The bar in January 2015.
Jack Bailey’s bar was situated at the corner of Talbot Green and Green Street in the St. Aidan’s area of Wexford town.
The pub was opened in 2001 by Wexford businessman Des Pettitt. It operated until the 28th of August, 2018, when staff members were suddenly told that they were being made redundant.
The other side of the pub in July 2018. The car park belongs to Pettitt’s SuperValu. Credit: Google Maps.
Prior to Jack Bailey’s, it was called the Phoenix.
A Wellington Bridge couple named Tom and Margaret Howlin opened the Phoenix in 1984. The Howlins ran it until July 2001, when they decided to sell the property to Des Pettitt and retire from the pub trade.
The Phoenix became the scene of a horrific shooting on Sunday, the 5th of November, 2000. At around 9.30 p.m. that evening, a local Talbot Green man named John Hendrick (19) turned up at the bar armed with a double-barrelled shotgun. After shooting his ex-girlfriend, Amy Bolger (16), in the back, he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.
Hendrick and Bolger had been in a rocky relationship for approximately two years. Bolger had reportedly ended things roughly two months prior to the shooting.
On the day of the shooting, Bolger was socialising with her friends in the Phoenix. At around 7pm, Hendrick entered the pub and demanded to see her phone.
One report suggests that Hendrick was upset because he believed Bolger had been texting another man who was also present that night.
During the heated exchange, Hendrick reportedly pulled Bolger by the hair and threw her to the ground.
He eventually left the pub after another person intervened.
Later that evening, he stole a shotgun from his friend’s father’s house in Bishopswater, returned to the pub, and asked to speak to Bolger outside.
Following a quick conversation in the car park, Bolger turned to leave and go back inside the pub. However, at that point, Hendrick called her name.
When she turned around, he fired the gun at her and then turned it on himself.
Hendrick died almost instantly. Fortunately, Bolger, who sustained serious injuries to her shoulder and right arm, survived the shooting.
