13-05-2025
Cork hotel seeks to solve mystery of names on a note in a wall
The Metropole Hotel in Cork city has launched a search for four labourers who were working at the hotel more than 50 years ago and wrote their names on a piece of paper which has been discovered in the bricks of the lobby.
The note, on an old piece of wallpaper, is dated July 1969.
It is signed "with love from" Tommy Ross (electrician), Jerry Higgins (carpenter), Steve Casey (painter), and John Keogh (plumber).
It was placed in the wall of the hotel, which is located on MacCurtain Street in the Victorian Quarter area of the city.
It was discovered when a wall in the lobby was demolished during refurbishment works.
One of the men, 87-year-old John Keogh, has already come forward after hearing the appeal on local radio this morning.
Group Brand Manager for Trigon Hotels, Sandra Murphy told RTÉ's News at One that Mr Keogh got in touch after hearing about the public appeal.
She added that she is "delighted" that Mr Keogh had reached out, and that he and his wife Phyllis, will be attending the opening of the new lobby and restaurant in August.
"This was like a time capsule that was located in the wall, and these four gentlemen who worked on a refurb back in the summer of 1969 at the Metropole Hotel had obviously placed that it would be found at some point and we're so privileged and so lucky to have located it.
"We really wanted to hear stories from people and because it's such a historical hotel that we love hearing the history of the hotel from people who directly would have worked with the hotel or engaged with the hotel in some way.
"We are just hoping to get in touch with the other three men, and if not, then maybe their families would come forward and chat to us and share some stories with us as well."
Louise McNamara, General Manager of the Metropole Hotel said: "It would be really exciting to hear the stories of the electrician, plumber, painter and carpenter who obviously worked on the lobby in 1969 and to see what they think of the refurb 56 years later."
