customer base is just great people.
“They are like a big family, we look after one another and I was always very appreciative of our customer base.”
On the Silver Swallow’s place in the local community, Tom says people from all walks of life come into the bar. And that’s the way he wants it.
He added: “The Silver Swallow has been here for well over 150 years.
“My career was in insurance, but I left that industry and I bought here in July 1991. We have had good years in all those years.
“We’ve had ups and downs and good days and bad days, sad days and glad days. Our bar is the longest established bar on the Sligo Road.
“Both sides of the community come here and everybody seems to enjoy themselves. There have been some lean years with recessions but thankfully we got through them.”
The hospitality industry is not without its challenges, Tom says. The Enniskillen man does fear for the future after a pandemic in recent years and in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis there could be tough times ahead as well.
“Covid set in and we were closed for 14 months. While the government did look after us reasonably well, we didn’t want the bar closed.
“Our customers have been very supportive of us. We were a bit worried about what the situation would be after Covid but thankfully the customers came back.
“The cost of running a bar has seen such a jump, it’s very hard now for a business to be viable at the moment. Hopefully we can weather this storm as we did in the past.”
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