The wisteria growing on Máire and Paul Flynn’s Co Waterford home took a full seven years to climb, thrive and bloom. Now, decades later, it comes out in its full magnificence each summer. The annual blossoms aren’t just beautiful – they are a reminder of everything the pair have built together through their 34 years of marriage, including their iconic Dungarvan-based restaurant, The Tannery.
Throughout Ireland, Paul and Máire are well-known for their hospitality. Alongside The Tannery, they also operate a guesthouse, Tannery Townhouse, and the Tannery Cookery School. Paul is one of Ireland’s favourite television chefs and has been a regular fixture on screen and in print media for decades (he has also written three cookbooks: An Irish Adventure with Food, Second Helpings and Butter Boy).
Most days are busy for the duo, but today they’re at home and have invited Irish Country Living in to record an interview for the This is Country Living podcast.
We’re charmed by their beautiful home, and the wisteria, but we’re really here because in February of this year, Paul and Máire announced that The Tannery would permanently close on 1 January, 2027. This news was met with sadness – The Tannery is so well-loved – but also interest to see what the enterprising couple might come up with next. Luckily, closing the restaurant does not mean bowing out of hospitality altogether.
“We are continuing, just not in the restaurant,” Paul explains. “We’re going to run the Townhouse and Cookery School, and we’re going to feed our guests there on a dinner and bed-and-breakfast basis. We’re looking forward to that, and it will be a seasonal offering; we won’t be open in the winter.”
In his classically wry sense of humour, Paul adds that while he isn’t sure where they’ll be each winter, he hopes it’s “off drinking cheap wine, somewhere”.
Starters
Paul and Máire are both Dungarvan natives, but first met while Paul was living and working in London. After 10 years in some of London’s finest restaurants (Chez Nico, Nico at Ninety), Paul moved to Dublin in 1993; taking on the role of head chef at La Stampa.
A few months later, he and Máire were married. After several years in the capital, they were both ready to take a break, but fate had other plans.
“We had planned to go around the world, we were going on ‘the big trip’, and Máire was all set for that,” Paul says. “Then I spotted [the building] for The Tannery. My grandfather used to work there. It was heart-over-head stuff, which is completely the wrong way to set up a business. We put every penny we had into doing up the restaurant.”
“I had never worked in a restaurant before we opened,” Máire adds. “It wasn’t in my background at all, so it’s lucky, I suppose, that I took to it.”
People started travelling to us. We always did the food we did, but all of a sudden, we had an audience
Despite taking to hospitality like a fish to water, Máire says their first year in business was one of the hardest.
“We opened on 1 July, 1997 and had a really busy summer,” she explains. “People took us to heart straight away, but we quickly realised that Dungarvan is a seasonal town. Winter came and it became really quiet. Back then, we didn’t have a business plan or spreadsheets. We went into it quite blindly. Dungarvan is a different town now, but at that time it wasn’t an easy ride.
“But the thought of failing never entered our heads, that was never an option,” she adds.
Their love for Dungarvan outweighed any financial concerns and the pair worked through those quiet months each year. In 2000, Paul was asked to write an article for The Irish Times and soon became their regular cookery contributor. Aside from being a creative outlet, his food writing brought their quiet southeast locality to the attention of a wider audience.
“People started travelling to us,” Paul recalls. “We always did the food we did, but all of a sudden, we had an audience.
“It wasn’t just about doing good food; it was very much about being part of the community. That might sound rich, but, in our minds, this was never about getting Michelin stars or accolades, it was about pride in a town that we knew had tremendous potential – and has since filled that potential.”
Mains
In 2005, Paul and Máire opened Tannery Townhouse followed by the Tannery Cookery School in 2008. In this midst of all of this, they welcomed daughters Ruth and Anna. Paul says they were very lucky to have a granny and grandad just down the road, and that raising a young family while operating a popular restaurant was no mean feat. For most families, weekends mean down-time and relaxation, for Paul and Máire, this was the busiest time of the week.
“When they were small, they couldn’t understand where we were or why we were gone for so long,” Máire says. “Now, they really get it.”
As the girls got older, more opportunities arose, particularly for Paul, with television series including Paul Flynn’s Irish Food Adventures, Surf ‘n’ Turf with Martin Shanahan, and Lords & Ladles with Derry Clarke and Catherine Fulvio. Accolades came along too, with Paul and Máire being honoured with numerous awards for the restaurant, the guest accommodation and their cookery school.
Today, both Ruth and Anna are in college but spend the weekends working alongside their parents in the restaurant.
“I love when the four of us are in there together, it makes for a really nice night,” Máire says, smiling. “They enjoy being with the team – we have a great bunch of young staff and they have great craic.
“We’re so proud of them.”
In the farming community, succession is becoming an accepted topic of conversation, but we don’t hear much about it in hospitality – particularly when you have been operating a well-known restaurant for such a long time. Paul and Máire say they never wanted to burden their children with the business.
“I would never in a million years sit them down and say, ‘Is this something you want to do?’ Because I feel we’d be tying them down,” Paul says. “If they gravitate back towards this someday, we’ll deal with it at the time.”
Dessert
In recent years, things have not been easy for restaurant operators in Ireland. While it’s sad to hear another wonderful rural restaurant plans to shut its doors (and there have been other high-profile closure announcements since Paul and Máire’s), we know there have been significant changes in post-COVID consumer behaviour, all of which have impacted hospitality.
For Paul and Máire, closing The Tannery had been in their minds for some time. Ultimately, they felt the timing – after completing the restaurant’s 30th year – felt not just “right”, but celebratory, which is always how they wanted the restaurant to feel to their guests.
“It feels bittersweet, it’s really hard to explain it because it has been an enormous part of our lives for 30 years,” Máire says. “But we are looking forward to our new chapter where we can scale back a little and have more time at home. This is probably going to be the busiest year we’ve ever had, so it feels good.”
“I feel, in some strange way, as if we’re letting the community down, but they understand why we’re doing it,” Paul adds. “We’re looking forward to the next few months; everyone’s in party mode.”
Digestif
While things are difficult for the industry, Paul and Máire still want to encourage young hospitality professionals to innovate to create new and exciting food experiences. “It’s an exciting business,” Paul says, eyes shining. “I still get a high from great restaurants. We have come so far in Ireland in the last 15 years or so, and I get so much joy from watching people who are so good at what they do.”
The Tannery is offering a changing monthly menu for the rest of 2026. While reservations are filling up, there is still time to get in for a final meal. The final service (already sold out) will take place on 31 December, New Year’s Eve. See tannery.ie.
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