Corcoran’s bar is steeped in history. Now in its sixth generation of ownership, it is one of the oldest family run pubs in continued proprietorship in Ireland. It has been in the same family since 1869, if only those walls could talk!!!
Corcoran’s Bar is in the Irishtown. Like the bar, Irishtown is full of history. The area gets its name from being the area where the native Irish lived, just outside the town walls.
The Corcoran’s were shipping agents in the late 1900s, right up to the 1950s. If anyone from the local area wanted to emigrate to America or Australia, their first port of call was Mike Corcoran in the Irishtown. Mike would arrange their passage to the Southern Hemisphere with many a family taking their first steps towards a life outside Ireland inside the bar.
In many ways, Corcoran’s is not just part of the history of Irishtown, it has helped shaped it. To this day the bar exists not just to serve its customers, but as a reminder of the history of Irish Town and New Ross. It is more than a bar, it a social museum.
