Dorgan’s Bar on Rock Street, Cloyne
Dorgan’s Bar, Rock Street, Cloyne. The original green-painted frontage displaying the DORGAN family name. Photograph from the Dorgan family collection; exact date unconfirmed.
The Dorgan family public house, remembered through records and photographs
For generations, the Dorgan family was associated with a public house on Rock Street in Cloyne, East County Cork. Remembered as Dorgan’s Bar or O’Dorgain’s, the premises later became Aunty Biddy’s Lounge and, after redevelopment, The Rock.
The Family and the Public House
Newspapers in January 1868 record a spirit licence granted to Patrick Dorgan of Rock Street. The report identifies an early Dorgan publican, but does not establish when the family acquired the later premises. Michael Dorgan was called a shopkeeper in an 1870 civil registration and a publican in an agreement dated 4 July 1881. Following Michael’s death in 1886, his widow Johanna Garde Dorgan continued to appear in the family’s Rock Street business records.
The 1901 and 1911 censuses expressly described Johanna’s building as a Public House. She was a vintner and grocer in 1901; her daughters Mary Eliza and Helena worked as bar assistants and her son Patrick farmed. The premises had six associated outbuildings in 1901 and sixteen in 1911, including six stables in the latter year. Farming and public-house trading were closely intertwined, although the returns do not establish where every outbuilding stood.
Michael and Johanna’s son Patrick Dorgan married Hannah Millerick Dooley in 1919. His 1931 death registration describes him as a vintner and farmer. Family recollections associate Hannah and, later, their son William (Liam) Dorgan with the continuing pub. The precise inheritance and licence succession have not been established.
Changing Signs and the Family Photographs
An undated family photograph shows the striking green-painted, two-storey DORGAN frontage. Its filename suggests 1997, but that is not a verified photographic date. Official planning history records proposed renovations in 1997 and retention of an extension in 2001, when the bar at No. 10 Rock Street was incorporated into the existing bar at No. 9. The applicants’ names and their connection, if any, to Liam remain unknown.
On 15 April 2005, William Joseph Dorgan III photographed the former family pub. Its main frontage now said Aunty Biddy’s Lounge, but an older hanging Murphy’s sign still displayed O’Dorgain. The three original photographs preserve camera timestamps from that evening, and the photographer personally confirmed their authorship and date. An additional family image records an undated stone-fronted Aunty Biddy’s exterior.
The family's accounts differ over whether Liam sold or ceased operating the pub in 1998 or 2002. Neither has been verified by a transfer record. By 2022, a newspaper account described the redeveloped premises as The Rock. Its name was inspired by a different, earlier pub farther down Rock Street; these should not be confused.
Records and Further Reading
1911 House and Building Return
The Rock — 2022 Newspaper Article
Original Dorgan family photographs are preserved unaltered. The three photographs of 15 April 2005 are credited to William Joseph Dorgan III. The two earlier-looking views have no confirmed capture date.
1. Aunty Biddy’s stone-fronted exterior — date unconfirmed. A view of the former Dorgan family public house after alterations to its exterior.
2. Aunty Biddy’s Lounge — 15 April 2005. The former Dorgan family pub, photographed by William Joseph Dorgan III during his visit to Cloyne.
3. Aunty Biddy’s frontage — 15 April 2005. A closer view of the entrance and painted signage. Photograph by William Joseph Dorgan III.
4. The surviving O’Dorgain sign — 15 April 2005. The historic family name remained displayed on a hanging Murphy’s sign above Aunty Biddy’s Lounge. Photograph by William Joseph Dorgan III.