A New LifeOpting for the 'wrong' side of the bar turned into a life-changing 24-hour job for one pensions administrator, writes Michelle McDonagh
When the local hotel in his native Swinford, Co Mayo came up for sale, Cathal Kelly decided to up sticks from the Big Smoke and take over the business. The fact that he had absolutely no background or experience in the hotel business - and was more used to spending time on the 'right side' of the bar - did not deter the then 25 year old.
Four years later, the newly revamped Kelly's Gateway Hotel is going from strength to strength, and Kelly has become a prominent member of the business community in Swinford and is actively involved in the local Chamber of Commerce which he set up on his return from Dublin.
When Kelly was sent to Castleknock College boarding school in Dublin in 1990 at the age of 12, with his broad Co Mayo accent, he was in for a major culture shock. He was moving from a 90-pupil primary school in a country town to a boarding school of 450 boys.
The drive from Swinford to Dublin took four and a half hours back then, so he travelled home only once every two or three months. Realising that it was sink or swim, Kelly decided to start swimming and the friends he made in boarding school are as close as brothers.
"My dad was in Castleknock before me and my uncles and their uncles. It was a common thing in Castleknock for three generations of families to go to school there.
"It wasn't a normal everyday environment, but the friends you made there became as close as family," he says.
After finishing school, Kelly studied Business and Legal Studies at University College Dublin for four years with the aim of following his father and grandfather into the law. However, he took a job as a pensions administrator with Canada Life in Blackrock, Co Dublin where he stayed for over a year.
"It was a good job and a good company to work for. I thought I would stay in Canada Life for a few years and pick up some more qualifications.
"The industry was fast growing at the time and there were a lot of opportunities in pensions and life assurance and SSIAs were about to come on stream," he says.
However, fate intervened at this point when the owner of the Gateway Hotel in Swinford put the business up for sale in September 2002 - the only hotel in operation in the town, it had been built four years previously.
Kelly and his father saw the potential for themselves as locals to bring the hotel to another level. Despite knowing nothing about the hotel business, they decided to go for it and the course of Kelly's life took a sharp twist.
Since he left for boarding school in 1990, apart from holidays spent back home, Kelly had spent most of his time in Dublin but he had no qualms about moving back to Mayo.
"I felt that Dublin had hit its peak and the potential was always going to go west. The development of Knock airport was going on at the time and the improvements in infrastructure meant Dublin was now only a two-
and-a-half hours' drive away, Galway an hour away and Sligo 45 minutes."
Kelly took over as general and marketing manager of the business and he appointed a manager to look after the day-to-day running of the hotel.
Instead of rushing in and making rash decisions that he would rue for years, he stood back, watched and learnt as much as he could. Four years later, he is still learning something new every day.
"The toughest part of the job is the hours, you're always open in a small town like Swinford and there is also the responsibility," he says.
"I went from working Monday to Friday for Canada Life, to all of a sudden having 30 people depending on me for a job. There was an underlying pressure to succeed not just for myself but [ for] all of the people who worked for me."
Kelly enjoys the daily interaction with the public and the fact that no two days are the same in his job. He gets to be part of important celebrations in people's lives such as weddings, christenings and parties.
After three years standing back watching, Kelly decided it was time to develop the hotel up to three star standard and expand into the building next door.
The newly revamped and renamed 22-bed Kelly's Gateway Hotel with conference facilities, bistro and private restaurant was officially launched in January by Mayo football manager John O'Mahoney.
Kelly is chairman of the local GAA Club in Swinford and was the first chairman of Swinford Chamber of Commerce, which he set up, and of which he is now vice-chairman - opportunities that would never have arisen for him in Dublin at his age.
He is actively involved in the development of the town along with the hotel, and in promoting the scope for investment and development opportunities in Swinford.
"There is no comparison between the quality of my life here and in Dublin. I can walk to and from work, the town is crime free and hassle free and I have recently bought a house.
"I have no regrets about moving back, apart from the fact that there are no single women in Swinford," he laughs.