KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — “Living in County Mayo in Ireland, it’s quite remote,” owner and founder of Healy Mac’s Bar & Restaurant, Liam Healy, says.
“All the planes used to pass over our house, so close you’d just see the white lines as it passed in the sky. Since I was four or five, I’d be looking up and asking ‘Where are they going to?’”
We’re at Healy Mac’s Bar & Restaurant in Jalan P. Ramlee where Healy is soon to be awarded with the ‘Best Irish Pub (Outside Ireland)’ achievement as judged by the Irish Times in conjunction with the Diageo drinks company.
As it turns out, the planes were bound for New York, where Healy would make his first trip as a 15-year-old looking for a job in the bars and clubs. Jobs in Belmullet were sparse, and while he had fun, Healy was a working man through and through. He put in his first shift within 12 hours of touching down in the Big Apple.
Healy has come a long way in his 52 years. He’s settled in Kuala Lumpur now, having been here since 1999, though visits home in Ireland around three times a year.
After prior experience running Healy Mac’s first pub back in Ireland, he opened the doors of the Jalan Bukit Bintang branch in 2009.
Healy encourages his children to travel and see the world, insisting experience is the best lesson.
“I learnt very little in school. But when you travel, it opens the eyes and broadens the mind. I tell my children I’m still studying, because the best university is the open university of the world,” he says.
“There’s nothing like it — you see it first hand, make the mistakes, try a different business, but the secret is to not make the same mistake a second time.”
It’s made to seem a simple formula for Healy. Speaking candidly with a stout Irish accent, he admits his errors, but it’s part of the process.
It is this that has granted him the best Irish Pub in the World.
It dispels the myth about the luck of the Irish; this is simple graft and dedication.
After checking daily emails, Healy will log on to travel website TripAdvisor each morning to check for feedback and reply to any complaints. With a personal touch, Healy tends to offer a resolution to those unsatisfied by way of a chat in person or a complimentary drink in a show of good gesture for the customers.
During a stint back home in Ireland, Healy ventured in the furniture business. He relays a tale about producing sleigh beds — how they’d be made and shipped for US$65 (roughly RM200 at the time), sold on to the dealers at US$220 (RM750), then to the furniture shops in Spain, retailing at €1,500 (RM6,000).
With business experience in Europe and after operating a construction firm in London, Healy landed in Southeast Asia to broaden his horizons once more.
Healy opened a timber factory in Jakarta in the early 2000s, but the 2008 recession brought a drastic turn in business forcing Healy to sell-up in Indonesia and establish himself as a bar owner in Malaysia.
Since being here, the husband and father of three has become known for his passion of giving back to the community. In addition to handling food, housing and education for two orphanages in Cambodia, Healy regularly organises fundraisers and donates to children’s homes in Malaysia.
“We help out orphanages in Ipoh, Penang and KL. We give them computers, copy books and stationery for their studies. If you educate the children, especially those less fortunate, it can bring a smile to their faces. That’s why we do it,” he says.
“We’re hoping to do more in Penang but it’s difficult to do anything where the government are involved. The independent ones receive no support from the government so they need that extra help.”
Giving opportunity for memories also, Healy invites the homes to bring the children into the restaurant for some food and a day out.
“We show them a good day in the bar, with face painting, clowns, chips and pizza. At Christmas time, we do Santa Claus in the restaurant and at the homes, we all get dressed up. Plus we provide rice as well as making a donation towards the end of the year.”
Most befittingly of Healy’s achievements is that the charity work is an individual pursuit, with no organisations or charities involved due to past experience of money falling into the wrong hands.
His current plan for Healy Mac’s is to expand into Jakarta and Medan. For a man who started off sleeping in a New York corridor aged 15 and alternating shifts for the bed with a guy who left for work at 5.30am when Healy came home from work, the future is looking bright.
The passion to keep the restaurant successful is scope for more charitable expenditures. Healy arguably goes one step further in providing for others, by ensuring education is the goal, enabling a future for others.
“You’ll find in years to come that those who are educated and get on in life will help the world’s coming behind them. That’s the way I see it,” he says.
