In 2016, Dorothy Shannon walked into King House Tea Rooms for the first time as a potential tenant. She was met by purple and green chairs and voile curtains hanging on the windows. She looked around, took a breath, and thought: nothing here that cannot be changed.

Nine years later, she is approaching her tenth anniversary. The chairs are gone. The food is homemade. The customers are loyal. And Dorothy has no plans to go anywhere.

She joined Florence on Episode 81 of the Voices of Boyle for a conversation about what it actually takes to run a community cafe, and what a place like King House means to a town like Boyle.

From Ardcarne to King House

Dorothy grew up on a farm in Ardcarne, near Cootehall in Co. Roscommon, one of five children born in 1970. Her connection to Boyle goes back to childhood: her mother did the weekly shop in town every Saturday, and Dorothy remembers the Royal Hotel for coffee, Dohertys Bakery at the bridge, and a turkey market held early on December mornings on the roadside near the Bank of Ireland, where families brought fresh birds to sell.

She went to secondary school in Carrick-on-Shannon because the bus passed the house. After finishing, she did a commercial course in shorthand and typewriting at the Tech in Boyle, then followed her sisters to England in the 1980s, living in Reading and later London. When she came back to Ireland she completed a catering course in Killybegs and spent years working in hotels and restaurants around the country.

Eventually a job at MBA in Carrick-on-Shannon brought her back to the area for eleven years. Two years at the Landmark Hotel followed. And then a friend said: I hear there is a restaurant going for lease in Boyle.

Taking On King House

Dorothy put together her mood board, wrote her application, and had her interview. She had brought a friend who ran a coffee shop in the Phoenix Park to have a look at the space with her before she committed.

The purple and green chairs were the first thing she noticed. The voile curtains were the second. Her friend looked at her. Dorothy looked back.

“Sure, why not?” she decided.

The early months were harder than anything she had experienced before. She had worked in hospitality her whole adult life, but always for someone else. This was different. After her first day she remembers standing in the empty cafe thinking: I have to do this every single day. There was nobody to pick up the slack if she did not show up. No salary regardless of what happened.

Her response was to enrol in a degree in environmental science in Athlone.

“Just in case things did not work out,” she laughed.

She finished the degree. The cafe was fine. She relaxed.

“I depend on the community as much as they depend on me. There is no point saying no to things that do not make financial sense, because in the long run they do.”

Homemade Everything

From the beginning, Dorothy’s approach was clear: make everything on the premises, keep suppliers as local as possible, and build a menu from dishes she has genuinely tasted and loved elsewhere. Her team bakes fresh every day. The lasagna is made in-house. The fish and chips use a fish called bassa, from the catfish family, chosen partly because there are no bones in it.

Local suppliers are central to how the kitchen runs: McGrath’s, Langan’s vegetables, Gannon’s Eggs from just outside Carrick-on-Shannon. The menu has a loyal following and Dorothy does not change what is not broken.

Her lead baker Beth messaged her during Covid looking for a job and has been with the cafe for four years. Dorothy credits her staff as the backbone of everything.

“I say to the girls at the start: just be friendly. Everything else, I do not mind, but just be friendly.”

More Than Coffee

What makes King House Tea Rooms genuinely distinctive is not just the food. It is what the cafe has become in the life of the town.

Dorothy has hosted funerals. Book launches. Birthday celebrations. Meetings and workshops. She has opened on Sundays for special occasions. She has done Christmas dinners for people who might otherwise spend the day alone: starting with around twenty people in year one and growing to over forty by the last Christmas Day service she ran. The event has since moved to a day either side of Christmas, but the spirit of it is unchanged: a table, some music, good food, and people around you.

“I just wanted somewhere for people who were on their own, or lonely, or even just couples whose kids have left home,” she said. “Just so they had someplace to go.”

She tells a story about a neighbour called Mary Ryan who lived across the road from the cafe. The first time they met, Mary appeared at the counter with an empty saucepan. Her son had called in unexpectedly and she did not cook. Could Dorothy fill it with soup? Dorothy did. Mary became a regular, arriving at noon and staying until half two because there was always someone to talk to.

That, Dorothy says, is what she always wanted.

“When you find what you love doing, you will never work a day in your life. Even though these days I am exhausted.”

Covid and the Outdoor Tables

One of the lasting effects of Covid on King House Tea Rooms was the outdoor seating. Before the pandemic Dorothy had four or six tables outside. When indoor service was not possible, she added more. When restrictions lifted, the tables stayed. She now has more seating outside than inside.

“It would never have registered with me to get more tables outside,” she said. “That is just the way it happened.”

The setting at King House lends itself to it: the beautiful entrance gates, the old stone wall, the courtyard tucked away from the street. Dorothy describes it as cocooned.

A Town Worth Directing People To

Dorothy is not from Boyle. She grew up a few miles out the road and came to the town to shop and to school. But nine years of running a cafe in the heart of it has given her a detailed appreciation of what the place has to offer.

