I've had the pub for 27 years. We built it up from nothing.
We've it all done up since - there used to be only a small little bar over in the corner there. As the money came along we were able to build it out bigger. This is my third time getting Lord Mayor. The first two times were in 1995, the first time it started, and then again the next year. I think I hold a record there!

Four different groups all put someone forward for the Lord Mayor contest.
One goes for the basketball club, one goes for the hall, one goes for the GAA and one goes for the youth club. They asked me to run for the hall, so I went off around the county selling tickets, €2 a line. Whoever raises the most money gets elected. I raised €15,282. We formed a hall committee there 12 months ago, and I was elected chairman. The first problem was the roof on the hall was leaking, and there was a maple floor there. We got some money from the Government and through fundraising and we got €20,000 from the County Council to fix it.

I've received the nomination from the Broadford cumann and hopefully I'll get the nod to stand in the elections.
Of course, you've to get approval by the Party up in Dublin but I'm hopeful. I've been canvassing for every Fianna Fail councillor and TD in the place for about 30 years. I've been working as a councillor for years, but without pay! A local man is very handy to have around the place. It's a big area - Drum, Broadford, Feohanagh, Feenagh, Kilmeedy. There's always been a big Fianna Fail vote locally here, it's just a case of getting it out.

I'm married to Carmel and we've four children.
Carmel is involved with Springfield Basketball Club. My son Adrian is doing an apprenticeship with Goggin-Buckley, Patricia was going to college there, doing a receptionist course. Aoife goes to school in Hazelwood College, she just did her junior cert. Colleen is our youngest, she's starting Hazelwood this month.

Drum has always been a big sporting town.
For years it was always hurling but it's switched over the football in the last few years. We're in the semi-finals of the county, and they're looking good. The local basketball started very small, and now there's a couple of hundred youngsters and volunteers involved with them. The local GAA club have lovely facilities; the pitch is known as one of the best in the county. By right it should be Croke Park and not the Government funding all these buildings for local GAA clubs. They're making a lot of money up there, and I can't figure out why local clubs aren't seeing more of it.

Years ago here if you wanted a haircut, you had to thumb to Charleville.
When I was a young fella there was nothing here. Well we did have a barber for a while, a man from Killorglin who used to cycle to Drumcollogher with his brother and his mother. Paddy Power and Willie Power were their names. The town has grown completely since then. There's the new secondary school, the social housing, the new credit union, the bakeries, the new butcher shops. You can't find a parking space in the square in the morning, it's so busy. You'd probably have to park the car up in Milford and walk in!

The carnival has been here since the 1940s.
That's how the hall came about. They bought a site for £50 from the carnival money, and it was built with all voluntary labour in the town. My father-in-law used to tell me that the youngsters would come down in the evenings, wheelbarrowing the concrete in. They bought a second-hand roof from Tralee. It lasted a long time!

It's become a tourist attraction at this stage.
They come from far and near; people make holidays out of it. There's one man from Drum in his 80s who lives in Donegal now, Seanie Costello, and he still comes down for the carnival every year with his wife. It's still a very important part of Drumcollogher. It'd be true a pity to let it go.