“I was born and reared in a pub and as a young lad, I used to drink plenty of porter. I made my first communion when I was 7, and I never drank a drop again after that. I also tried smoking once, but I couldn’t tolerate the taste of it, thank God. I knew at some stage in my life I would become a publican, and I decided that to run a good pub, it was better that I didn’t drink myself. I grew up in Geashill, Co. Offaly, in my parent’s pub called Joe Lee’s. We also had a farm, so there was plenty of work to do. My father was a jack of all trades. He worked in the bar, and he and my mother kept the farm going. There were four boys in the family, and I was the second youngest. Two of them have already passed on, the oldest and the youngest. They went on to third-level education while myself and Noel stayed in Offaly. Noel ran the farm, and I got into the pub trade.

Back in those days, our pub was the only one that could open on a Sunday because it had a 7-day licence and it used to be packed! This was known as the Bona Fide Trade. We weren’t allowed to serve locals. Sunday customers had to live three miles from the pub to be allowed to drink there. People came from Walsh Island, Cappincur, and Kilcavan on their bicycles. They were known as the ‘Bona Fide Travellers’. The bikes would be stacked three and four deep outside. One day I saw a fella take ten minutes to get his bike! There were tough restrictions then. Every pub in Ireland broke the law, though! They would let locals into the backyard and the kitchen. If there was a police raid, the drinkers in the kitchen would know they were coming and escape out the back, adding a bit of excitement to a Sunday.

I opened my own pub, Joe Lee’s, here in Tullamore in 1964. My granduncle James Healion first opened it in 1896. He died a fairly young man around 1901. My uncle Tom Lee was working in the pub at the time. He was 100% reliable and eventually took it over around the mid-1920s. He was a very cute man and had a great head. He was a funeral undertaker and the first in Tullamore to run a taxi service around the mid to late 1920s. The car he used for a taxi had belonged to President Douglas Hyde. He was married but had no family. When he died in 1952, his widow ran the pub for a while. When she died, it went to my father, who willed it to me then.

Some people are the nicest of people until they get a drink into them, and some people are the same with or without the drink. I put plenty of fellas out of the pub over the years, but I never fell out with anyone. I understood that they were only bowld because of the drink. I wasn’t Mohammed Ali or anything, but I only got knocked over once. I always got the strength from somewhere when I needed to take action if someone was acting up.

I have always loved Irish music. The first time I heard it on the radio, I was stone mad after it, and the pub eventually became known as a music pub. My wife Dolores would come down and give a hand behind the bar so that I could play a few tunes on the accordion for the customers. We worked very long hours and only took a Sunday off once a year to go on holidays. Every week I would go out the country to Broughal to help my cousins on the farm. That was the hardest work, but it was an excuse to get out of the pub, and it kept me fit. I was strong and hardy, but a year after opening the pub, I got TB (Tuberculosis) and spent the next eight months in Peamount sanitorium. I had hurt myself lifting barrels and didn’t look after it. That’s when the TB set in, and I got it in the lower back.
Back then, if people survived TB, you’d see them really minding themselves and all wrapped up in topcoats, hats and scarves. Wrapping up didn’t suit me, but thankfully a new medication came out, and that saved a lot of people, including me. When everyone else who had overcome TB was wearing coats, hats and scarves, I was swimming all year round in Lough Ennell and the outdoor pool in Tullamore. I did that for forty years, and I often had to break the ice to get into the pool in Tullamore. In 2006, I suffered a heart attack and had to start taking it easy. My son John took over the pub and has worked hard at it. He is doing a great job with the place.

I’d barely be able to wash my face in cold water now, but I always took cold showers, which kept me hardy in my life. I still take the cold showers but no longer do the winter swimming. I reckon I was the only former TB patient in Ireland to engage in all-year-round swimming!

I have been blessed in life with a very supportive and patient wife, and together Dolores and I have reared three children. We are now enjoying retired life with them and our grandchildren; Sean, Tomas, Alison, Conor and Elsa. We have been very lucky to have the friendship and support of our loyal customers for more than 50 years in Tullamore and hope that Joe Lee’s continues to be a place where people can relax, enjoy a pint, a bit of music, but most of all have a chat”.