How Wexford pubs T Morris and Maggie Mays are preparing for the 2025 Fleadh Cheoil

With just three weeks to go, we catch up with James Ryan of T Morris and Alan Jordan of Maggie Mays ahead of this year’s Fleadh Cheoil…

‘Are you coming to the Fleadh?’ – words that have no doubt been cemented in the mind of every resident of Wexford by this stage. A popular RTÉ advertisement last year proposed this question and concluded ‘Everyone is coming to the Fleadh’. Looking back a year later, they weren’t wrong.

Last year’s Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann was hailed by many as the biggest ever, attracting an estimated 650,000 people from all over Ireland and beyond. Ireland’s largest festival, the Fleadh Cheoil has been a cultural mecca ever since it was first held in Mullingar in 1951. Since then, the Fleadh has only gotten bigger by the year, attracting visitors from all over the globe.

Unlike most festivals, the Fleadh is unique in its lack of a fixed location. Each year, a lucky village, town or city is taken over for a week of music, dance and celebration. To be chosen as host for the Fleadh is a highly esteemed and elusive honour. Last year’s Fleadh made history as the first one to be held in Wexford town. Before that, the last time Wexford County held the Fleadh was in 2000 when it was hosted by Enniscorthy.

With the news that next year’s Fleadh Cheoil will be held in Belfast, this year might be the last time Wexford hosts the festival for a very long time. This fact, combined with the success of last year’s event, has people anticipating the biggest Fleadh yet. While many have been getting ready for the Fleadh by booking accommodation and time off work, others are doing a different kind of preparation.

With a festival of this magnitude, there is an enormous amount of manpower involved behind the scenes. The Fleadh Cheoil involves a huge level of organization propped up by the hundreds of employees and volunteers who work tirelessly throughout the week to ensure everything runs smoothly. It is also a fantastic opportunity to benefit from the level of footfall; it is estimated that last year’s Fleadh generated approximately €60 million for the local economy.

Some of the busiest businesses of the week will no doubt be the pubs. This time last year, Wexford publicans nervously battened down the hatches for a looming army of trad music fans. Since Wexford town had never hosted before, nobody knew what to expect. This year is different in that respect, but the preparations are just as intense.

One of the busiest hotspots of the week will undoubtedly by Monck Street, a hotspot for Wexford nightlife. The historic street on Wexford’s quay front is home to popular bars like T Morris, the Mocking Monck and Maggie Mays as well as the Crown Quarter. As of 2024, Monck Street can also boast about being Ireland’s only fully covered street thanks to its retractable roof.

Sitting at opposite ends of Monck Street, Maggie Mays and T Morris are set up on the frontlines of this massive cultural spectacle. T Morris was bought and reopened by owners Ciaran and Marie Mooney in 2021 and has since become one of the busiest haunts in town. In April of this year, Ciaran and Marie Mooney acquired Maggie Mays, a pub that has been at the centre of Wexford’s nightlife for the past twenty years. At the helm of these two ships are managers James Ryan and Alan Jordan.

Ryan is a well-known figure in the Wexford bar scene. A born and bred Wexford man, Ryan started his hospitality career as a glass collector at the age of fifteen in the very building T Morris inhabits today. He later honed his skills abroad, managing various bars across the USA and Europe, before coming full circle and returning to Wexford to open the Chaz Bar on Wexford Quay in 2001. For the past four years, he has been the General Manager of T Morris ever since its relaunch by Ciaran and Marie Mooney.

Jordan has also had an eventful career. Originally from Dublin, Jordan spent a large proportion of his hospitality career running bars in South Africa. He was hired as the Assistant Manager of T Morris upon its relaunch and appointed the General Manager of Maggie Mays earlier this year. Even with their combined lifetime of experience across several continents, the two had never seen anything quite like the Fleadh before last year. We had an opportunity to speak to them both in the midst of their Fleadh preparations.

What was your experience of last year’s Fleadh Cheoil?

Jordan: “Our expectations going into it was ‘the unknown’. We weren’t sure how it was going to be. We were blown away by what happened last year. It’s a fabulous festival. I think staff-wise, we all enjoyed it. Hard work, but it was something very special for the town. Something I haven’t seen before. The warmth, the love, the fun – everything came together for that weekend. Just a great experience.”

Ryan: “Visiting Mullingar the year before – a group of vintners went up to see how they were operating – we were very naïve. The day we went up there, we all agreed that we learned an awful lot. The capacity of the bars that we had in Wexford were never going to be enough for the volume of people coming. What we did in T Morris was we sold out of our front windows from our snug area, we put a bar at the back on to O’Rahilly Place and we also put an area in McCauley’s car park called the ‘T Morris Marquee’. Being from Wexford, and having worked in different parts of the world, to be working in Wexford for this is an honour. It’s nice to be able to showcase what we all know to be our beautiful town.”

What can we expect from this year’s Fleadh?

Ryan: “Going by what I’ve learned from Mullingar, the second year is 30% busier than the first year. Because a lot of the local people, same as ourselves, didn’t know what to expect. We didn’t know what was coming. But this year, everyone understands what’s happening. Everyone I’ve spoken to has taken holidays around the time of the Fleadh. That 30% could grow to 40% or 50%. I think last year was only a drop in the ocean for what we’re preparing for this year. People think they saw the best Fleadh ever last year – hold on to your socks because this year will blow them off.”

Jordan: “I agree with James completely. I think people were a bit anxious (last year) but I think they will fully embrace it. The numbers will definitely go up. I think we’re more prepared this year. We’ve got a good idea of what’s coming.”

Pub-goers enjoying the 2024 Fleadh at Maggie Mays

What do the preparations for this year look like?

Jordan: “Getting ourselves ready stock-wise. We’ll have everything in earlier. Last year we were probably overstocked. We had items that weren’t going to sell. So, we can trim that a bit and give exactly what the public want. It was our first year, so we didn’t know what was coming and what to sell. It was sometimes a thumb-suck. I think we’ll have it right this year, get exactly what we need.”

Ryan: “We’ve been getting ready since the week after the Fleadh last year. We had notes on each day that we’d done. Just to see how we can rectify it and make the experience better for the customer. Everyone says that it ran smoothly but none of that happens without the people behind the scenes. The delivery men, the rubbish men, the people getting the place cleaned at nighttime. We are blessed. We’ve got really good people in Maggie Mays, and we’re blessed here (T Morris) with some great staff. You cannot do it without the people behind you.

I think it’s important that we look after the Fleadh people. The musicians, the dancers, the singers. Both T Morris and Maggie Mays will have areas for musicians. All musicians are welcome day and night. This year we decided that we’ll have the ‘T Morris Marquee’ which will have live music straight through. We’re finding now as we’re getting close to it that we’re being bombarded with acts that are trying to come to Wexford and play. We’re just counting down the hours to get it up and running and show what we can do.”

What part of this year’s Fleadh are you most looking forward to?

Jordan: “What’s going to happen in the car park is going to be very exciting for me. There’s a massive stage going there and it’s going to be something special. The acts that James has brought in are going to be sensational. I think people are in for a real treat. The nice thing is, anybody can go in there and enjoy it. There’s no charge. It’s for everybody. Grab yourself a cold beer or a gin and tonic, sit back or stand up, and watch it all. The lineup every day is going to be packed. I think that’s going to be very exciting.”

Ryan: “I’m looking forward to getting it done. I’m looking forward to sitting down after it, having a pint ourselves and saying that we represented our county well and that people enjoyed themselves. We’re in a business where we try and look after the public as much as anyone that works during the Fleadh is. Bring it on. Loch Garman Abú.”

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