Irish pubs closing Down

pgj2015

There is still way too many pubs in Ireland when you think about it and I say that as a drinker. You sometimes see pubs in the middle of nowhere or 3 pubs in a tiny place that is barely a village. I wouldn't worry about them closing down, we will always drink and pubs will always be popular in Ireland.

elperello

A lot of those pubs that closed were important socia hubs in their communities.

The old people had a wise saying "You never miss the water 'till the well runs dry".

It's a bit like that when the last pub in the village closes it's door forever.

Quitelife

Cocaine dealers have taken over from publicans in rural ireland ,sadly they are very dangerous individuals who have no problem beating you or your parents up or burning your house down, seems to be nobody to protect the people from these evil animals

Rocket_GD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123640674#Comment_123640674

Thanks for the input with your cocaine crusade. Is your own thread not enough of a platform for your opinions?

After the first few words the rest is completely irrelevant to this thread.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123635954#Comment_123635954

They were the only social hub, but now most towns will have a GAA club and cafes. My parents were heavily involved in the development and fundraising for their local GAA to get a members bar and lounge. They were never pub goers but a couple of nights a week they'd go to the club lounge for card nights for the game 25s. In the 80s the lounge would be full, maybe 60-80 people at tables but only one barman needed as most only had one drink for the evening.

I'm sure the vintners of the day were cursing such clubs.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123635954#Comment_123635954

Use it or lose it. Same with post offices and corner shops.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123640674#Comment_123640674

Cocaine is definitely cutting into publicans bottom line where I live. You're not wrong there.

Bit of an odd way to present dealers "taken over" from publicans. Supplying pints is hardly anything like supplying cocaine.

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123635598#Comment_123635598

Slap a few Oirish fake olde worlde tat on the walls and get Guinness in, boom. Anyone can do it.

Many are just theme pubs.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123640882#Comment_123640882

A lot of them are operated by Guinness.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123640882#Comment_123640882

It's always amusing to find an Irish pub abroad is run by an English man who isn't showing the hurling ("is that like shinty?") but proudly announces that he got coverage of all the English first division.

jippo nolan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123640912#Comment_123640912

I avoid them at all costs when on the continent, usually overpriced kips in my experience!

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123640895#Comment_123640895

Bit of a widely believed myth there - a lot of them have franchised their design from a company Guinness have given an imprimatur to (Irish Pub Company), but they don't own or operate them, or the design firm.

Guinness got out of operating pubs anywhere by 2002 (NI, was 1998 in Dublin/Cork)

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123640830#Comment_123640830

Community cafes and clubs have filled the gap in some areas but don't have quite the same function as a pub

I'm sure the vintners of the day were cursing such clubs

They probably were.

It's hard to make a few bob when the club "rota barman" is working for nothing.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123640855#Comment_123640855

You're right no business can survive without customers.

It wasn't always lack of trade though.

In many cases the publican just got old and nobody wanted to take over.

The best option was sell the licence, collect the pension and stay put in the house.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641089#Comment_123641089

I did it a bit as a teenager and card nights were really quiet. There might be a rush at the break but there was as likely to be a rush for the berko boiler for tea top ups, and that was self service!

I'm more likely to want to catch up over coffee than drinks. Age mostly, two glasses of wine and I'm thinking about sleep.

bladespin

To be honest I'm not surprised; they've priced themselves out, simples, did a charity darts event in a the local pub last week, a pint was €6.20, you'd be taking it easy for sure, never seen so many dart players drinking pints of water before!!!

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641244#Comment_123641244

Yes, it's not really a pub type night out.

Age definitely catches up with most drinkers.

It's the ones who try to keep up with the young lads who can get in bother.

If it's two that suits you then two will do 🙂

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641105#Comment_123641105

Selling the license is part of the problem.

The licenses should not be capped, which means new pubs and bars can open witbout having to purchase a license for a hefty 5 figure sum.

We wonder why new places are slow to open...remove the need to purchase an overpriced license from a loss making pub.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641418#Comment_123641418

The draw of selling off your licence for 55k+ when you're only just about making ends meet encourages publicans to quit, too. Why bother investing more to try gain business when you can get paid to stop?

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641427#Comment_123641427

Yep. Its great if you are the outgoing publican. Not so great if you are looking to get into the business, as now you need to find an extra 55k.

Remove the license cap and allow any new bar to purchase a license for a fixed amount.

Perhaps 1k fixed cost.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641418#Comment_123641418

I agree.

I said this on page one of the thread.

The problem was the licences became tradeable and acquired a value separate from the premises.

Maybe some time in the future new licences could be issued where local need could be established.

Then a village that has no pub could be eligible for one and someone might take the opportunity to open one.

BP_RS3813

Would licences help now though? Outside of dublin which pubs can actually be successful mainly due to population there might not even be the required demand for a pub to operate.

Factor in culture change around pubs too.

You could allow more licences to be bought for something and I still don't think it would help.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641598#Comment_123641598

It would remove the incentive to close from rural pubs. Every new off-licence and hotel bar is closing a pub down somewhere, usually rural.

Also means a loss isn't permanent. Plenty of pubs closed down in the various waves of job losses etc that hit towns along what's now the Wild Atlantic Way and when the tourism boost from that came (and it was very big albeit now abating a bit), some places were completely oversubscribed for pubs in Summer; but nobody could reopen one where the licence was now a Lidl in Carlow.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641326#Comment_123641326

IIt Might be true to say the prices are too high, but I don't think the pubs are necessarily the drivers of the prices. Everything has shot up in price.

Just one example is house prices which are surely are the biggest cost of living increase in the country. Young people are saving for a house until they're middle aged and the pub is paying huge rent for it's property. So the customer has less to spend and the pub has to charge more to cover its costs. Nobody is doing anything wrong, they're just both being squeezed compared to the olden days.

House prices are just one example which affects both customer and publican.

Red Silurian

MUP hasn't helped. We're spending more on our few cans or bottles of household beer now since MUP came in. That leaves less in the drinking budget for the rest of the weekend, meaning I buy more in the supermarket. So the supermarket is winning while the pub trade is losing because of MUP

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641648#Comment_123641648

Higher prices in the supermarket is leading to you buying more from the supermarket because you don't have spare money for the pub prices? Interesting take.

Rocket_GD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641660#Comment_123641660

If you are spending more in the supermarket this leads to having less money to go to the pub. If it's no longer viable to go to the pub due to this increase and you still want a few beers you will buy them from the supermarket/off license therefore purchasing more from them than you used to.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641660#Comment_123641660

Exactly, say if I had 16 drinks a weekend spread out over Friday and Saturday nights. Before MUP I might have had 8 of them at home on the Friday and the rest in the pub on Saturday. Now since MUP Saturdays have become having 2 or 3 at home before heading out for the other 5 or 6… Pub loses the price of 2-3 drinks from me and the supermarket gains that same amount.

BlueSkyDreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641598#Comment_123641598

More pubs would open in Dublin/Cork/Galway because the cost of starting a new venture would reduce.

We would probably see more independent, smaller pubs open, as happens in the UK. Small bars that sell mostly bottles and not Diageo products at inflated prices.

As other posters have said, it also means rural pubs can reopen if they want to, even if the original license was sold off to a supermarket.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123641697#Comment_123641697

Oh I understood the premise. I take your word for it that's how you choose to do it.

How much has MUP affected the price of drinks in the supermarket. Normal 4.5% lager, for example