#Friends #Midlands

Café culture, Bewley's excepted, is a bit alien to Ireland. We do pubs very well; possibly too well given the number of small towns [looking at you Graiguenamanagh] which claim to have the largest count of pubs per head in the country. When we first blew in hereabouts nearly 30 years ago, we had 2 small children at foot. You couldn't really drop into a pub to use the jacks and bide-a-wee out of the rain. But you could, and we did, drop into O'Shea's of Borris because that was a hardware store and a grocery as well as being a pub. There was one table between the window and the fireplace which became a haven. Order a cup of coffee, 2 minerals and a bag of crisps, or a cheese toastie, and old Mr O'Shea would appear from the back and bustle in with kindling to light the fire. It definitely wasn't about the money for him. O'Shea's was a community hub: before EirCodes delivery drivers from the city would lose heart at the edge of the boondocks and leave parcels at O'Shea's for collection. It's where to go to watch the match too.

When the Fərmεntary opened in the Summer of 2021 we still doing masks and social distancing. But we made every excuse to drive into Borris for their excellent buns viennoiserie but also to support a local business. I was chatting to the fellow behind me in line and he turned out to be the Landlord! As a local businessman, he'd consciously made room for a café and cakes shop to boost the social capital of his home-place. As a business, the Fərmεntary was a bit of a punt. You can buy a perfectly serviceable all-butter croissant 10 mins down the road at Lidl in Bagenalstown for 65c. James and Seamus were asking 5x that. If you're not a connoisseur of viennoiserie (and so would know the difference) it can't be about the money. Apart from bougies like us  buying pain-au-chocs at the weekend, apparently mums would buy coffee while their kids romped in the playground across the street.

Whatevs, Croissants in Borris folded, the Post Office moved out of the other half on the building and it's been sad and shuttered for more than a year now. But you can't keep a good baker down and Seamus of Plúr Bakery is now supplying Joyce's of Borris Fri and Sat from 09:00 until the buns run out. Joyce's [pub, grocery, undertaker, B&B] is right next door to O'Shea's in the heart of Borris. It's a better more central location than the Fərmεntar: the pub is warm wooden and extensive against the uncertain Irish weather and Friday and Saturday morning is dead-time for the pub. They've also fill the front yard/garden of the 'hotel' part with picnic tables and massive umbrellas. We've been a tuthree times now: to sit and enjoy the coffee rather than rushing back to the starvin' chicks at home with a bag full of bunz. It could get to be like Friends 25 years after the SitCom.

A [also blow-in] friend of ours confided recently that Joyce's was now "a Social Hub" as if that was A Thing. Who knows? Maybe it is. Maybe Plúr and Joyce's are in receipt of a grant from Carlow Mental Health. I can think of worse ways to spending the rates.

Amenity, though? Borris has come  a l-o-n-n-g way in 25 years. When we arrived in the neighbourhood, there was a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker [I'm lying about the baker but Torc candles are a thing] . . . two steel-yards, six pubs, a draper-and-fancy-goods, a grocer-with-lotto-franchise and the Post Office. Now there's a Website, a library, a bookies, a Friday farrrmer's market, a Chinese, two chippers, two pharmacies, and regular 887 bus service to New Ross & Carlow Town and 881 service to Kilkenny. And a major Arts Festival beloved of the chatterati from Dublin because of the international celebs who headline the weekend.

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