The strength of the family bond is precious for the Gleeson clan
Families of Clonmel
As owners of one of Clonmel’s most popular pubs, the Gleeson family know all about hospitality. On an overcast day, I am welcomed into the family home on Anne Street. Irene, the matriarch of the family, makes tea before sitting down to chat at the kitchen table in a throne-like chair, salvaged from an old convent in Gort. “You look like a Queen,” I smile. While said in jest, the remark turns out to be prescient. As we converse, it becomes clear that Irene is a central figure for her three children, Richie, Kieran, Maria and five grandchildren, Sophie, Alex, Mia, Conor and Lucy.
At eighty-two, Irene has a gentle presence. With beautiful bone structure, skin, and eyes, it is easy to see how she once represented Tipperary in the Miss Ireland contest. But beauty runs deep. Irene is strong, having survived giant cell arteritis and two bouts of cancer. Her philosophy is to face each challenge headfirst, “I don’t give in to anything. I’ll keep going as long as I can. Every day is a happy day.”
Intergenerational business
Richie attests to her positive attitude, “Mum is stubborn, resilient, and loving” before going onto describe her as “The most stubborn person I’ve ever met, tough as nails, and yet soft. She’s been through everything and still turns up smiling.” The bond between them is strong. When speaking about his mother, Richie sometimes becomes emotional, his eyes welling up with tears. He manages the family pub alongside Sophie, his twenty-three-year-old daughter, with Irene overseeing the business accounts. Richie says that he would be lost without their support.
READ MORE: The personal touch has seen a Tipperary business flourish despite multinational competition
When the family marked the fortieth anniversary of the pub’s establishment, Irene was at the heart of the celebrations. Richie says, “Mum’s health was up and down, but no way was I going ahead without her. Thankfully, she was in good form on the day. She’s always been an astute businesswoman, the backbone of the pub, the face behind the counter. All the customers love Mum and still ask after her.” Richie cites Irene as his inspiration. “Maybe a customer or one of their family members has fallen ill and I tell them, ‘The only way through is to be positive.’”
Irene reflects on how each generation has injected fresh energy and contributed to the evolution of the family business, first established in 1984. Richie agrees, “When we started working side by side, Mum would chat to her customers at the top of the bar, while I’d be down the other end. Now, it’s my daughter’s turn to make her mark.” Sophie wants to build on their success. “Everyone speaks so highly of Nana Irene and Dad and I’m proud of what they’ve both achieved. I’ve big boots to fill but am determined to continue and make Gleeson’s even better.”
Celebrating family
Spending time together as a family is important. While Richie and Maria live locally and pop around all the time, Kieran and his family are based in Australia. For Irene’s eightieth birthday, the whole family decamped to Inchydoney for a few days with the crew from Oz flying in to join the celebrations. The family in Clonmel often go for a meal together with Irene laughingly saying, “Cooking for a crowd only happens in this kitchen at Christmas.”
Mother and son share a love of rugby, tuning into all the matches. A keen musician, Richie hosts a weekly session in the pub and is a member of both St Mary’s Choral Society and Creative Minds Productions. Musical talent runs in the family as Irene’s mother was a fine singer and Richie’s paternal grandaunt a concert pianist. Despite allegedly not having a note in her head, Irene goes along to support all of Richie’s shows, saying, “Having an interest outside of work is important.”
Early days
Irene grew up on a farm in Grangemockler, the eldest of nine, born to Richard Walsh and Bridget Lynch. “It was a happy childhood where we played in the fields but had our jobs. Every Saturday night, I was on the shoes, polishing them for Sunday Mass.” She completed her education at the Presentation Convent in Carrick-on-Suir before moving to Clonmel and a job in the Telephone Exchange, in what was then known as the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. Irene worked upstairs in the old Post Office on Gladstone Street, now home to Café 1901 and Mulligan’s Pharmacy.
Foreign odysseys
Her eyes light up as she describes being a young woman on the cusp of life, “We would go to dances in The Ormonde Hotel. I caught the travel bug from my supervisor and Brendan in Rafferty Travel would keep an eye out for bargains.” Irene would head off — often, alone — not only to continental Europe but also to places as far-flung as Egypt. “I loved experiencing different cultures.”
Richie is surprised to hear of his mother’s solo jaunts in the 1960s saying: “I didn’t know you went on your own — that was brave.” Irene breezily dismisses his concerns, “I always met lovely people.” When asked about her favourite destinations, she quips, “Venice was beautiful. As for Algeria and South Africa, I never saw so much sand in my life!” The apple does not fall far from the tree as Sophie loves travel, socialising and music, saying, “I’m still hearing new stories about Nana Irene’s adventures!”
Miss Tipperary
In 1969, Irene was selected as Miss Tipperary. She is reluctant to talk about the experience, “It’s not important. It was just one period in my life.” However, it emerges that the young Irene was gifted a sewing machine by her father and made all her own clothes, including her dress for the Miss Ireland contest, learning the tricks of the trade from her cousin, a fashion designer.
