When Brian McCarthy returned with his wife Aine from the United States in 1968 to take over the running of Innishannon Hotel some 15 miles from Cork City, there was considerable speculation about how they would fare. Brian was a science graduate and Aine a teacher, neither having any previous hotel experience. It was a tribute to their combined talent and energies that within a relatively short time Innishannon Hotel established a considerable reputation, not only in the Cork area but nationally as well.
Born in Cork in 1938, Brian grew up in Ennis, where his father, Gerald, was the county medical officer. He received his secondary education at Cistercian College, Roscrea and went on to study science at UCC. He worked as a chemist with Clondalkin Paper Mills. In 1964 he married Aine Sherry and the couple went to work with the Riegal Paper Company in New Jersey. Their daughter, Catherine, was born in the US.
Brian saw that tourism was set to grow in the Ireland of the 1960s and wanted to be involved in its development. He and Aine returned from America and bought Innishannon House Hotel, an old Georgian house picturesquely located on the banks of the Bandon River. Brian delighted in a challenge and in developing new initiatives. Realising that the hotel needed to attract business from Cork city and beyond, the couple developed the restaurant and advertised the hotel widely.
Brian took particular pleasure in devising innovative advertisements that attracted people from all over the county to enjoy the charms of the Bandon Valley. They developed a considerable business in weddings and functions, marketing the hotel's unique location as a major attraction. Guests came to value Brian's encyclopaedic knowledge of the region and he delighted in giving them detailed historic background to the major sites of interest in the area.
Brian was an active member of the Irish Hotels Federation and many of its committees. In 1984 he became its national president, serving for two years. He led the successful campaign to have VAT on room sales reduced from a high of 23 per cent to 10 per cent. He was a strong advocate of the "internationalisation" of the Irish Hotels Federation and achieved considerable success, particularly in the marketing of smaller hotels and in bringing the IHF into the fold of the International Hotels Association.
His presidency of the federation will be remembered by many members for two outstanding presidential addresses. In 1984 he advocated government investment in developing a strong tourism industry which could benefit the remotest parts of the county. In 1985 he addressed the destruction of Ireland's tourism attractions and called for the preservation of the environment:
"Many of the lakes are dead or dying. Our salmon stocks are dwindling and have disappeared from many rivers, but most important and tragically, our unique countryside and scenic areas are diminishing or losing their remote charm as bungalow after dreary bungalow is added to our rural and coastal landscape." He went on to decry policies that had encouraged illegal fishing, ribbon development and other forms of "irreversible pollution".
After almost 20 years in Innishannon, Brian and Aine opted for the more regular life of restaurateurs, selling the hotel and opening the Plaza restaurant in Cork, which they ran successfully for a number of years.
History was always one of Brian's passions. At the age of 12 he had exhausted the historical section of the Clare County Library in Ennis! When he retired from business he turned this interest to use as a contributor to the Irishman's Diary of this paper. Travel was also one of his interests and he made a number of journeys through Russia in the 1970s, meeting some of the then dissidents and recording his experience in a series of newspaper articles.
Brian died in Cork in January after a short illness. He is survived by his wife Aine, daughter Catherine, his brothers Noel and Gerald and his sisters Rosemary and Angela.
Those who knew Brian will miss a keen and inquiring mind, which took an iconoclastic view of the world and articulated it in a pithy and unique way. May he rest in peace.