Getting To Know; Ben, Co-General Manager

‘I have really enjoyed my time and experience so far here in The Castle. The mixture between talking to locals during the week about everything sport wise to entertaining sell out crowds at weekends is something I haven’t experienced in my 10 years in the trade’.

I’ve been in the trade since I was 19 years old. I started off by working part time in my local pub at home while studying in UCC. Half way through my second year I decided to drop out and work for a while so I applied for jobs in Cork City. Our very own James Dullea decided to take a chance on me and gave me a job on Washington Street and I suppose I haven’t looked back since. Worked my up through the ranks to venue Manager.

Decided to take another chance and follow my superiors to work on Princess St. I learned an awful lot there regarding recruitment and food service which I’m truly grateful for now. That experience opened up my eyes to all aspects of the industry, where before I was only ever involved with drink orientated venue.

There are two managers in our venue so I roles and responsibilities are split which gives us a good dynamic and we work well together. In my role, I’m in charge of the staff roster, recruitment and looming after our bookings. I’m really enjoying the challenges of it so far and it has opened up my eyes to a lot of detail that I would have not have previously experienced.

My favourite part of the job must be talking to locals about local GAA and GAA in general. It’s a proud hurling parish and although I’m all about the big ball, but getting their thoughts and discussions about everything, I just really enjoy it. I might throw in the odd comment about hurling but they know well I’m only looking for a reaction.

In my spare time, I play football with my club, Ballingeary, so that keeps me active for a good period of the year. Other than that, I do enjoy the occasional pint of Guinness and that takes up most of my time once the football season is finished.