Some of our greatest ideas come about by pure accident – case in point: Alexander Fleming and the discovery of penicillin, Dire Straits’ favoured microwave oven, even the Slinky. In those rare moments when passion meets opportunity, a spark of genius can ignite – which is how the heart-warming story of the Old Bar floorboards came to life.

Once the beating heart of the campus social scene, the Old Bar is in itself an iconic character in UCC’s history. When it closed in 2018 to pave the way for the university’s first Calm Zone, it marked the end of an era; but 30 years’ worth of fond memories – from Battles of the DJs to the weekly gatherings to watch Coronation Street – continue to live on in the hearts and minds of UCC’s global alumni community.

This is something that JP Quinn, alumnus and Head of UCC’s Visitors’ Centre, discovered when he “kind of by accident” sparked a global demand among UCC alumni, “from Douglas to Dubai”, for a memento from the iconic campus pub.

It was while recording an episode of a radio documentary with writers and friends Danielle McLaughlin and Madeline Darcy, who chose the soon-to-be-dismantled Old Bar as the scene for some reminiscing, that the seeds of the idea formed for JP.

“While we were recording, underneath my foot I felt a piece of loose floorboard. I picked it up and put it in my pocket, and I brought it back and put it on the wall of my desk over in the Visitors’ Centre,” recalls JP.

“In the afternoon, somebody asked me what it was, and I explained that it was part of the floor of the Old Bar – and they said ‘can you get me one?’ A light bulb went off in my head that, if I was sentimental enough to put a piece in my pocket, and somebody else wanted a piece of dirty floorboard for their pocket, there was potentially hundreds more people that would want it.”

With work about to begin on transforming the Old Bar into the Calm Zone, JP knew he needed to act fast. He placed a call to Mark Poland, Director of Buildings and Estates, asking him to save the two tonnes of floorboard that were due to go into a skip. The request was facilitated, and the wood was placed in bags and put into storage, where it remained as campus came to grips with the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was, JP admits, with the closing of campus – and, as a result, the doors of the Visitors’ Centre – that he began to ruminate on how he could give new life to the floorboards of the fabled Old Bar. In collaboration with Cork-based communications specialists Babelfís, JP produced a prototype of the product that would go on to make waves among UCC’s global alumni community: a beautifully presented framed chunk of the Old Bar floor.

It took just one tweet from JP to set the UCC community, across all generations and time zones, to reminiscing. And, before he knew what he had started, everyone – and we mean everyone – was scrambling for a piece of the Old Bar.

“Within 24 hours, it exploded. I was answering messages on Twitter, accepting requests from people all over the world who wanted a piece,” he says.

Local media coverage really kicked the project off the ground, with JP then bringing the story to the national airwaves via Today FM and the RTÉ Business Show. Naturally, each feature led to a major spike in requests for the framed mementos, resulting in an astonishing 1,400 products sold.

The income generated from the project has since been reinvested into student services in the university, in particular the refurbishment of the Calm Zone: a dedicated space of respite and calm for students, in particular students on the autism spectrum.

"Within 24 hours, it exploded. I was answering messages on Twitter, accepting requests from people all over the world who wanted a piece."

As demand for these unique UCC mementoes grew, JP jokes that he began to receive requests akin to CVs – each hopeful author sharing their Old Bar anecdote in a bid to secure a literal piece of their alma mater. With each email and tweet that pinged in the Visitors’ Centre, a new memory was filed within the Old Bar’s folklore.

While the well-known tales began knocking around once again – memories of early-career performances from the likes of The Cranberries and Gavin Friday, poet laureate William Wall’s claim to have been served Cork’s very first pint of Heineken at the hallowed bar, the queues running down the stairs for the hot chicken rolls – it was stories of the cherished connections made within those four walls that most captivated the community.

Take, for instance, an email from alumna Fiona du Boucher-Ryan, who informed JP that it was at the Old Bar where she first met her partner.

“We are still going strong, decades and one child later!” wrote Fiona, adding, “We have three UCC degrees between us – although the Old Bar saw us more than the lecture halls!”

In a follow-up email a number of weeks later, on the couple’s anniversary, Fiona recounted how, when she and her partner exchanged gifts, they each ended up with a piece of Old Bar floorboard!

The story truly is a conversation starter, says JP, who admits to also receiving plenty of stories unfit for print in this publication!

Commenting on how the project ties in with UCC’s global story, JP explains: “There are several hundred people around the world who are now working in other universities, who have sent me pictures of them [the framed floorboards]. They have their old college bar framed on the wall of their offices in the universities where they’re working – you can’t buy that kind of PR.”

It also ties in seamlessly with the university’s leadership in the area of sustainability, something that JP has been actively incorporating into the Visitors’ Centre’s messaging and strategy in recent times.

“I have spent the past couple of years trying to change my thinking on sustainability,” he says.

“All of that wood would have ended up in the bin – been thrown out and would have served no further purpose, only for the fact that I was starting to tune my brain into thinking about repurposing things and giving them a new lease of life.”

This pivot is central to plans for the Visitors’ Centre going forward, with plenty more exciting and innovative products already in the pipeline – among them, a replica clock inspired by the iconic Clock Tower in the Quad, made of original slates salvaged from the roof; and a range of ornaments crafted from the wood of trees that died and were salvaged from campus.

But if you’re wondering if this particular story is over, rest assured – with JP putting pen to paper on an anthology of tales from the Old Bar in the not-too-distant future, this is only chapter one!

For more information, visit the UCC Visitors’ Centre website. 

Photography: Tomás Tyner