Here's a nice story from the News & Star in bonny Carlisle: a kindly dad has bought an interesting 21st birthday present for his daughter. A pub.
If you live in the town or spend any time there, you may have clocked the Golden Lion in Botchergate, much-favoured by bikers.
Now it's smartly painted in green and a Guinessy cream and has turned into Gallagher's Irish bar, a genre not over-represented in the town.
Behind the bar, alongside staff in suitably emerald T-shirts, is Bride Gallagher whose career as a publican kicks off promisingly with an excellent quote. She tells News & Star reporter Pam Clounie:
I was very shocked when dad told me he'd bought me a pub. I was in Turkey on holiday for my 21st and I wasn't expecting anything apart from a card.
At least her absence means that father Seamus, who has lived in Carlisle for 24 years and is very fond of the place, didn't have to wrap the building up in paper and a ribbon. He's giving her a hand in the early days, as he gets ready to retire at 60, and they're both enjoying things very much. She was out of work when the birthday call came, and she's delighted to have a job once more.
Seamus says:
It was always my intention to retire at 60 and buy a pub and that is
exactly what I have now done. It gives Bridie a job and a career in the pub trade to follow.
The gift is also a present for five bar staff and a cleaner who have all got work as a result. Check out the thread developing on the News & Star piece too. I specially like the reader who asks:
Does Mr Gallagher want to adopt me?
