Dick Mack’s Pub: From Grocery Store To Best Whiskey Bar in Ireland
by: Peter White
Fourth generation operator of Dick Mack’s Pub, Finn MacDonnell (left) and author Peter White
Dick Mack’s Pub was opened by Tom MacDonnell in 1899 and three generations later, it is a wholly atmospheric experience located in the heart of Dingle, Kerry in the southwest of Ireland. Tom, who was stationmaster at Tralee and Dingle Light Railway & Tramway opened the bar in order to provide light refreshments to its clientele and also operated a grocery and general store up until his death in 1938. After Tom’s death the pub was taken over by his son Richard MacDonnell who established a successful boot store. It was then that the pub became known as Dick Mack’s and his name was put above the door, a ‘k’ added for aesthetic reasons.
I became involved with the pub in November 2012 when after a thoroughly miserable Sunday’s hillwalking with the Dingle Hillwalking Club where the rain was blowing sideways, I returned home, had a quick shower and went looking for a quiet drink in the town where my mother had lived for about 7 years at that point. I had acquired a love of whiskey through my membership of the Irish Whiskey Society (IWS) and indeed had approached other pubs in the town previously to see whether they would expand their whiskey selection but surprisingly enough, none of them were really interested. However, at that point interest in whiskey and Irish whiskey in particular was very rare and this was probably true of most pubs in the country. Indeed, every bar in the town had the usual limited choice of whiskey but I despaired of ever having a decent selection to choose from. In fact, I just didn’t drink whiskey in Dingle owing to the dearth of selection and not being a beer drinker, stuck to Coca Cola.
The start of a whiskey journey
On that fateful day however, my friend George and I crashed through the doors of Dick Mack’s looking for respite from the deluge outside and my eyes lit upon a half bottle of Laphroaig 10 on the shelves behind Finn MacDonnell, the fourth generation MacDonnell to run the pub. George and I sat down and by early evening had consumed that Laphroaig and enquired as to the location of its replacement. To my chagrin, there was none forthcoming and I proceeded to tell Finn what I thought of a pub which didn’t have replacement bottles for consumed ones. He politely informed me that the Laphroaig had been left there by a previous customer and it was at this point that an idea started to germinate in my head. Taking a proper look around the empty bar, I could see that a really decent whiskey selection would greatly enhance the pub and its reputation, especially tourists which Dingle is famous for but to be honest I was probably mainly thinking of myself and the fact that I may finally have a bar in the town where I could retreat to for a nice dram or two, if Finn would only accede to my demands. I spent at least a couple of hours trying to convince him to come around to my way of thinking but as the evening wore on, it began to dawn on me that he just wanted me to exit the bar and never darken its doors again.
However, I persevered and being on a week’s holiday, returned each day after that to browbeat him and eventually wore him down. Before returning to Dublin, he asked me to bring back two new whiskeys when I was returning and two weeks later I arrived with a Green Spot and a limited edition Irishman 12 from Bernard Walsh, sourced from the Celtic Whiskey Shop. At that point I sat down with Finn and began to explain to him the history of whiskey and how the Irish had invented it, how it is part of our culture and just how a decent whiskey bar could enhance tourism in the town. After all, Fungi the dolphin wouldn’t be around forever. In addition, plans had been ongoing for a brand new distillery in Dingle and eventually tourism would build around this too so having a good whiskey bar here was an obvious thing to do.
This exercise was repeated into the following year and Finn and I started restocking the shelves behind the bar, getting rid of all of the bottles of Cinzano and other bottles accumulated over the years and replacing them with the new whiskey. Finn joined the Irish Whiskey Society and started going to tastings in Dublin and we began to educate the bar staff about the historic and cultural importance of whiskey and the different brands and types of whiskey out there. However, in my mind progress was slow and I had wanted to move things a bit quicker so in February of the following year, instead of the usual two bottles of whiskey, I began to bring cases of it from Dublin on each visit, paying for them with my credit card. At one point, I had purchased over twenty bottles in one go and Finn nearly collapsed, fearful of what his father would think. I just kept reassuring him, telling him it couldn’t possibly fail (I can’t explain why but I had always been sure that the idea would work). There were 12 whiskeys in the bar when we started to expand the range. There are around 250 now.
Interestingly, we had noticed that the locals became more interested in what we were doing and began to purchase whiskey themselves occasionally, asking for our opinion. The Irishman 12 that I had brought with me from Dublin was proving very popular and replaced Jameson as the pouring whiskey in the bar and we probably ended up buying half of all of that whiskey until supplies ran out (there were only two casks of this).
I then suggested to Finn that we contact Heidi Donnellan to see whether we could become part of her Ireland Whiskey Trail, an ingenious idea spawned by her some years previously, based on the book which was written by Alfred Barnard who visited all of the distilleries in Ireland and the U.K. in the 1800s. Heidi had previously worked for Irish Distillers and we wanted to get her feedback about what we were doing. Heidi was years ahead of everybody else when it came to promoting Irish whiskey so she visited the town, taking in the new distillery and was impressed by what we had done with the pub. We became part of the whiskey trail which lists pubs, distilleries and places to visit in Ireland.
