Tom Kelly
1879 - 1962

Tom was born in Clontuskert, near Ballinasloe, in 1879, the year the Blessed Virgin chose to appear down the road at Knock. He also shares a birthday with Baby Jesus.

Around 1928 he married my aunt Norah and whisked her away to Glasgow.


A few years later he returned to Dublin and was barman in the upstairs bar in the Olympia theatre. I gathered from the family that he had a bar named after him in that theatre. This custom is widespread in the world of theatre.


But it turned out that Kelly's Bar, downstairs, was in fact named after one of his colleagues, Kathleen Kelly. This was a very disappointing discovery.


Kelly's Bar is now Maureen's Bar, after the legend-in-her-own-time barmaid, Maureen Grant. Maureen is 85 and has been in the Olympia bar for the last 62 years.

On my reckoning, when Maureen arrived on the scene, Tom would have been 70 and probably long retired. Nevertheless, armed with a photo of Tom (at bottom of this page) I went in to see Maureen. As she was the longest serving member of the Olympia staff, maybe she had heard of Tom when she was starting out.


Maureen turned out to be a lovely lady. Not only did she remember Tom, but he had trained her in, and she spoke of him with great affection and respect, "a gentleman". To me, at least, her tribute was worth a lot more than the mere naming of a bar.

She persuaded me to part with my photo which she said would end up on the wall, already plastered with the great and the good, including some photos and a portrait of Maureen herself.

One of the photos showed her in a clinch with Kris Kristofferson, whom she clearly admires. He has dedicated one of his CDs to Maureen, who, Kris said, "has been curing and creating hangovers for me since I started coming to Dublin".

You can hear some of Maureen's stories on Youtube as part of the new Storymap Dublin project. She was recently given a Variety Gold Heart Award at Dublin's Mansion House.



This is Tom in his later years, and as I remember him.