Eventing in Equestrian Country at Barberstown
Rathangan native Jane Murphy hasn’t move far to work in her current role – in her native Kildare as Events Manager at Barberstown Castle Hotel in Straffan.
From a business course in Rathmines College, she began her professional career in the world of finance, working for American firm Bankers Trust in the early 1990s, where she worked in the area of security management and finance.
“Hospitality is relatively new to me,” says Jane, who followed up her ten-year stint in finance in Dublin with a period in pharmaceuticals. After 14 years working for the United Drug Company, she had garnered an interesting palette of experience from her role of event management in the company.
It was following a family-raising hiatus of around five years that Jane returned to the industrial world – only this time it was into the domain of hospitality via the portal of the quintessentially Kildare sector of the bloodstock industry.
“I started working at The Curragh Racecourse for the summer and I stayed on,” she says, “working for their non-race-day events.”
This role essentially involved getting the word out that the superb facilities at the famous racecourse were available for a whole series of mainly corporate events that didn’t involve horse-racing but which had the quality and prestige of the location.
Two years later, the move to Barberstown Castle came along – partly through personal contacts Jane had made while working at the Curragh Racecourse.
“I knew Amanda (Torrens) and Ted (Robinson) through the Curragh,” says Jane. “They were very good sponsors and we worked very well together. Amanda approached me to come to Barberstown.”
With the work experience that Jane had built up to that point, there’s no doubt that she was bringing something very valuable to the hotel that Amanda had clearly seen, but it did take a bit of adjustment in the new environment.
“What I was really surprised most about was the sheer pace of the place,” says Jane. “Everything goes at 100 miles per hour and every day is different… you’re working weeks in advance but you’re also dealing with enquiries hourly.
I’m based in Kildare and I’ve pretty much lived in Kildare all my life, both my parents are from Kildare, so I’d have lot of contacts around the place.”
The hospitality industry wasn’t entirely foreign to Jane, however. Her mother had a catering company and the home she was brought up in, she says, was a “party house” with the entertainment gene being duly passed onto her intact.
“Two of my sisters did catering at Cathal Brugha Street and one of them went on to work at Ballymaloe. She now has her own deli and sandwich shop – Mary-Kathryn’s – in Kildare town. My other sister became a teacher. So, neither of them went into the hospitality industry per se and now here I am.
“We’re all cooks though… Growing up, if you needed to talk to my mother, you would have to do so standing at the Aga cooker.”
The work involved in Jane’s role is very much a team effort. As she says herself, you can’t talk about whether or not you will be able to book in a party of twelve people for a particular date without talking to a number of other people in the team to see if it will be possible.
“The operations and the sales side work very closely together,” says Jane. “We sit down and talk on a daily basis.”
Jane had the opportunity of experiencing Barberstown Castle as a guest when she had her 50th birthday celebration here before she had begun to work at the property. It was, she says, a very positive experience and one that feeds her enthusiasm in helping guests now to enjoy a similar experience.
“It really is a unique place,” says Jane. “That’s why, I suppose, I was really interested to make that move. It’s a special place that has that something for everybody.”
From a somewhat predictable-looking exterior, Barberstown Castle hotel is the kind of place that offers more once you step through the door and discover its various nooks and crannies – some dating to the 13th century.
“I’m so proud to show people all the different spaces and to see people’s reaction,” says Jane. “I know that might sound a bit of a cliché but it’s full of that olde-world charm, but in a good way. It’s not any kind of paddy-whackery or anything like that – it’s unique and the team here are really proud of it. And I think you can feel that when you walk in the door; many guests have said that to me.”
One of the principle aims of Jane’s role is to target the corporate market:
“We would like to fill out Monday to Friday with corporate meetings and events,” she says. Somewhat out in the sticks they may be, but the considerable benefits of their location include being midway between the M7 and the M4 and having free parking: great modern facilities for all kinds of corporate events in a relaxed and charming environment. The property has 61 bedrooms in total (including the two external lodges), with a large conference meeting room, two smaller conference rooms and a ballroom which, Jane says, is “perfect for trade shows” and the great spaces on the grounds are perfect for team-building events.
“And another unique selling point is that we have natural light in all of our conference rooms,” says Jane. “You’re not put into one of these square boxes with no natural light and each room is very comfortable and has its own character.”
Weddings, of course, still play a very important role in the commercial life of the hotel, with lots of repeat business. There are also a lot of community-based activities. This includes a whole variety of initiatives, from sponsorship of Straffan camogie team to supporting Pietà House to various seasonal events.
“We’re big supporters of all the local charities. It is a critical part of business but we’re also here for all the local people. It’s really important to invite people into the place – to come and sit by the fire here and have a glass of wine on a Friday evening, for example. It’s a privately owned hotel – not one of the big chains, so it’s important that we give something back to the locality and that local people support us as well. It’s a two-way relationship.”
“It’s exciting. I love the place; I love selling it and I love bringing people here to see it. I get the Wow factor all the time from people’s reaction.”
A 13th-century castle of perfect dimensions? Probably. Barberstown Castle and Jane Murphy’s role in it are also testament to the fact that in spite of all the American-dominated hotel chains in the world, the service of the privately owned hotel can’t be matched for warmth.