A man who took a “lucky” step in the wrong direction says his life was changed by the decision.
Pádraig Brady turned left instead of right and ended up inside Irish pub, Mulligans, in Deansgate, Manchester.
After returning several times he got talking with the landlord who asked the then accountant his advice on the business.
Six-months after mistakenly stepping through its doors, he was now the new landlord of Mulligans.
The 52-year-old said: “My background is in accountancy – I walked in there by accident, would you believe.
"I turned left instead of right at the corner of Southgate. Six-months later I bought the guy out who was there.
“I could always tell how busy it was but in the background, unbeknown to the customers, it was falling down.”
Up until the 1990s, the pub was known as the Waggon and Horses, a name it had for around 170-years.
In the 1990s it became a favourite of Manchester United players including Roy Keane and Denis Irwin and it had its first change of name in when it became Mulligans.
Pádraig says while the price of a Guinness there may be a bit more expensive than other places, the premium service, surroundings and atmosphere, as well as pouring the 'best pint of Guinness outside of Ireland', means they're so busy they turn hundreds of people away every week.
Everything about the place he says is "authentic" down to the old style Guinness fonts.
He told Manchester Evening News: "For me personally, it needs to be run by an Irish person who has the experience of growing up in Ireland.
"I'm sure I could open a British cask ale pub, but I wouldn't be as good as others at it because I don't understand it. Of course you can learn it, but there's learning and feeling and growing up in it – that's different."
"There'll always be a small bit of fate in things. Just walking in there, that might have been a stroke of luck, but opportunity will pass everybody's way.
“It'll pass yours, it'll pass mine, but you just have to be ready to take it."
In the book Central Manchester Pubs written by the University of Salford's Dr Deborah Woodman, it says the pub's history dates all the way back to the 1820s. Dr Woodman's research reveals that during the latter part of the 19th century, the pub had seen a few of its patrons meet tragic ends.
In 1882, the pub's manager, Robert Armstrong, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Just three years later in 1885, the Manchester Evening News reported another death by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, this time James Austin, 29, said to be a native of Liverpool, had been drinking in the bar before taking his own life.
