Dennis McDaid, right, with his partner Christine Nolan, left, and manager Kirsty Braddick

WHEN Dennis McDaid joined the Park Tavern as a young barman, aged 25, the disgraced US President Richard Nixon was resigning following Water­gate – and Lord Lucan had just disappeared.

The youngster had just moved over from County Donegal, with grand plans. All he needed was some pocket money and a chance to save up for a few months – maybe even just weeks, he speculated at the time – and the Tollington Park Road pub was the perfect place to do that.

“It was good fun but if you’d have said to me 50 years ago I’d still be here, I’d have bet you ten million to one I wouldn’t be,” the veteran Finsbury Park publican joked this week.

Family, regulars and well-wishers turned out in great numbers on Saturday to celebrate his half century milestone.

Neil Williams of Stonegate, the company that owns the freehold, is quick to point out what a rarity Mr McDaid is in the world of licensees.

Thought to be London’s longest-running publican, he is one of the few in the country to have passed the five decades mark at the same place.

“I think it is just amazing to have somebody that’s run one for 50 years,” Mr Williams said.

“The reason the pub’s remained busy and successful is because of how he’s been able to manage the people and make it a real heart of the community. The quality is always amazing here, you’ll always get a friendly welcome.”

Mr McDaid says there’s no secret to making a pub successful, you just need to like talking, adding: “Get to know people, get them involved.

“The whole purpose is to make friends. Find out when their birthday is. Tell them, ‘We’ll put on a buffet for you, we’ll put on a bit of entertainment for you’. Welcome them in.”

At 75, Mr McDaid has now taken a “backseat,” but he still lives above the pub and comes down on weekends.

He has Parkinson’s and doesn’t want to drink but, somewhat problem­atically, “people always want to buy me a drink,” he laughed.

One night, his colleagues added together all the shots of rum he’d been bought: it filled a pint glass.

There have been changes during the half century. His pub was once full of Irish men who used to drink 216 gallons of Bass real ale a week. Now there are more students, and people drink less.

Another major difference is the price: where you could once buy five pints for less than a pound, now, like every­where, it costs more than a fiver to buy one pint.

But Mr McDaid is full of praise for his life behind the bar.

“He likes people, and it shows,” said his partner of 30 years, Christine Nolan, who also worked at the pub.