Before stepping into my dad’s shoes at Galway Bay, there were a few unexpected turns along the way. From navigating some difficult years to eventually deciding to keep the pub in the family, this was the beginning of something new for all of us.
At the end of my last blog, I promised to share what it was like stepping into my dad’s shoes and carrying Galway Bay into its next chapter. But before that chapter could even begin, life had a few other plans for us.
In the summer of 2019, our black pug, Willow, went missing.
For 11 days, we searched everywhere. Family, friends, customers, neighbors, and even people we didn’t know joined in. Deep down, I think a lot of people thought we weren’t going to find her, but I never stopped believing she was out there.
When Willow was finally found and brought home, the relief was impossible to describe. Walking into the pub and telling everyone felt like finally letting go of this weight we’d all been carrying. This little black pug had somehow managed to get more people looking for her than we ever could have imagined. 
And just a few months later, the world turned upside down.
COVID hit, and suddenly we were all making things up as we went.
My brother deserves a huge amount of credit for navigating all the regulations and helping get Galway Bay through that time, and my dad deserves just as much. We were closed for months, but without my dad continuing to pay the rent and keeping the lights on, Galway Bay might not have survived.
Once we were able to start opening back up, we adapted however we could — including selling hot dogs just so we could pour a pint.
Who would have guessed that hot dogs would become part of the history of an Irish pub?
Eventually, the COVID restrictions lifted, my brother moved away, and I stepped in to manage.
Galway Bay certainly wasn’t new territory for me. I had been bartending there on Friday nights from the beginning, all while working a full-time job. But bartending on a Friday night and being responsible for the whole place are two very different things.
Around the same time, the pub was going through a tough stretch. My dad’s health was declining, and he simply wasn’t physically able to do everything he once had. We had some staffing issues, the atmosphere wasn’t what it used to be, and people were starting to notice.
That was hard to hear, but it also became my first real test as manager.
We had some difficult decisions to make. We made changes behind the bar, brought in the right people, said goodbye to the wrong ones, and started being much more careful about the kind of atmosphere we wanted at Galway Bay.
The goal wasn’t to turn it into something new.
It was actually the opposite.
We wanted to get Galway Bay back to what it had always been.
Little by little, it started to feel like Galway Bay again.
During all of this, my dad was also getting his affairs in order and thinking about what would happen to the pub. We had a few potential buyers along the way, but for one reason or another, nothing ever panned out.
The more my husband and I talked about what the future of Galway Bay might look like, the more I realized I couldn’t stand the thought of it simply not being there anymore.
After everything my dad had built, all the years our family had put into it, and all the memories tied to that little pub, I couldn’t picture Galway Bay disappearing or becoming something completely different.
My husband was actually the one who encouraged me to really consider buying it. We went back and forth about it — because buying a bar isn’t exactly a small decision — but eventually the conversation changed from, “Who’s going to buy Galway Bay?” to, “Could we be the ones to do this?”
When we finally went to my dad and told him we wanted to keep Galway Bay in the family, he was thrilled. It meant so much to him to know that what he had built wasn’t going away and that the next chapter of Galway Bay would still be written by our family.
Of course, deciding to buy a bar and actually buying a bar are two very different things.
There were licenses, paperwork, approvals, and waiting.
Lots and lots of waiting.
In the meantime, I kept managing Galway Bay while still working the full-time job I’d had for nearly 20 years.
Looking back now, I realize I wasn’t really waiting to step into my dad’s shoes.
I was already wearing them.
I just didn’t know it yet.
There was still plenty for me to learn, and plenty more change ahead for Galway Bay. But one very important thing had finally been settled:
The pub my dad started all those years ago was staying in the family.
Now it was our turn to see what we could do with it.
