Our Story

On March 15th, 1986 Gerry McHugh moved from a small farming village in County Galway in the west of Ireland to Boston, Massachusetts. At the time he was a 20-year-old immigrant but he came to this country full of ambition and with a willingness to work in order to make his American dream come true. Gerry worked three jobs to make ends meet in an attempt to give himself and his future family a better life.

Shortly there-after Gerry met a Boston University student named Molly (Yes, THE Molly!!!), the couple got married and moved to Orlando, Florida. Where again, Gerry worked three jobs; one of which was as a bar-back at an Irish Pub. He found he was quite good at this sort of work and in a short time worked his way up to General Manager of that pub. At this time Gerry developed a dream of owning a pub of his own.

Gerry came to Lakeland and fell in love. Now at that time opening a business in downtown Lakeland was thought of as career suicide but Gerry saw the potential this town had. With that and against everyone’s advice Gerry and Molly cashed in their life savings and opened a pub that Gerry lovingly named after his wife. The couple opened the pub on March 15th, 1996, ten years to the day after Gerry moved to America. In the same way that Gerry fell in love with Lakeland, the people of Lakeland fell in love with him, his family, and their pub. So started the nightlife community of Lakeland.

Gerry has passed on now but his family and staff still run the pub with as much pride as ever and with the same values of hard work and love for the community that the pub was built on.