For more years than many of them could remember, Rita Moynihan, who has died aged 83, plied her customers with her unique Long Valley light refreshments. Whether it was her classic doorstep sandwiches or seasoned hot vegetable soup on cold winter days, the condiment was usually washed down with a glass of her well-poured stout.
Born in 1931 in Aghabullogue, near Dripsey, Rita Byrne worked as a young waitress at the Metropole hotel under the tutelage of its well known general manager, Douglas Vance. It was here in the 1950s that she was to serve breakfast to Hollywood stars like Gregory Peck and film director John Huston during the making Moby Dick in Youghal – the cast and crew stayed at the Metropole. She was there too when the fiery star Dawn Addams demanded an unheard of "milk bath". The story made headlines as Vance, aware that Cork was going through lean times, refused the request.
Rita was on a lunch break when she met her future husband, Humphrey Moynihan. They married in 1960 and took over the Long Valley from Humphrey’s grandparents. During the 1960s and 1970s it became an oasis for local scholars, artists and, indeed, eccentric members of Cork society. Love for GAA At her funeral Mass, her youngest son, Peadar, told the congregation of her deep love for the GAA and how she had a relative in the Aghabullogue team who won the first All-Ireland in 1884. He also spoke of her well known patronage of the arts in Cork – a fact borne out by the weekly Monday night poetry sessions Ó Bheal hosted by poet Paul Casey and held in the quaint Hayloft above the bar.
Rita was a loyal supporter of local history and folklore, attending events at the South Parish Historical Society with her two longtime friends Jim Redmond and Hugh Murphy.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, who grew up around the corner in Turner’s Cross, fondly remembers accompanying his father as a boy to the Long Valley snug and taking an hour to eat one of Rita’s doorstep sandwiches.
Rita’s great friends in the business sector of what is fondly referred to as the Bermuda Triangle – the junction between Winthrop Street and Oliver Plunkett Street, retain fond memories of herself and her late husband, Humphrey.
In recent years Rita was a regular visitor to the Turner’s Cross daycare centre where she enjoyed the sing-song and camaraderie of staff and friends. She once told her sons, “You’d have to know your stuff going in there.”
Rita often spoke of her fondest sporting moment, when at Pairc Ui Chaoimh she saw Tadhg Murphy of Glanmire come on as a sub for Cork in injury time in the unforgettable Munster final of 1983 and score the decisive goal against Kerry in the dying seconds.
Her son Peadar said: “She had a smile on her face that lasted a week.”
Rita Moynihan was predeceased by her husband, Humphrey, and is survived by her three sons, Humphrey, Seán and Peadar.