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HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 27 PAGE 3
Top Flight service to Galway
Not too many
Mentality
Service
'We had to get back from the pub to the airfield, but there was
no transport. A farmer driving a tractor offered us a lift to the
airfield. But first his tractor was needed to take a dead man to
his final resting place.'
Winging
the things you had to miss out on.'
In a rebuilt pub Maurice is busy
fitting a new dispenser installation.
The bar area is still empty and
Maurice is the first to install a tap
unit. Many more will follow. 'I al-
to the customer
Maurice McCarthy is a service man
with Murphy's in the West of Ire
land. Here he drills a hole to fit the
dispenser tap.
Time stands still on the Aran Is
lands of Inishmore, Inishmaan and
Inisheer just off the West coast of
Ireland. They are the most westerly
isles of the Republic. Beyond them
there's nothing but thousands of
miles of Atlantic Ocean. Time
stands still. That's clear from sto
ries told by Gerry Gibbons. He is a
service man for Murphy's Brewery
and his working area also includes
these islands.
In winter the Aran Islands are
almost deserted. The biggest island,
Inishmore, then has 250 inhabi
tants. And some sixty motor vehi
cles on its roads. The locals are very
conservative where their island is
concerned. Visitors are welcome,
but not too many. The flood of
tourists who overrun the island in
the summer are basically regarded
by the locals as an inconvenience.
They prefer to stay poor and keep
themselves to themselves rather
than to be rich and have crowds of
people around them', explains Ger
ry, who has 14 installations to ser
vice on Inishmore.
On Inishmaan there are six dis
pensers and on Inisheer, the small
est island, the pubs house eight
draught dispensers for Murphy's
Stout and Heineken lager. Gerry
has his work cut out to get all the
servicing done in one day. If things
don't go as planned - and that
sometimes happens - he's forced to
spend a night on one of the islands.
In the winter months Gerry visits
the islands once every six weeks.
In the seventeen years that he's
worked for Murphy's Brewery
Dave Gibson has held many dif
ferent jobs. These included a
period spent in London to set up
the launch of Murphy's Irish Stout
in the United Kingdom. After that
he worked in the Service Depart
ment in Dublin. For the past three
years he has held the post of Ser
vice Manager for the Western part
of Ireland.
Gibson sees big differences in
mentality between Dublin and Gal
way, the town in which the Mur
phy's agent for Western Ireland is
based. 'Dublin is the big city and it
shows. The people there are much
more stressed than in Galway.'
One of the important elements
in the success of Murphy's in the
West of Ireland is the feeling for
service. Dave Gibson illustrates
this with a story: 'A landlord on
one of the islands rang us and asked
us whether we could perhaps come
to the island during the next week
to repair a broken cooler. I heard a
call over the two way radio. I rang
Gerry immediately, told him to
pick up a new cooler in the stores
and then to drive straight to the
airfield. Half an hour later we were
on our way and two hours after the
landlord had rung us, the new
cooler was in place. Now, that's the
sort of thing that makes you feel
good. Even our competitors had to
admire that stunt', says Dave Gib
son with pride.
But of course not all the work in
the West of Ireland is as spectacu
lar as this. Maurice McCarthy is
When the summer season gets un
der way, he climbs aboard a small
plane to fly out to the islands once a
month.
ways try to be first in such a pub, as
that makes it much simpler to in
stall the dispenser. For instance,
there's still enough space to fit the
cooling equipment.'
Asked what he likes about his
job, Maurice replies: 'I think the
nicest thing is the responsibility I
have for a region. If everything goes
well and there are few problems,
then I'm happy in my work.'
one service man who works on the
mainland and is very happy with it.
He's now been with Murphy's
Brewery for four years working in
the Galway district. Before that he
managed a pub in Dublin for fif
teen years. So he knows the li
censed trade inside out. 'But I'd
never want to go back to being a
pub manager. It's hard work, you
put in really long days and hardly
see your family. The money was
good but it didn't weigh up against
