Award-winning Listowel venue Mike The Pies has a striking name – one which owner Aiden O’Connor is frequently asked about.

“It came from when my grandfather ran the bar in the ’50s,” he explains. “His wife, Mary O’Connor, had six sons and during the Listowel Races they’d all work in the pub. They were so busy, Mary would prepare meat pies for the family on race week and that’s what they’d eat. So that’s the origin of the name!”

An O’Connor family business since his great-grandfather bought the bar in 1907, Aiden took over from his dad in 2014. A chance meeting with the Frank & Walters after a Carter USM gig in London led to the Cork legends performing the inaugural gig at the venue. Since then, Mike The Pies was recognised as one of the top gig destinations in the country at the 2017 Hot Press awards, and earlier this year they even scooped the prestigious National Live Venue of the Year gong at the IMRO Awards.

With Heineken onboard as sponsors, among the wonderfully eclectic array of artists to have performed at the venue are Declan Synott, the Original Rudeboys, the Complete Stone Roses, John Spillane, Damien Dempsey and Mundy. Originally hosting a gig once a month, Mike The Pies now stages shows weekly. O’Connor cites Dublin rockers Fangclub as an example of a band who’ve originally played the venue as support. “They’ve sold out the place twice since, and when they come back down here shortly, the place will be jam-packed. Several bands have played support slots and played to bigger crowds each time, before they become headliners in their own right.”

Initially it was only local punters who came to the gigs, but Mike The Pies now attracts music fans from across Munster.

“If you go back to 2016, that was a bit of a dream for a fella who grew up on punk,” says Aiden. “I had Hugh Cornwall from The Stranglers, two of the original Stiff Little Fingers, and to top it off, I had Richie Ramone. For Richie Ramone to come and say, ‘Hey, Mike The Pies!’ – that was a big moment.”

Another popular development over the past year has been Mike The Pies’ unplugged performances, with visiting acts playing an acoustic number subsequently posted on the venue’s Facebook page.

“We bring the band upstairs into the house my grandparents would have lived in, or sometimes they’ll just do it in the bar,” says Aiden. “Nearly everyone has done it – Christy Dignam, Fontaines DC, Columbia Mills, Declan O’Rourke and more. We do it pretty much every Friday and the clips get up to 20,000 views.”

A further tasty element is Mike The Pies’ loyalty pot: regular attendees are invited to secret gigs by the likes of Hermitage Green and The Riptide Movement (above). It’s this kind of imaginative approach that has made Mike The Pies’ one of the top live venues on the country.