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Pubs of Ireland (No More)

  • 24-01-2023 5:00pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 1,337 ✭✭✭


    How many pubs in your local town or village have closed permanently over the last decade? Here goes me.....

    Tullamore

    1. The Manor
    2. Annie Kelly's (Now a beauty salon)
    3. The Copper Pot Still
    4. De Bruns
    5. Hugh Lynchs (recently closed - rumours that its been converted into apartments)
    6. The Mallet Tavern
    7. No.1 (Formerly Phoenix Arms Hotel - now Boots Chemist)
    8. The hole in the wall
    9. Forresters (Now a Thai Restaurant)
    10. Loughreys & Cellar Bar (Formerly High Street House - now a Restaurant/B&B)
    11. Kevin Martins/ The Hideout
    12. The Offaly Inn (Now apartments)


    Post edited by brokenbad on


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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭Ubbquittious


    Hopefully the impending licensing free for all will reverse the trend. Madness that you have to fork out over 50k for a piece of paper from Revenue for the right to sell a few pints



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,758 ✭✭✭✭BattleCorp


    I'm in a small rural town. Hardly 10% of the size of Tullamore.

    Pubs closed include:

    Ramada Hotel 3km outside of the town. Now a nursing home.

    Hogan Stand - Sold, going to be turned into apartments.

    Slaney Hotel - Work just begun to turn it into 10 apartments.

    Bridge House - Rumoured to be apartments.

    Byrne's - Boarded up.

    Kealy's - Knocked down.

    Slip Inn - Now flats.

    Irish Bar - Derelict. Work started on gutting it and never progressed.

    Noeleen Browne's - for sale. Hasn't been open for a year or so.

    There's 5 pubs left and three or four of them are on life support. Only open for a few hours every night mostly as a hobby for the owners. They surely can't be making any money.



  • Registered Users Posts: 11,432 ✭✭✭✭For Forks Sake


    Theres work ongoing on the former Copper Still/Cosgraves building, and with the Arts Centre due to open next door to it should be back as a pub. you'd think

    The work on Lynchs is on the upstairs part of the building being converted, far as I know the pub will remain on the ground floor once it's done

    Former Loughreys is still a pub (albeit a sh1te one - the Townhouse), long way removed from having some brilliant touring bands/djs playing there regularly in its heyday



  • Registered Users Posts: 4,126 ✭✭✭standardg60


    Back in the early nineties 8 cans would cost me about 10.50, but if i went to the pub i could have 8 pints for around 13.50.

    In 2023 i can buy 8 cans for 13 euro, but 8 pints would be at least 40.

    I have no idea what happened in the interim, but the death of pubs would seem a fairly obvious eventuality given the price differential.



  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Ya pubs closing everywhere and off licence drink now mad money due to the Minimum pricing of Alcohol brought in by this government and supported by every do gooder who wanted to prove on forums how clever they were regurgitating shite the heard sonewhere else about Alcohol.

    Fair play to the government tackling the demon drink and closing pubs to boot while denying people a choice to drink at home for reasonable money.

    All the while ignoring the Cocaine issue across the country as the recreational choice of many theses days.

    So well done Fine Gael problem solved!

    Wait until more pubs close and the Gardai have to deal with a load more house parties.

    You couldn't script it for a comedy.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 3,596 ✭✭✭silliussoddius


    I would say the introduction of the minimum wage, lower interest rates which created a rake of property entrepreneurs and maybe insurance costs.



  • Registered Users Posts: 13,765 ✭✭✭✭Potential-Monke


    Gardai can't do much about house parties until an actual criminal law is being broken (which most don't). "They're doing drugs inside" is not a reason enough to get a warrant. You can't sleep is also not a reason.

    We've had 50% of pubs close in our locality. Granted, there was only 2 and they closed because they were getting too old and the adult children had no interest. Aside from price, I think people are starting to realise there's more than just going to the pub for entertainment. Recent stats are skewed due to the couple years of the pandemic, but it seems more people are drinking again, so it must be the pub prices. When I used to drink, it was costing me €100+ per night, because I could only stomach a certain amount of pints before getting full, and it was either puke to make room or go on the small ones, which after a few pints go down a bit quicker, and are twice the price and about a third the size (if mixing with a fizzy). Then throw some badly undercooked takeaway and a taxi... Off licence prices may have increased, but it's still far cheaper than going out.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,232 ✭✭✭waterwelly


    €50k for a licence is one of the smaller costs of developing a new pub from scratch.

