One of Armagh’s oldest and most well attended bars is this week celebrating an impressive 140 years in business.
McKenna’s Bar, located in the Shambles area of the town, has been owned and managed by the McKenna family for a total of five generations.
Now, with Frankie McKenna at the helm, the business has become a popular destination for those seeking live entertainment and comprehensive sports coverage.
Even though Frankie has put in a whooping 35 years of his own behind the bar, he conceded that his father, Joe would be the best man to recount the business’s history.
Speaking to Armagh I, with an incredible head for dates, Joe explained: “My father’s brother, Robert, he had the bar. He was the oldest in the family and he was left it.
“He married late in life and died in 1959, I think it was and it was then left to his wife and she had very little interest in it so my father bought it off her in 1963, on August 1.”
Joe’s father had been born in Armagh but had moved away to Belfast later in life where began his career as a publican with the establishment of his first bar on the Old Lodge Road.
As Joe said: “When he got the chance to buy his home place back, it was something he had to do” and so, he moved back to Armagh in 1963.
Frankie with his wife Kate and children Aoife and Ciaron and the interior of the bar as it appears today
At that time, Joe’s father ran the bar alone which may seem like an undertaking in the sizeable premises that we know today.
However, Joe explains that back then, the bar held no more than 30 people.
When Joe’s father passed away in 1979, he took up the reigns, aged 27, and soon put his own stamp on the place by undertaking the building’s first extension.
Frankie, who took ownership when Joe retired ten years ago, was responsible for the building’s second extension.
And, the pair have much more in common than their foresight and ability to contribute to the growth of a longstanding family business.
When asked if they had any fond memories to share or significant years in business that stood out to them, they both answered: “2002 and 2024.”
Left to right: Ciaron with Joe and Frankie and the Sam Maguire cup
Said Joe: “Armagh in 2002, winning the All Ireland was probably one of the best years. It’s the buzz, the excitement, but there was more buzz this year than there was in 2002.
“There wasn’t as many young ones going to football and not as many girls. I always complain now that it’s hard to get tickets because all the women want them as well now!”
Of their 140 years in business, Frankie quipped: “It’s an achievement, with the way things are now, to still have a bar!”
He puts their success down to a ‘little luck’ and the strong family history, adding: “The family businesses are the ones that stay strong and that’s the whole history of Armagh, they are all holding their own.”
Joe, however, views their success more nostalgically: “I think part of the secret, you have to have the Sky and the football and everything on the sports end, but in my day, it was a good, oul slaggin’ match.”
