Guinness AMPIONS 1996 lovers are giving us record takings!

How drink's surging popularity is driving new success for Irish bars

- By JENNA CAMPBELL

IT'S eerily quiet at Duffy's Bar on Barlow Moor Road - but then again it is 11am on a Thursday morning.

Most nights of the week, the place is packed out. Punters of all ages stand shoulder to shoulder, patiently waiting for their turn at the bar where they'll most likely order the drink of the moment - a pint of Guinness.

For Laura Duffy, who has run the bar alongside husband Peter and her daughter Natalie for 15 years, the morning lull before a mid-afternoon rush is a welcome break.

They're not complaining though. In fact, they've never been busier.

The family, who used to run The Prince of Wales pub in Gately, know better than most what it takes to run a successful Irish bar.

Laura's father Noel Duffy, bornand-bred in Dublin, moved over to Manchester when he was 18.

He's retired now, but was a wellknown publican in these parts, and customers who see him perched at the bar think he's the owner.

"We had to call the place Duffy's because everyone knows the name around here," beams Laura.

"When we first opened here we were still running the Prince of Wales as we had to serve our notice, but it was only when the whole family came over that it started to work.

"We were panicking a bit, after all we left a good pub to start something from scratch." When the family came to Chorlton 15 years ago there weren't really any other Irish pubs or bars in the town. They knew they had a bit of a job on their hands.

"We used to sit here all day and night and no one would come in and we would say 'what have we done?," recalls Natalie.

"But as soon as we put the name up, everyone assumed it was my grandad's and that helped." Peter was fairly confident though. Aware of the area's large Irish community, its churches and community centre, he knew it was worth taking a punt.