❝ Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are: ‘It might have been’. ❞
Age: 33
Gender identification: Cis male, he/him
Residential area: Suffix Mills
Occupation: Owner of Sully’s Tavern
Two positive traits: Charismatic & trustworthy
Two negative traits: Cynical & aloof
Length of time in Heartsdale: 33 years
Faceclaim: Casey Deidrick
well worn jeans and scuffed boots, grease stained fingers and leather jackets, the faint aroma of beer, a cigarette tucked into his ear, and a beard that hides the weariness his eyes cannot
abortion tw & death tw
Being born in Heartsdale as a second generation Irish-American had its benefits. It meant that Matthew Sullivan had a built in community already set in place by his grandfather who had immigrated over from Cork and started up his own business by way of a traditional Irish pub in Kingston.
No one knows why he chose to settle there, especially moving from the emerald isle to settle in the small town of Heartsdale in the middle of Georgia but if there was anything to know about Aidan Sullivan it was that he was stubborn and did whatever the hell he wanted.
Aidan was a proud man who loved his country and his roots more than almost anybody, he just couldn’t take the struggles and strife in his own lands and decided to see if there was better life out there for him. The plan had always been to return, that’s what he told his son and then his grandson Matthew. It just never happened. Aidan sent for his Irish sweetheart back home in Dublin and they lived out their lives in Heartsdale.
Sully’s Tavern was a place that Matt had grown up in, by the time he was to take over ownership of the pub that had morphed over time to fit the mood and needs of the south he already knew every nook and cranny and better than anyone else.
He was that boy people would have a smile over as he played with toys between barstools and was sometimes helping to serve up a pint when it was busy before he’d even hit the age of thirteen.
The Sullivans were a social clan, nearly notable in the small town simply for the fact that they were so damn Irish they stood out like a sore thumb. They drank, they fought, they laughed, and they wore every bit of that proudly.
Up until he reached junior high school, Matt was homeschooled by his grandmother.
Aileen kept herself out of the tavern affairs and let her husband run it his way and as his passion. She was a school teacher, she had gotten the certifications for it before she ever made the move from Ireland to Heartsdale and enjoyed being known as the charismatic teacher with the accent. Once she retired from teaching, she became even more involved in the Kingston community and spent Matt’s youth educating him to the best of her abilities. Which, was rather easy given that he was intellectually gifted like her. Everyone said they got on as well as they did because of how much alike they were.
Entering junior high was a big change for Matt though. As many friends as he had in general, it was a different society when it came to school and he had a lot of catching up to do. He was gangly and skinny, had poor fashion sense, but could talk unlike any other.
It was the Irish in him.
Matt charmed everyone he came into contact with and quickly became not just popular around the tavern or his neighborhood but school as well. He played sports and enjoyed the attention from the girls and in efforts to make Grandma Aileen proud he did really well in school.
In high school Matt hit a milestone and had his first girlfriend. It was a short lived romance and he was sure that she had only gotten close to him to gain the attention of his older brother, given that he still had yet to come into his lanky limbs.
The relationship was the start of a girl craze phase that eventually landed him in a bit of trouble when he was just barely into college; he got a girl pregnant.
All precautions had been taken but it still happened and Matt felt a bit of shame having to go to his family and tell them the news but the girl intervened before he had the chance. She told him she wanted to have an abortion and that she was going to take an opportunity at a bigger university in a bigger city far away from the small town life.
She told him she was leaving right away and would go to visit a clinic in her new city. Even more so she told him she already had a date set and the news quietly devastated him.
Matt wasn’t ready to be a father, he was still very a much a kid himself but maybe it was his Irish Catholic roots or something more within him, he just knew then he would’ve rather kept the baby but she had told him she had plans with her life.
While Matt did protest a bit he didn’t feel it was his place to tell her what to do, so he told her he would go with her and that was that.
After graduating from the Grant Tech University, Matt returned to work at the tavern. For some time he was assistant manager and also worked the bar.
Which was something that propelled his interest in making a brew that the family could slap their name onto and serve at Sully’s Tavern. It took him years to perfect and unfortunately his grandfather, the great Aidan Sullivan didn’t live long enough to taste the homemade beer the pub sells on specialty now. On tap too.
Grandpa Aidan died in a drowning accident in Sugar Hill Lake after stumbling drunk off his fishing boat and his grandmother said, ‘well, at least he died doing what he loved. Drinking and fishing’.
Matt’s father inherited the pub then and continued on as manager as he had been, only passing it on to Matt when he wanted to retire and spend some time traveling around. As far as his pops went was Ireland, where he and his mother ended up visiting and never leaving. All papers were signed over to Matt and he suddenly had himself a popular and successful Irish pub/southern tavern hybrid, his grandfather’s house and his parent’s house along with his own.
When his professional life picked up, moving from assistant manager and brew master to manager and finally owner, his personal life fell apart. The woman he had been seeing for years got tired of the fact that it seemed Matt was never going to put a ring on her finger or give her children of her own.
So after a fight, she left and went on to find those things surprisingly not long after their split. It made him salty but he was happy for her over all.
Ever since losing his child at twenty, or well having to agree to an abortion he didn’t want, he had a hard time whenever it came to the possibility of having children of his own. Somewhere within his head and heart he had convinced himself that he didn’t deserve kids after he gave up so easily so many years ago, but again, life had a surprise for him.
