An off-the Cuffe rendezvous in Balla
By Tom Gillespie
AFTER finishing secondary school, Balla man Michael Cuffe had planned to go to college.
However, he got a part-time job as a barman in the Rendezvous Bar in Balla, and 21 years later he is still behind the counter.
He took out a lease on the premises five years ago and managed to survive the two-year Covid lockdown.
Michael told me: "I have been here as a bar tender for 21 years. I have been through five or six bosses.
"Sadly, one of them, Seamus Judge, passed away, the rest kinda came and went, and I stuck it out. I took over the lease about five years ago. I have seen it all - recessions and Covid lockdown.
"The last two years were tough and the uncertainty was unbelievable. It was a crazy time. I stuck it out and thankfully we are now on the better side and we can move on from it.
"Some of the places closed during the Covid, others only opened at the weekend.
"Prior to Covid we did do food here and it went very well. The chef went his own way just before Covid so now it is primarily drink. I did up the pub as I went along over the last five years."
Michael, son of the legendary, the late Mick Cuffe, continued: "I was able to keep the staff - three full-time and three or four part-timers. With the full-timers we do shifts between the lot of us, days and nights. The staff are integral to the Rendezvous and the customers are loyal."
The Rendezvous Bar, one of four pubs in Balla, is open seven days a week and Michael lays on DJs and bands for the younger crowd down the back, and the front bar, as he said, "is for your auld stocks."
I asked Michael how the Rendezvous was so named.
He explained: "Jake Nevin, brother of Gay Nevin, who had the Beaten Path in Brize, took this place over in 1992 and he ran a competition in The Connaught Telegraph to select a name for the pub and it turned out that the Rendezvous was the right choice.
"The name just stuck and some of the wittier customers have shortened it to the Renda or the Roundabout, but as long as the customers come in they can call it what they want."
The pub has been going well since reopening and people are gradually coming back in.
Michael added: "I’m a Balla man and I live in Westport with my wife Teresa and two children, Tess and Erris. Teresa is a Belmullet woman and that is where the name Erris came from and Tess, as in for Teresa.
"We bought back in Westport about five years ago. Teresa was working and living in Galway for a good few years and I thought putting her into the metropolis of Balla might be a bit too much for her. So we settled on Westport.
"Castlebar would always be my go-to town and it always has been. We are happy back in Westport but in time you never know, we might move nearer to Balla. The fact we live in Westport means I can switch off from the pub.
"We have a lot of stag, hen and after parties coming up that were unfortunately postponed because of the Covid lockdown and come the summer the students will be back from college."
Pool is big in the pub where they have two tables and two or three teams in the town league.
Michael continued: "After school I was planning to go to college but I got thrown in here on a part-time basis. I got the heels stuck in and the rest is history.
"It has been very steady since we came back and long may it continue.
"We cater for young and old and it is great to be able to do it.
"When I am not behind the bar I play a good bit of pool and a bit of soccer for Manulla. It is a good escape to have that.
""I sponsor the Balla GAA team every year and they are senior this year and they support the Rendezvous Bar, as do the Manulla lot as well."