Matters Of Public Interest

JB’S GETS A FACELIFT

Now that’s what you call a facing wall! JB O’Reilly’s owner Paul North is about to put a face to the name that his pub bears. As this edition of Irish Scene was going to press, JB O’Reilly’s in West Leederville was about to get some cosmetic work done. The Cambridge Street facade of the pub will be the canvas for a rather quirky mural set to go up in early September. The work hadn’t started when we were on our way to the printers, but the artist behind the unusual artwork provided us with an image of how it should look and use the existing windows for eyes. “When Paul approached me for the mural, his idea to put eyebrows and a moustache on the front of the pub made me laugh,” said Sam Knox. “I love when clients have brave and bold ideas with a sense of humour. The notion of this mural is to put a smile on people’s faces and draw them into the pub, where everyone can feel welcome.” Paul said he hoped it would give people a laugh and that that was what his place was all about. A freelance ‘creative’ based in Perth, Sam is a scenic artist, set designer and prop maker for the likes of the Black Swan Theatre, West Australian Opera, Yirra Yaakin Theatre and The West Australian Ballet Company and also dabbles in outdoor murals and public art.

BY LLOYD GORMAN

Concept artwork of the new ‘facelift’ mural at JB O’Reilly’s in West Leederville

CELTS RECLAIM THEIR HEARTLAND

After a bit of a hiatus, Perth Celtic Supporters Club are back where they belong. With the closure of Rosie O’Grady’s Irish pub in Northbridge at the end of last year, the Club was displaced from its customised lodgings upstairs at the James Street watering hole. Perth CSC found shelter at the Irish Club in Subiaco and were grateful for it but also when the time came at the end of June they said it was “great to be ‘back’ at Johnny Fox’s”, which opened early this year in the same premises.

Tony Synnott (right) with friends celebrating his 87th birthday

FREEDOM IS A FRAGILE THING

No sooner had Western Australia returned to pre-COVID conditions (phase 5 of the goverments roadmap) than we got a sharp reminder of just how fragile that lifestyle can be. At the end of June a small outbreak was linked to cases from the Indian Ocean Brewery in Whitfords and as a result Perth and Peel were plunged into a four short sharp ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown. Some two million people in the metropolitan region – and every pub and other buisness – were forced to shut down. Fortunately, a mixture of probably luck and the tough measure worked and most venues were able to reopen. ☘

CHEERS TONY, MANY HAPPY RETURNS!

Mr Tony Synnott – of a Minute with Synnott fame – was in his element recently for a special occasion. He turned 87 in July and celebrated the milestone in the way he has for many years now, in a pub with friends having a drink, this time in Fibbers in Leederville, a haunt well known to Tony and pals down through the years. Tony’s good friend and guardian angel Mick Murray organised the birthday bash for the octogenarian Irishman. Tony is still on the mend after a prolonged stint in hospital earlier this year and we and many others wish him well and good health.

Fun and friends at the Jarrah