During Covid, when the streets were quiet, she walked the town properly for the first time. She discovered the walks around and about. Now, when tourists come into King House, she directs them: here is where to go, here is what to see, here is what you are missing if you just drive through.

She talks about the Boyle Arts Festival with genuine admiration, marvelling that a small committee can put together something so consistently good. She mentions the Christmas markets at King House as the busiest day of her year. And she talks about the week of the hot air balloons returning to Lough Key, which happened to coincide with the recording of this episode, and how she hopes they come back bigger next year.

The Tenth Year

Dorothy is coming up on a decade at King House Tea Rooms. Her plan for the anniversary centres on a fundraiser for the Roscommon SPCA, bigger than the ones she has done in the last two years. Beyond that, she is staying put.

The most rewarding part of the job, she says without hesitation, is the customers. The man who came in looking for someone he had not seen in forty years, and the three regulars at a nearby table who knew exactly who he was talking about. The people who have been coming in since day one and are still coming nine years later. The ones who find each other at adjacent tables and end up talking for an hour.

“It is about being part of the fabric of the community,” she said. “That is what I always wanted.”

Visit King House Tea Rooms

King House Tea Rooms is open Monday 9am to 4pm, and Tuesday to Saturday 9am to 5pm. The full menu includes breakfast, lunch, pancakes, takeaway, teas and coffees, with everything made fresh on the premises every day. Dorothy and her team also offer catering for events, funerals, book launches and celebrations.

Find them on Facebook: King House Tea Rooms

Key Timestamps

00:00 — Florence introduces Episode 81

00:52 — Welcome to Dorothy

01:30 — Growing up in Ardcarne, Cootehall, a farm family of five

02:00 — Boyle always the shopping town, once a week on Saturdays

02:22 — Memories of Dartie’s Bakery, the Royal Hotel, the turkey market at Christmas

03:45 — Secondary school in Carrick-on-Shannon, the bus passed the house

03:52 — Commercial course at the Tech in Boyle

04:07 — England in the 1980s: Reading and London

04:28 — Catering course in Killybegs, working in hotels and restaurants around Ireland

04:38 — Back to the area: MBA in Carrick, then the Landmark Hotel

04:58 — A friend mentions a restaurant going for lease in Boyle

05:27 — Walking into King House for the first time: purple chairs, voile curtains

06:15 — The mood board, the application, the interview

06:23 — The first day: I have to do this every day now

08:37 — Enrolling in an environmental science degree in Athlone, just in case

09:07 — Finishing the degree, finding the groove, the business taking hold

09:36 — The welcome of the community: second to none

09:41 — The setting: the gates, the wall, the outdoor space

09:56 — Covid and the outdoor tables that stayed

11:05 — The events that happen at King House: workshops, piano exams, meetings

11:45 — The role of the cafe in the community

12:51 — Christmas dinners for people who would otherwise be alone

14:37 — Finding good staff, Beth and the baking

15:56 — Just be friendly: what Dorothy asks of her team

16:28 — Local suppliers: McGrath’s, Langan’s, Gannon’s Eggs

16:57 — How the menu comes together

17:24 — Fish and chips with bassa, homemade lasagna

18:19 — Plans for the tenth anniversary: a bigger SPCA fundraiser

18:43 — When you love what you do

19:04 — Covid and how the cafe came through it

20:25 — Favourite time of year: summer with the college girls back

21:16 — Travel: Malaysia, night markets, satay

23:37 — Community involvement: Tidy Towns cans, St. Patrick’s Day parade

25:02 — Boyle and what it means to Dorothy

26:09 — Directing tourists during and after Covid

27:58 — The guinea pig in the cafe

29:22 — Events coming up: Halloween competition, Christmas markets

30:07 — Most rewarding part: meeting the customers

30:20 — The man looking for someone he had not seen in 40 years

31:00 — Mary Ryan and the saucepan of soup

33:27 — What Dorothy always wanted: part of the fabric of the community

34:06 — Opening hours and catering services

Guest Bio

Dorothy Shannon grew up on a farm in Ardcarne near Cootehall, Co. Roscommon and attended secondary school in Carrick-on-Shannon. After completing a catering course in Killybegs and working in hospitality across Ireland and England, she returned to the area and in 2016 took on the lease of King House Tea Rooms in Boyle. She is now approaching her tenth year running the cafe, which has become one of the best-loved community spaces in the town. She is also a member of the Tidy Towns effort, has been involved in the St. Patrick’s Day parade committee, and raises funds each year for the Roscommon SPCA.

King House Tea Rooms: Opening Hours and Contact

Monday: 9am to 4pm

Tuesday to Saturday: 9am to 5pm

Full breakfast, lunch, pancakes, takeaway, teas, coffees and more

Catering available for events, funerals, book launches, celebrations and meetings.