Bushy’s Brewery boss Martin Brunnschweiler believes the island can pull together during the health crisis in a true community spirit in the style of his hero Winston Churchill.

Asked if we need some spirit in the style of the wartime British prime minister he said: ’I think we need a bit of that.

’I think we need to pull together. We do need that sort of spirit.’

Mr Brunnschweiler issued his rallying cry during an interview with Business News last Thursday, when the island still had no positive Covid-19 cases confirmed.

He owns the Bay Hotel in Port Erin which closed last week because of the coronavirus crisis.

A message on Facebook by the leaseholders Rock Food Concepts declared: ’We have made the difficult decision to cease trading at The Bay Hotel with immediate effect. Due to COVID - 19 we have been left in the devastating position where we have been forced to close our doors.

’It is certainly not the end of the road for the pub which we hope will come back even stronger but at the moment we have no idea when. Be safe people.’

Pubs, restaurants and cafes have since been instructed to stop serving customers on site.

Sitting in his living room at the Bay, Mr Brunnschweiler said ’so many people’s lives depend on the hospitality trade’ which had already suffered in recent months because of factors such as the windy winter weather and campaigns such as ’Stoptober’ and ’Dry January’.

’Who knows what the future will hold?’ he said.

Mr Brunnschweiler said the announcement of the cancellation of the TT at the start of last week (March 16) was inevitable. He rcalled how the last time it was postponed was in 2001 during the Foot and Mouth crisis. That was the year he re-opened the Bay, a grand Victorian establishment, after renovation work.

Mr Brunnscheweiler points to part of his collection of Winston Churchill Toby jugs, which he has been collecting for years, and says he is a hero of his.

He says: ’These measures the Isle of Man is making now, maybe they will get results which means that something could happen later in the summer. Listen, my glass is always half full and I have an optimistic streak.’

This is his 35th year in brewing and, he says, without doubt the toughest. Bushy’s is synonymous with the TT Festival. Four people as well as himself , work at the brewery which is based at Mount Murray, Braddan.

Talking generally, he said: ’I suppose it’s the uncertainty, I mean Foot and Mouth was an uncertain time and we all obviously came through that.

’It’s going to have to be a case of everybody being kind, considerate and we have just got to realise these are unprecedented times.

’The overriding thing is that if there can be a plus of this whole situation, that could come from this (the health crisis) is that it does bring out the best in people and that it brings a new community spirit. I think here in the Isle of Man, we are in a wonderful position to look after one another and I can’t think that there is a nicer place in the world.’

He and his wife Debbie are familiar figures in Port Erin.

He added: ’A few elderly people, we have given them our phone number in case there’s anything they need picking up.

’I’ve a big van that I can make use of if people are stuck, moving sacks of coal, or anything that needs moving.

’If we can all just work together, to me I think of these poor people in the airline business for example, and so many other businesses, you can just go on an on. So many people are going to be affected. Their livelihoods are just going to dry up.

’We have to be careful not to talk ourselves into a sort of panic or anything, b ut there’s plenty in the shops apart from a few stupid runs on toilet paper.’

Mr Brunnschweiler reiterated he is one those people who believes their glass is half full rather than half empty.

Sitting in the living room directly above the now-closed bar of the Bay Hotel he said: ’We loved the sound of the clinking of glasses and we have a bird’e eye view of the bands on the beach in the summer.

’These are very strange times indeed.’