    I can't see many bothering when you consider how many have closed over the last 10 or 15 years anyway.

    The customers are just not there any more.



  • Registered Users Posts: 20,393 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Priced themselves out of the market.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,126 ✭✭✭screamer


    It will just make the pubs even more unviable and lead to more closures. Example- Pub A is already established, the only one left. Along comes pub B with its new lucky bag licence. Pub B won’t be able to sell cheaper than Pub A. Promotions, happy hour etc all illegal. So, in rural areas with dwindling populations and pub goers, let’s say pub A now loses half its clients to pub B, both pubs struggle to make ends meet and close down. Yes, a master move from the fools in Dáil Éireann to further destroy the fabric of rural Ireland



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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,126 ✭✭✭screamer


    You want to see the costs involved in the regs to keep your licence. Fire safety measures, cctv, and of course min wages on the rise, insurance, electricity for cold rooms, breweries also charging more for kegs, and keeping the pub nicely decorated as no one will spend time or money in an ould tip. running a pub is NOT cheap and unfortunately profits are small.



  • Registered Users Posts: 20,393 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    As somebody else said the fifty grand is loose change in the overall cost of starting a pub.

    Don't see many spending several hundred thousand on a rural pub. Doubt any bank would back them either.



  • Registered Users Posts: 20,453 ✭✭✭✭yourdeadwright


    Its simply just a change in the times,

    People used to be happy to have a house & go for a few drinks the weekend,

    Now you need your house, your 2 cars, your 3 holidays a year, your gadgets I pads or whatever, Your 1000 euro runners & bags,

    Other tings have taken priority over a few pints,

    In 2000 there was 500 night clubs open in the country today there are 85 , People are turning off the drink



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,429 ✭✭✭thinkabouit


    3 closed last year in my local town.

    still about 13 left mostly owner operating, far too many for the size of the town.

    dunno how some are still in business, empty 85% of the time or closed 3 days a week


    When I lived in Oz I lived in town in the country side, probably about 10000 people & only had 3 pubs.



  • Registered Users Posts: 20,393 ✭✭✭✭kneemos


    Drink driving rules have done for the rural pub. Can't have five or six and mosy on home anymore.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,803 ✭✭✭hawkwing


    As mentioned earlier in the very early 90's pints were about 1.50 but cans were about 1, only flagons at 6% for about 3.50 made much sense in saving money drinking at home v. the pub. But also something that is not really mentioned is there was nothing to do at home on a Saturday night, no internet--youtube etc, few people had skysports, so nobody worked all week just to stay at home looking at RTE and not drinking. There is always something to occupy your time looking at these days. Throw in the smoking ban for smokers and the fact you were generally left alone if you had 4-5 pints over 4-5 hours to drive home on quiet country roads then it is a whole different ball game nowadays. Also no mobile phones so it was often the only time you could contact someone and you didn't know who would be in the pubs until you went in so were more likely to chance going out, more pubs also gave more variety- a 3 pub village meant you could move around or escape certain people rather than being stuck in the same one like now if the other 2 have closed.



  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 36,787 CMod ✭✭✭✭ancapailldorcha


    Really couldn't care less to be honest. The pub industry in Ireland is shocking corrupt with high licence fees designed to provide comfy retirements to landlords and stifle competition. In the UK, the top rate of a licence is below £2,000.

    The industry has done this to itself and is now wailing about falling revenue. Good riddance, frankly.

    We sat again for an hour and a half discussing maps and figures and always getting back to that most damnable creation of the perverted ingenuity of man - the County of Tyrone.

    H. H. Asquith



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,337 ✭✭✭brokenbad


    True - Society has changed a lot in the last 20 years. Now people are more health conscious and drink less, particularly those who go out for a long run or a cycle on a Sat/Sun morning - they don't want t be dying of a hangover from the night before. Add in Netflix, Playstations, XBox, a million TV channels to choose from which have given people more entertainment options at a fraction of the cost of going to the pub.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,337 ✭✭✭brokenbad


    Other pubs around Offaly i have observed from driving through which appear to have bitten the dust also....correct me if i'm wrong.

    Cloghan

    The Cloghan Inn

    Paddys

    Caman Inn?

    The Wheel Inn

    Banagher

    The Shannon Hotel

    The Vine House

    The Railway Bar?

    Lyons?

    Birr/ Rath

    The Sunrise Inn

    The Swan

    Tierneys?

