Outspoken pub landlord to enter race to become Bristol’s next mayor

The landlord of the Three Lions pub in Bedminster will be an outspoken addition to the mayoral race when it recommences in 2021.

Dressed in full Bristol City training wear currently accessorised with a Remembrance Day pin badge on the day before his West Street pub was being forced to shut for the second national lockdown, Sean Donnelly punched his chest.

“I’m a proud working class man,” the 56-year-old said, lowering his City-branded snood to around his neck. “I want to have a voice in things.”

Donnelly was recently fined £1000 for his pub breaching Covid-19 regulations, but he is unhappy with the way that he has been treated by Bristol City Council, claiming that he has been unfairly targeted, even writing on social media that they were being “harassed”.

He claims that he has had dozens of visits by the council. “They target busy independents who can pay a fine but can’t really fight them,” he says. “They say that (in the Three Lions) they saw someone move from one table to another, but instead of educating, they are hammering. They were so rude, unbelievably rude.”

A Bristol City Council spokesperson said: “It is categorically untrue that there is any enforcement action regarding Remembrance Day banners at the Three Lions pub. Enforcement action has been undertaken in response to a continued lack of Covid-secure measures on the premises.

“Over the past few months a number of meetings with the proprietor between the council and police licensing officers have taken place to help them become Covid-secure and to operate safely. Despite this, there are continuing problems which haven’t been addressed and are putting the public at risk which has led to a £1,000 fixed penalty notice being issued last week.”

“I don’t feel we’re guilty of anything, I feel the council should be educating us,” says Three Lions landlord Sean Donnelly, who was recently fined £1000 for the pub breaching Covid regulations – photo: Martin Booth

Donnelly, who lives in Bishopsworth and who has been landlord of the Three Lions since 1994, is a man who does not shy away from the limelight. Last year, he told his staff not to serve anyone on Remembrance Sunday unless they were wearing a poppy.

For two decades, a sign that used to be attached to the Millwall team coach has hung on one wall of the pub.

For many years, the Three Lions has also hosted ‘Flag Day’ when Bristol City fans gather with smoke grenades before heading to Ashton Gate, usually for the first home game of the season.

It has also become a recent rite of passage for City managers to visit this West Street boozer. Lee Johnson ordered a double Jack Daniels and Coke, while current boss Dean Holden recently visited and had a lager top.

Donnelly says that the Three Lions “has a West Street rather than a North Street vibe” and provides a service to the local Bedminster community by being “normal and down to earth”.

Sean Donnelly owns the Three Lions on West Street and the Masonic on North Street – photo: Martin Booth

Before becoming a pub landlord (he was previously the proprietor at the former Happy Landings in Hengrove), Donnelly worked as a glazier and also was a semi-professional footballer, playing as full-back for teams including Weston-super-Mare and Weymouth.

A photo of Holden is now outside the Three Lions with a specially-commissioned Remembrance Day banner covering the whole of the exterior’s ground floor. On one of the walls inside is a photo of Stoney Garnett, another well-known City fan who ran for mayor with Donnelly’s backing in both 2012 and 2016.

“I’m very outspoken for what I see is right,” Donnelly says. “I made my feelings known that I supported Brexit. I have a platform to share the views that I believe in, which is my prerogative. And I appreciate everyone else’s views.

“We’ve all got views. I don’t know what views are right or wrong, I just know what I think is correct. And that’s why we are in a democratic country.”

Donnelly, who often cycles from his home to West Street, has also got views on improving Bristol’s traffic. “The situation in town at the moment is a huge inconvenience.”

So what would he do on his first day in City Hall if elected? Without missing a beat, he said that he would sack the council enforcement officers that handed him his fine.

Main photo by Martin Booth

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