Shanghai Daily news

His wanderings have taken him from his native Cork to the Australian outback and China's vast interior and from goldmining to selling computer software. Douglas Williams talks to Peter Mulcahy who has now settled down as mine host at O'Malley's.

From goldminer in Western Australia to one of Shanghai’s premier publicans: Peter Mulcahy, the manager of O’Malley’s. — Dong Jun

Peter Mulcahy, the manager of O'Malley's -- Shanghai's popular and longest established ``expat'' bar -- has led a life that could have come straight from the pages of a Jack London novel.
A natural ``landlord'' and spoken of in fond terms by an army of loyal patrons, he has followed a somewhat circuitous route to his current position as a Shanghai publican.
Hailing from Ireland's primary exit point for emigrants, the Cobb of Cork from where hundreds of thousands of Irish fled the 19th-century potato famine (and which was also the Titanic's last stop), Mulcahy left for sunnier climes down under in 1989.
His desire to follow his father to sea was thwarted by a lack of available jobs so it was as an electrician that he pitched up on the shores of Australia.
``Sadly, at the time, there was no work to be found on ships so I got my tickets as a `sparky.' I'd heard Australia was crying out for electricians so I headed off to Melbourne,'' says Mulcahy.
Adelaide followed Melbourne and Western Australia's gold mines were next. The lure of gold proved too strong for him as it had done for many a good man before.
``There were blokes working in the mines from all over the world and trouble wasn't unknown but it was fun sinking a mine shaft in the middle of the desert and hauling out thousands of tons of gold ore,'' says the earthy Irishman.
When gold prices dropped, the miners had to adjust their focus and pursue an altogether humbler commodity -- salt. Working in a salt mine, hundreds of meters beneath a salt lake in temperature up to 47 degrees Celsius was, Mulcahy claims, ``a laugh'' despite how tough it sounds.
In 1997 the company employing Mulcahy, Norsemen, sent him and a squad of miners to set up another gold mine, this time in Central China's Shanxi Province where temperatures were considerably lower. ``We went from the mid-40s in Australia to 20 below zero in China -- it was quite a shock,'' he recalls.
The Australians and Mulcahy were meant to be in Shanxi Province for six months but ended up staying 18. After a brief sojourn back in Australia, Mulcahy returned to the ``Middle Kingdom'' and to Chengdu where he worked as a software salesman travelling a great deal around China, the Middle East and Europe before eventually winding up with a posting to Shanghai.
In Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, Mulcahy met his wife-to-be, Zhou Ying. They have now been married for five years and have two daughters.
In Shanghai, in true Chinese ``guanxi'' style, he bumped into ``a friend of a friend'' who was in need of someone to run his Irish pub. ``I knew a thing or two about managing people, I liked pubs, I was here in Shanghai and I was Irish, that was about it -- I qualified.''
And so Mulcahy metamorphosed to become one of this city's most successful ``landlords.'' O'Malley's has been voted best pub in Shanghai many times and is never quiet. It's also a lot more than a pub. ``It's a meeting place and for some it's a home from home,'' he says.
Asked what he enjoys about his work he says: ``I like putting people together. I hear a bloke talking about something at one end of the bar and I hear someone else talking about something related at the other end so I introduce them.''
O'Malley's sponsors two football teams, two rugby teams, a cricket team and a hockey team. The pub is also about as child friendly as it's possible to be and, naturally being an Irish bar, there is a great deal of live music.
Although it's an expat hangout, there are no shortage of local customers. During the week, around half of O'Malley's customers are Shanghainese. Asked why it is that the Irish make such good publicans the sturdy 39-year-old, now quite contented with his lot here in Shanghai, says: ``We're good listeners and we appreciate a good yarn -- and we sell Guinness.''
He's got a point but at 65 yuan (US$7.8) a pint, tipplers are advised to refrain from gulping the glorious black stuff.