Church in bid to buy pub premises

By Ross McKee
BBC News

The pub is situated on Church Street in Antrim

The phrase 'last orders' could be given a new meaning if an Antrim church is successful in its attempt to purchase a nearby bar.

The owner of Viscount O'Neill's pub in Church Street, Philip Ramsey, says he has already received a bid of more than £600,000 from First Antrim Presbyterian Church for the premises.

The church is keen to buy the bar with a view to turning the property into an "outreach facility".

But it has no intention of selling the 'devil's buttermilk' in any new venture, as Mr Ramsey explained.

"The church has made an offer, it is a bid of over £600,000," he said.

"They are not buying the alcohol licence which is worth in excess of £125,000.

The church would turn the pub into an 'outreach facility'

"There are some other bidders interested in the bar, including local publicans in the town. My son Philip Junior is also interested. He wants to follow on. We might decide to go to public auction.

"Viscount O'Neill's is about an historic man, he was the governor of Antrim in 1798, and the whole image of the bar is drawn on that.

"We are a mixed denomination in the pub, everyone comes in and we are one of the trendiest bars in the town. The locals don't want it to close."

Marbella move

Mr Ramsey said he and his wife Carol plan to move to Spain where they have a house, once the pub's sale is completed, and may open a Viscount O'Neill's bar in Marbella.

A spokesman for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, confirmed the church is not interested in purchasing the alcohol licence attached to Viscount O'Neill's, which is being sold separately.

Paintings in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter depict the United Irishmen

He added that any final decision would be made by First Antrim Presbyterian Church's congregation.

"It is a matter for a local congregation what property it wishes to buy or dispose of," he said.

"It is my understanding that First Antrim Presbyterian Church has shown an interest in some commercial property, but it is a matter for the congregation to decide whether they purchase it or not."

Viscount John O'Neill, who the bar is named after, was governor of County Antrim between 1792 and 1798.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) recounts how O'Neill was a supporter of Catholic emancipation, but opposed to the United Irishmen who were planning insurrection in the 1790s.

It describes O'Neill as a "good and considerate landlord" and notes that "almost all of O'Neill's tenants were Presbyterians".

O'Neill died after being stabbed with a pike at the Battle of Antrim of June 1798. He had returned to Antrim from Dublin to quell the attack by the United Irishmen.

The ODNB says his death was greatly mourned, "not least by the United Irishmen themselves" and that "it was widely believed his assailant had been one of his tenants".