We were so excited when iconic Sally O’Brien ad was filmed in our Cork pub
From the Echo (but we remember Ark’s Advertising/Frank Sheerin here, who wrote it!):
The Blackman Bar in Dublin Pike was the scene of one of the most famous Irish adverts – for Harp lager. CHRIS DUNNE talks to the owner of the pub about the experienc
In the cultural life of Ireland in the 1980s, the words “Sally O’Brien, and the way she might look at you” have iconic status.
They were uttered in an advert for Harp Lager, by an Irish exile remembering the things he loved most about home. The list included his pint and the aforementioned Sally – played by actress Vicki Michelle.
The ad was actually filmed in a Cork pub – the Blackman Bar in Dublin Pike – in 1982.
The landlady, then and now, was Maureen Healy, and she says there was great excitement when the pub was chosen for filming.
“Yes, we were all excited when we heard that the Harp ad was going to be made here in the pub for TV,” says Maureen.
“We were clearing and cleaning for weeks. We covered the tables with newspapers after all the cleaning. We still have ornaments and glasses from that famous day in 1982.
The British actress Vicki Michelle went on to be famous as Yvette in the saucy BBC comedy ‘Allo Allo!’. And the ad became so famous in Ireland that Taoiseach Charlie Haughey apparently railed against the fact ‘Sally’ wasn’t played by an Irish woman.
However, Michelle gleefully pointed out that she had a granny from Cork.
Now The Blackman Bar in Cork city is up for sale, with a price tag of over €1.1million, as proprietor Maureen stands down after a lifetime of pulling pints.
She has earned her rest.