    The Telescope

    The Fivealley Inn

    Ballycumber

    Healys

    Stewarts

    Clara

    Careys Bar

    Baggots?

    Molloys

    Kilcormac

    Feigherys

    The Midland Bar

    Gracelands?

    Ferbane

    Higgins'

    Hineys

    The Gallen Inn

    The Ball O'Malt

    Toms Tavern

    The Cosy Bar?

    Doon

    Martins?

    Shannonbridge

    Killeens

    Post edited by brokenbad on


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,235 ✭✭✭HBC08


    This is a really good point.

    I'd happily sit in on a Saturday and have a few cans going down YouTube rabbit holes watching old matches or music.This wasn't an options years ago when you needed to go out to have some sort of interaction.

    I live in a large town in the west of Ireland,in the late 90s there were approximately 50 pubs (now even then that was very high for the population) 5 or 6 of them would have live music Thurs to Sun.There were 3 nightclubs and 3 dedicated off licences

    Now there are 17 pubs and no night clubs only off licenses are in petrol stations.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭El Tarangu


    People are drinking less for sure, but one thing I would say is really hastening the trend is dating apps.

    Until fairly recently, if you wanted to have any interaction with a potential partner, you would need to head down the pub and have a few pints to get the courage up to start chatting someone up - and maybe even continue on to a night club.

    Now you get the preliminaries out the way from the comfort of your own home.



  • Registered Users Posts: 931 ✭✭✭GavPJ


    Ah no, is Baggot's gone? Spent 2 days after a wedding in there.

    Baggot's Back door wasn't it called?



  • Registered Users Posts: 20,026 ✭✭✭✭neris


    Only 1 pub recently near me in Howth has closed down but thats been taken over by Conor McGrergor. The pubs that are all still open are very much food focused up to about 9pm for tourists and day trippers and a few of them dont really want your business if your only in for pints and are quiet then on the weekend evenings.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,126 ✭✭✭screamer


    In the countryside the pub provides a social outlet for the older generation who are not YouTubers etc. I’d see it as a vital service to have in the community for that cohort of people who frequently have lost their partner or are alone. It’s all well and good for the “as long as I’m alright Jack” types, but for some people the pub is the only social space they have.



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭Ubbquittious


    I wouldn't be so sure. I've been to plenty of packed pubs that could be described as ould tips and the ""better"" pub up the road empty. If they're decrepit for long enough they'll become an institution



  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭Ubbquittious


    ..



  • Registered Users Posts: 19,873 ✭✭✭✭El_Duderino 09


    Ah,you're not factoring in supply and demand ar all. People's priorities have changed. Young people struggle to save for a house or children. Cutting out nights out are an obvious way to save money. Nowadays a couple could have one partner's wage paying for childcare, just to keep in their career.

    €50 or €100 for a night out is serious money in that case. A few cans with the lads watching a match in someone house, is much more appealing.



  • Registered Users Posts: 24,694 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Around here, only one pub shut down. The owners were old, retired and sold the premises and a centra was opened in the building . No loss as it was one of the less charming premises. Aesthetically and in terms of some clientele apparatus.

    the greatest loss that I was a semi regular in all be it not local was Oscar Taylor’s in Malahide… food to die for, a gentle comfy ambience, beside the seaside and just outside the genial hustle and bustle of downtown Malahide, that was a loss… a family favourite for decades…the view from the restaurant upstairs was fab. It was comfy but traditional, never modernised but you could eat your dinner off the floor it was that spotless… a real old world charm.



  • Registered Users Posts: 2,232 ✭✭✭waterwelly


    Pubs are closing in the UK at a rate of 1 a day. It's been going on for years same as here. I'm not sure what comparison you are trying to draw, but it's possible here that because a licence has a value people keep the show going.

    So in a small 1 pub village the owner might just fold if the value is worth zero, and the community ends up with no pub at all, whereas if the pub licence has a value it's an incentive to look after it.



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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,171 ✭✭✭Ubbquittious


    It is bollix the way society has changed in that regard. It wasnt so awful long ago that there was no such thing as commercial childcare. I can imagine chain childcare facilities becoming a thing in the next few years. Jeff Bezos or some other billionaire who will sprinkle formulaic rectangular childcare facilities all over the country, he will run TV adverising campaigns for them. They'll rely heavily on automation. Robot Hoovers zipping about with arms that also pick up unused toys and fukks them into a box, teletubby-like bots keeping the children occupied and one poor human begrudgingly paid minimum wage to sit in a corner and change nappies all day.



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