We then had the idea of hosting an IWS tasting in the bar to bring it to the attention of a wider audience and it was my job to convince the society to decamp to Dingle for a tasting which happened in April 2013. Prior to this, the Irish Whiskey Society which had been formed in Dublin in 2009 to introduce Irish whiskey to a wider audience and to educate people about how the Irish had invented it, had never held a tasting outside the capital. Members of the society travelled from Dublin and a large local contingent gathered to take part in their first whiskey tasting. One of the whiskeys tasted that night was the Teeling 21, its first foray into the world which distiller Alex Chasko kindly allowed us to launch for them.
The first of the (many) awards
Over that summer, the whiskey bar and its selection which had grown to over 80 bottles proved very popular with tourists to the town and word began to spread. I had visited distilleries myself previously but Finn was now hugely enthusiastic about the subject and we travelled far and wide forging strong relationships across the whiskey community, both here and abroad. That autumn, whilst Finn was on holiday in the U.S, I attended the Irish Whiskey Awards and to our surprise, picked up both the provincial and overall Irish Whiskey Bar of the Year Awards in Kilbeggan distillery. Since then, the pub has won overall Irish and Munster Whiskey Bar of the Year in 2014, 15, 16 and 18, amongst other awards.
This journey has been a labour of love as well as a great adventure, spanning Islay and Jura in 2014 (and a few times since), Orkney, Skye, the Highlands, Japan, the U.S. and of course, Ireland. Indeed we have traversed Islay on our bicycles more than once, plastic bags full of whiskey rattling from the handlebars on more than one occasion.
We pride ourselves on having a terrific selection of whiskeys from around the world but especially Ireland where of course, uisce beatha was first created. I travel a lot and consequently, any time I was away, I tried to source a local whiskey, no matter how obscure the destination and bring it home. We have had whiskey from Iceland, Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia to name but a few and also whiskey from every region in Scotland. This is now harder to come by due to Brexit but we will persevere. The Irish Whiskey Society tasting became an annual event in the pub until 2016 when we started a chapter of the society in the town and now we have monthly tastings in different pubs and venues.
Finn MacDonnell and Stories & Sips’ Barry Chandler share a dram
The many whiskey collaborations
During our travels over the past number of years, we have been fortunate to befriend some great people at a number of distilleries and as a result, have invested in casks for the pub at some of these distilleries including Echlinville, Dingle, Great Northern, Royal Oak, Powerscourt, Boann and Clonakilty. However, unlike other establishments, we insist on having some say and influence on how that whiskey will evolve and as a result, we personally select our own casks in which to finish or mature that whiskey thereby creating one-off bespoke whiskeys which no one else has. We launched our first whiskey in December 2020, a 7 year old single malt from Dingle distillery which spent its final 3 years in a Florio Marsala cask, the only such cask in that distillery. This sold out rapidly, adorned with our new label which we will use on all of our new bottlings going forward.
From whiskey bar to brew house
It’s not all whiskey though – far from it. In 2014 the team had the idea to open their own brewery in Dick Mack’s yard. After a couple of years of planning, “figuring it out as they went” according to Finn, they finally fired up the fermenters in October 2017. The setting is perfect really – with the pub less than 25 meters from the front of the brew house, with and a natural well less than 25m behind it. Their beer, consisting of a core range of 4 beers, is stocked in 31 pubs in the town.
Having enjoyed a long friendship with Bernard Walsh of Walsh Whiskey in Carlow, a conversation over a few drinks between Shane Fitzharris and I, formerly of Walsh led to a very tasty and productive collaboration between the pub and the company and this led us down a road of collaboration with different distilleries around the country. Thus far, we have been fortunate enough to be a part of 3 collaborations with Bernard and his team who are very easy and generous to work with. These have been hugely successful and have included an Irishman single malt coffee stout, Writers Tears Seaweed IPA and Irishman single malt peated red ale finishes. We have another one coming down the tracks so watch this space!
We also have collaborations with Echlinville, Powerscourt, Clonakilty, Thomond Gate and Teeling distilleries due at any time.
What next for Dick Mack’s?
We are beguiled at where this journey is taking us and are currently giving some consideration to perhaps opening our own small distillery in the not too distant future using our own source of water which our Brewhouse already uses in the creation of our selection of beer. Dingle now has some excellent whiskey bars including John Benny’s pub, Paul Geaney’s bar and Benners Hotel.
Those who have visited Dick Mack’s will no doubt have stood at the front bar, gazing open-mouthed at the wall of bottles that stands in front of you. The main space, bar on one side, leather workshop on the other, is flanked by 2 snugs. Off this main space, you’ll wander through a maze of rooms and hideaways, featuring old fireplaces, warming stoves and nooks and crannies where an impromptu sing-song or story is likely to spring to life at any second. The rooms to the left were once home to the Mac Donnell family, before the bar expanded in the 1900s. These rooms have remained relatively untouched since its first opening, adding even more to its charm and character.
Entering Dick Macks today, one will see timber floor to ceiling shelves, filled with shoeboxes and wellington boots, buckles, trimmings, nails & tools; all a hark back to yesteryear.
Dick Mack’s has always remained true to tradition and in recent years, after years of silence one can once again hear the ping of hammer on leather on iron as custom made leather belts, keyrings and other leather gifts are crafted by ‘Brian the Belt’ to the delight of customers young and old during the summer months. The phrase ‘Step Up and Get Waisted’ is back! Finally, another unique feature of Dick Mack’s is the fact that the water used in the pub and surrounding buildings is drawn from their own well!
So all that is left to say is where is Dick Mack’s? Opposite the church, where is the church? Opposite Dick Mack’s!
