The Quiet Man
I received some sad news this week when I heard a well-known personality had died after suffering a short illness. The strange thing is, when I heard the news a smile spread across my face remembering a special story. I turned to Tracey and she was smiling too and when I asked why, she was remembering the same incident!
Jarvis was the bar manager at the Dufferin Inn, Killyleagh. When I first started coming to Killyleagh about 15 years ago I felt it essential that I drink some of the black stuff, because everybody was telling me how good it was here. I found it to be too bitter for my liking and, I can’t remember how, someone introduced me to Guinness with a splash of blackcurrant or Black and Black.
I was in the Dufferin with 6 or 8 other people one evening having a good time in the big banqueting hall. A rare event, somehow I was the last to buy a round! Every time one of my friends came back they bore a worrying message about me upsetting the whole pub, however they would say no more on the topic. Eventually it was my turn to go upstairs and get a round. As I entered the tiny bar there was a deathly hush. Everyone knew what was coming, except me! I went to the bar and repeated my order, only to be told, “Some drink it from bottles, I’ve even seen some drink it from cans, it is best on tap, but nobody, nobody, drinks it with blackcurrant!” That was my last ever pint of Guinness and black and was one of the reasons a couple of years later we set up Strangford Lough Brewing Company.
Jarvis was an expert at pouring a pint of Guinness, some say he was unrivalled. Jarvis was a traditionalist and for a while would have nothing to do with that “ice cold stuff” when the new range was introduced. The strange thing is the pint would taste different when Jarvis poured it for you. I’ve seen people waiting in the pub just to be served by the man, while other bar staff stand around with nothing to do!
A number of years later when I was unwell and needed some tests, I was only allowed to drink water for a whole month! Jarvis was concerned about this and tried to find if he could do anything to improve my drink. At the end of the day water is water and so this proved to be impossible. Every time I saw Jarvis in Killyleagh he enquired about my health. The relief on his face when I ordered my first pint after my abstinence was obvious. Whoever you were Jarvis made time for you.
Jarvis was a great walker and was often seen around the lanes in Killyleagh, his trademark pipe often leaving a cloud behind him. Struck down suddenly with illness Jarvis faded quickly. As I sat in Jarvis’s bar in the Dufferin the other night I pondered on the legacy this quite unassuming man had left behind.
Not only the pub, but the town of Killyleagh seemed to be mourning at the loss of Jarvis. A quiet word of encouragement or interest in someone else’s situation goes a long way. It is amazing the impact one man can have! Jarvis’s bar was so named because that was where the man worked. A number of years ago Austie the owner of the Dufferin decided to make the name of the bar official and above the door in the bar now is a plaque which reads Jarvis’s Bar. Every time I pass through that door way I will remember the quiet unassuming man who taught us all so much.
Tomorrow we say goodbye to Jarvis. Still you can come and see his bar, and on a Saturday afternoon his brother Charlie leads the session of local musicians playing some Irish and Bluegrass tunes!
