Paddy McKiernan, who has died aged 88, is credited with leading the way in developing the Irish cabaret scene in the 1970s.
His pub, the Drake Inn, in Finglas, Dublin, hosted many top international and Irish acts, ranging from Tony Christie to Colm Wilkinson. At other times he ran talent competitions, offering big-money prizes, and on Mondays, traditionally slow, he ran women's nights offering a show, chicken and chips and transport for £1.25 a head.
In 1970 he booked Dana immediately after she was selected to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest for her first public appearance on her return to Ireland, "win, lose or draw". The victorious Dana sang to a wildly enthusiastic crowd in the Tudor Rooms at Barry's Hotel for a fee of £100.
Born on January 28th, 1916, in Killinaleck, Co Cavan, he was one of three children of Thomas McKiernan, a blacksmith, and his wife, Kate. He left school at 14 and went to Dublin to serve his time as an apprentice barman at the Cornmarket pub in the Liberties for 5/- a week. He then went to Byrnes of the North Wall and, in 1946 bought the Liverpool Bar, opposite the berth for the B & I Liverpool boat.
It was a busy spot in the 1950s and 1960s, popular with dockworkers as well as the thousands of emigrants travelling back and forth across the Irish Sea. In later years the bar's licence was transferred to the Point Depot.
In 1949 he married Nancy Clarke, from Killinkere, Co Cavan, and together they built up a thriving business.
Paddy McKiernan subsequently went into partnership with Liam and Paddy Byrne, and in 1960, as E. Byrne & Sons, they bought the Drake Inn for a then record price of £16,000.
Ireland's first chain of pubs emerged as the company bought the Duck Inn, Finglas; Barry's Hotel; the Village Inn, Finglas; the Beach House, Greystones; the Greyhound Bar, Blanchardstown, and the Silver Tankard, Navan. The Drake Inn, however, remained the group's flagship.
In the late 1960s he transformed it into Ireland's first purpose-built cabaret venue with seating for 650, modelling it on the working-man's club in Sheffield, the Fiesta.
He appointed his own booking agent in England, Dublin-born Johnny Peller, and the first international act to play there was Guy Mitchell in 1972. Other big names followed - Frank Ifield, Harry Secombe, Frankie Vaughan and Matt Munro. In June 1976, Frankie Laine, famous for the theme song of the TV series, Rawhide, was booked for a week at a fee of £6,000 plus expenses.
The shows were professionally run and the house band included musicians from what was then the Raidió Éireann Light Orchestra. Among the Irish acts to appear were Brendan Grace, Sonny Knowles and Noel V. Ginnity, plus showband stars Red Hurley, Dickie Rock and the Swarbriggs.
Against the backdrop of the rise of nightclubs and the decline of cabaret, Paddy McKiernan became in May 1980 the sole owner of the Drake Inn. Assisted by his wife and daughters, he ran the pub until April 2002 when the premises were sold. "The pub industry has completely changed, particularly with the late hours coming in last year," he said at the time. "It's a lot harder now for people working in the business."
Chairman of the Licensed Vintners' Association in 1974-75, he was one of a group of publicans who bought the ailing Murphy's brewery in Cork. The buy-out was designed to prevent the emergence of a monopoly in the drinks industry; the brewery was later sold to Heineken as a going concern.
He preferred his bars to be unionised so he could negotiate with a union rather than have to deal with staff members individually. He felt that his greatest achievement as LVA chairman was the introduction, in co-operation with the bar-workers' union, of a pension scheme for bar staff.
He was also managing director of the shop-fitting firm, A. & P. Barwell. A former chairman of the Cavan Men's Association in Dublin, he was an avid GAA fan.
Predeceased by his wife, Nancy, in 2002, he is survived by his daughters, Anne, Oona, Teresa and Olga.
Paddy McKiernan: born January 28th, 1916; died December 17th, 2004.