O'REILLY's Bar was founded in 1992 by Liam & Pauline Hindle with O'Reilly being the family name on Liam's mother's side. Liam was born in Cobh, County Cork and spent his early years living there with his mother and grandparents.
Gaelic language names often refer to the father? Mac in Irish and Scottish, Ap in Welsh, but in Ireland the "O" refers to the grandfather?so O'Reilly means "the grandson of Reilly". The Irish spelling of O'Reilly is actually "O'Raghaillagh", and the clan originates from Coote Hill, County Cavan and is now listed as the 10th most common Irish surname.
When it first started O'Reilly's was a Brasserie with a kitchen and an extensive food menu, and the staff were very smartly dressed with green bow?ties and cummerbunds. It only occupied half of the current front bar area as the Bank of New Zealand filled the rest and Fiji Air occupied both the current Wolfhound Bar area as well as The The Bad Dog Café.
O'Reilly's was the first nightspot in Suva to move towards a more modern style of bar, and it followed on from and eventually replaced the nightclub Lucky Eddies which had been running successfully upstairs from O'Reilly's since 1976. It quickly became so popular that it was too busy to serve food - a function that was taken over by The Bad Dog Café after the business expanded. It was the first bar in Fiji to serve draught Guinness and in the early days had a thriving GAS Club (Guinness Appreciation Society) with weekly meetings at the bar and a goat as a mascot - and the goat was always tethered at the front entrance during GAS nights.
Although often called an Irish Bar O'Reilly's is very much a Pacific Island creation, and is best described as a Fiji-Irish Bar - the people of both these countries have much in common, being light-hearted, gregarious and fun-loving. The high number of trained security ensures it is a safe haven, and it has always welcomed all sections of our community. It continues to be the busiest nightspot in Suva and was named Suva's best bar by the Lonely Planet publication in 2010. It is also the official bar of the Fiji Rugby Union and plays host to Fiji teams and many visiting international teams. With the addition of Shenanigan's Bar in 2010 O'Reilly's is now about four times larger than when it opened 20 years ago.