'...he had no salary from the hotel but actually paid £500.00 per annum for the privilege of opening doors to the great and the good of Dublin and the World '

'...he had no salary from the hotel but actually paid £500.00 per annum for the privilege of opening doors to the great and the good of Dublin and the World '

Harry Browne remembers working in Dublin hotels as a chef.

Harry Browne

Trinity College Dublin

1961

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Harry Browne

Work and Employment

Life Story

Shelbourne Hotel, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin

1960's

At the end of two years in Cathal Brugha Street I graduated and found myself in search of a job. My first job was in the Gresham Hotel but I did not stay long. We graduates were not popular as we were considered to be third years commis or apprentices having spent two years in college. This meant that we were paid more than others who may have been in the hotel for longer than us and also we tended to be considered somewhat above ourselves as we were possibly the first tranche of graduates to be found in the catering trade. Prior to that one learned the trade by the old method of 'Sit by Nelly' or in other words learn on the job. Sometime in late 1961 or thereabouts I got a job as a Commis Chef in the Shelbourne Hotel. Job finding in that period was simple as there was effective full employment. The Shelbourne was, as now, one of the premier hotels in Europe. It was owned by a Captain Jury who subsequently sold it to an international hotel chain. The head chef was named Jimmy Flahive, a brother of the bandleader Jack Flahive who had a residency in The Olympic Ballroom. The head doorman was named Gleeson and the story had it that he had no salary from the hotel but actually paid ԣ500.00 per annum for the privilege of opening doors to the great and the good of Dublin and the World. This sum was considerably greater than the salary of a fully qualified chef at that time. Mr Gleeson lived entirely on gratuities given by customers as they entered and left the hotel. He had a reputation for being able to supply any goods or services which a person with the funds available could wish for in his, or her, wildest dreams. Consequently he was a significantly wealthy individual and owned a number of racehorses. In the early 1960s ownership of racehorses definitely placed you in the higher earnings bracket, the fee paid to the hotel for his position was therefore not terribly significant in the overall scheme of things.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)