Leading global beer brand Heineken® has launched a worldwide recruitment campaign co-ideated by creative agencies LePub and Publicis Dublin, to help independent Irish pub owner, Josie McLoughlin, find a new successor. Joseph ‘Josie’ McLoughlin owns McLoughlin’s Bar on the rural Achill Island. Situated at the edge of the world, the pub rests against the backdrop of the wild, beautiful landscape of West Ireland. A fourth generation McLoughlin, Josie was born upstairs in the pub, and when his parents passed, he took the reins and has been behind the bar for the past 43 years. Like many families in Ireland, Josie’s kin now live all over the world and he has no-one to pass the pub on to. So now, at retirement age, he is looking for a namesake to take over the running of the pub and keep the family name above the door. Josie, whose family has run McLoughlin’s for 155 years, explains, "I have no one to leave the pub to, and I’d resigned myself to looking for a buyer outside the family and seeing my name being lost to history. That would just break my heart. The name McLoughlin is woven into the very fabric of this pub. The past 50 years have been incredibly fulfilling for me and I’d love to see that story continue, finding a McLoughlin descendant to take it forward. If I could guarantee the McLoughlin name would still be above the door of the pub in another 155 years, I’d die a happy man.”