New experiences
Romance followed when Irene met Tom Gleeson at The Clonmel Arms. Originally from Limerick, Tom had moved to Tipperary for work. After a fifteen-month courtship, the couple married in 1973 and lived on Roaring Springs Road in the Oldbridge area. While Tom worked in a financial institution, he devoted much of his spare time to the Hillview Sports Club. In 1984, he identified a business opportunity and decided to buy a pub in Irishtown with the young family moving to live over the premises. Irene says, “It was the same year that my father died. I knew nothing about the pub business and was thrown in at the deep end. I remember these two big fellows saying to me, ‘Begorrah Mrs, we didn’t come in here for a bishop’s collar.’ I was mortified. They had to show me how to pull a pint.”
Customers are like family
True to form, Irene wasted no time in learning the ropes. Despite being, as she describes “quiet and shy,” she was used to chatting with people from her days in the telephone exchange. “Meeting people in the bar was the best bit — over time, so many of them became like family.” Two generations later, Sophie echoes her grandmother’s sentiments, “I want to keep Gleeson’s a fun place, where people are safe and it feels like family.”
Irene still worries that she did not devote enough time to her children due to the long, unsociable hours associated with pub life but Richie objects, “Mum, you were phenomenal. You would get us up for school, have our lunches ready and run up and down the stairs to help with homework in between serving customers.” Irene also made clothes for her children, although Richie admits that they hated being dressed in matching outfits. Irene chuckles at the memory.
Personal challenges
She experienced her first bout of cancer in 1990 around the same time that the family moved to nearby Anne Street but according to Richie, “Mum focused on recovery and wasted no time in coming back to look after us all and run the pub.” Simultaneously, Irene and Tom’s marriage was faltering and they decided to separate. It must have been a turbulent time, but Irene says, “I just got on with things.”
After Richie finished college in Dublin in 1995 and became involved in the day-to-day running of the bar, Irene focused on developing their bed-and-breakfast business. Despite juggling family and work, she found time to play bridge and became an avid collector of Waterford and Tipperary crystal, artefacts now on display in her living room, although she wryly regrets that none of the family seem keen on inheriting them. When cancer hit for the second time in 2003, Irene retired from the pub but continued to focus on the bed-and-breakfast business. In 2019, she developed giant cell arteritis, a painful disease that Irene describes as her greatest challenge, which ultimately triggered her retirement.
Home sweet home
Anne Street continues to play a huge role in the family’s life with Irene busily preparing flowerpots for display outside. When they moved in, the Georgian house required major renovation, all managed by the indomitable Irene, “I couldn’t walk after surgery. The basement had been ripped out and there were no stairs, only a ladder.” She pays warm tribute to the community — “It’s a place where everyone watches out for each other.”
When asked what family means, Irene’s response is heartfelt, “They’re everything to me — the most brilliant, precious people in the world.” Richie and Sophie smile and nod in agreement.
Families of Clonmel Book
Clonmel Applefest, in conjunction with The Nationalist, is delighted to share the ten stories that comprise its ‘Families of Clonmel’ book launched during last September’s Applefest. Ten Families originally from or who have lived in Clonmel for at least 10 years are included in the book for which nominations were sought and secured after a lengthy selection process. For each cohort, the family head was interviewed in their homes with a final photograph by John D. Kelly included with the wider multigenerational family. Families come from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, from well-established Clonmel natives to more recently arrived families. Included in the book are: The Burkes, Caseys, Dempseys, Gleesons, Hacketts, Hewitts, Mcnamaras, Molloys, Purcells, and Sheikhs. All shared what they enjoy doing together and why family is important to them.
This project would not have been possible without the participation of a vibrant cohort of locally-based committed community writers who took an interest, interviewed and wrote about the selected families under the mentorship of Sean O’Connor, an accomplished writer and editor from Nenagh. This ambitious project was made possible with a grant from the Arts Council of Ireland and additional support from Age-Friendly Tipperary and The Museum of Hidden Histories.
The festival theme in 2025 was ‘The Ties that Bind’ and these stories demonstrate love, humour and caring in a very real and meaningful way. Copies of the book can be purchased for € 12 at Hickey’s Bakery, the Narrow Space Gallery and Chou’s Cottage (including via shops’ websites).
About the author (Anette Condon)
From Cahir, Annette works as a communications consultant and writes poetry and prose in her spare time. She was awarded second place in the 2024 Francis Ledwidge Poetry Award. Her work features regularly at Clonmel Junction Arts Festival and has been published in journals, including The Waxed Lemon, Skylight 47, The Wexford Bohemian and New Isles Press. Annette was part of the team that won the 2021 National Heritage Sharing Award for developing a physical and virtual historical walking tour in Cahir. She has researched and written articles for the Tipperary Historical Journal and Daughters of Dún Iascaigh: A Light on the History of Cahir Women.