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Child Item

Pubs Closing Down Rural Ireland

hurler32

Particularly in rural Ireland pubs have closed hand over fist in the past 7-8 years with those remaining in many cases hanging in there unless they've a substantial food business.Whats to blame , probably a number of things including

More and more people on minimum wage with no money

Depopulation of rural Ireland to Dublin and abroad

Young people spending their disposable income on illegal drugs as opposed to beer

Gardai over the top antics on elderly people in particular driving the following day ( as opposed to real crime - catching burglars - drug dealers etc )

Obviously it's cheaper go to Lidl but in rural pubs the pint is circa 4 euro for last ten years and even some tuborg- carling offers are cheaper . I'd prefer to pay a bit more to have a chat with neighbours than drink a can on my own looking out the window at home , or do younger folk only want to be on their phones rather than engage with members of their community ?

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Billy86

enricoh wrote: »

Plus people are drinking more at home as well, if a couple had 60 quid to spend on a Saturday night, that'll get them 10 drinks n a taxi home. No big deal.60 quid in Tesco's gets a bottle of vodka and a slab of cans.

If that were true alcohol consumption would not be on a pretty consistent downward trend since the turn of the century: http://alcoholireland.ie/per-capita-alcohol-consumption-in-ireland-in-2015-was-10-93-litres-of-pure-alcohol-per-person-aged-15/

whisky_galore

Chrongen wrote: »

I would disagree. There are loads of pubs in Dublin that are just as you have described. Handful of taps, Manhattan salted peanuts on a piece of cardboard by the till and the decor hasn't changed in 1000 years. They are doing fine. They aren't competing. They have their regulars and that's that. There's scores of thee pubs, McNeils, Board Head, Nealons, Lord Edward, Brogans', the list goes on and on. These places don't offer gimmicks or gastro grub or 100 lousy craft ales on draught. McNeils has a bit of a trad session now and then and boars' head does pub grub. Whopee.

I do know a few 'oul fella' pubs, just drink and hoops and maybe a dartboard. Hard to know what will happen to those when they lose their regulars through natural wastage.

pilly

There's a few reasons imo:

1. There were way too many of them. 4 in my local village for a population of 350

2. Smoking ban. As much as the publicans are still trying to sell this as a positive it puts a lot of people off going out.

3. Perception of tougher drink driving laws. In reality this is not the case. I haven't been breath tested in 10 years, drive extensively day and night. Also, fake breath tests?

Personally I just think it's a natural cull. It would be a shame if there wasn't at least one pub in each village but that's all that's needed. If the community need to come together they can do it in one place.

shaunr68

We live near to a village with a population of just over 300, there are FIVE pubs. It's completely unsustainable. They're always empty. One local landlord spends his evenings sitting alone in the bar and turns the lights on if he gets a customer. Amusingly there is even a nightclub, never been in but I can imagine the clientele on a typical night would be a couple of farmers wearing glittery wellies, each nursing a pint of Guinness. It's inevitable, society has changed and the local pub is no longer the centre of the community. I'm originally from Liverpool and you see the same over there. Doing some family history research recently, I find it interesting to use Google Maps to view the streets where my grandparents lived. The old houses are long gone of course, courtesy of slum clearance and the Luftwaffe. It's all modern maisonettes now. The sole remaining landmark on my grandmother's street, a few doors down from where she was born in 1912, was the local pub, and sadly it's all boarded up.

Mrs OBumble

whisky_galore wrote: »

. Hard to know what will happen to those when they lose their regulars through natural wastage.

Aging population means its a growing sector.

They could offer two-for-one to recent retirees and they'll be busy for life.

[Deleted User]

shaunr68 wrote: »

We live near to a village with a population of just over 300, there are FIVE pubs. It's completely unsustainable. They're always empty. One local landlord spends his evenings sitting alone in the bar and turns the lights on if he gets a customer. Amusingly there is even a nightclub, never been in but I can imagine the clientele on a typical night would be a couple of farmers wearing glittery wellies, each nursing a pint of Guinness. It's inevitable, society has changed and the local pub is no longer the centre of the community. I'm originally from Liverpool and you see the same over there. Doing some family history research recently, I find it interesting to use Google Maps to view the streets where my grandparents lived. The old houses are long gone of course, courtesy of slum clearance and the Luftwaffe. It's all modern maisonettes now. The sole remaining landmark on my grandmother's street, a few doors down from where she was born in 1912, was the local pub, and sadly it's all boarded up.

Yeah as much as the "rural pubs" thing gets attention the urban ones seem to slip under the radar. Even now I'd say there are too many to be sustained in my town but I can think of a couple of dozen that have gone since I was born and only 2 that have opened that weren't on the same premises as an old pub.

BattleCorp

Considering the population, many areas of rural Ireland are over populated with pubs.

I'm from a small rural town that had three hotels and eleven pubs. Since the recession, two of the hotels have closed and so have five of the pubs.

That leaves six pubs which is still plenty. Of those six, two seem to be doing reasonably well and I honestly wonder how the other four are still open. They do fcukall and seem to be more of a past-time for their owners.

Rural pubs are a dying trade unfortunately.

whisky_galore

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Aging population means its a growing sector.

They could offer two-for-one to recent retirees and they'll be busy for life.

Tastes change. The retirees of tomorrow may not be satisfied propping up a bar, day in, day out.

Noveight

blue note wrote: »

Do you actually think that the list you've given is a realistic alternative to the pub for the people most affected by their closures or their inaccessibility due to the drink driving laws?

You asked me to expand on the post where I mentioned healthier, cheaper and more fun alternatives to the pub and I listed those in my locality. Some tick two of those boxes, some one, depends wholly on the individual of course.

If you'd specified that you'd activities for the elderly in mind I would indeed have agreed that the alternatives are few and far between. In hindsight my original post was possibly a bit narrow in that I was speaking for myself / my age group.

Victor

A lot of it is down to drinking at home and the sale of rural licences so new pubs / off-licences can be established elsewhere - rural publicans are selling out because of the money they can get.

hurler32 wrote: »

Depopulation of rural Ireland to Dublin and abroad

Eh ... https://twitter.com/danobrien20/status/963014511996399616

Seanachai

I'm from rural Ireland, I go home maybe once a month and I haven't been in the local pub in over a year. The atmosphere in the place is grim and it's not much better in the pubs in the nearby villages or town. A lot of local young people have emigrated and young people really do create a buzz around a place. I'd sooner drink at home and listen to some music than go to the local which is a sausage fest of middle aged to auld fellas grumbling about politics and the GAA.

I think something changed in the fabric of communities that is hard to describe, we don't seem to have as much time for each other, people are wrapped up in keeping afloat or getting rich. In previous decades choices were a lot more limited and the local pub was where it was at.

seachto7

By the sounds of it, if you're a woman in rural Ireland , you have blokes queuing up to win you over?

pilly

seachto7 wrote: »

By the sounds of it, if you're a woman in rural Ireland , you have blokes queuing up to win you over?

I wish!!!

Staplor

El Weirdo wrote: »

This is nonsense. Guinness and Heineken clean the lines for their products themselves, and they have done so for ages now.

So why is there one particular pub that'll guarantee me a throbbing hangover on 4 pints, while other pubs I can have 8 no bother? Because the beer is ****e, the delivery system is all I can attribute it to.

Now BTW, this is the quintessential rural village **** pub.

Big Nasty

Glass hygiene, either too much or too little.

BattleCorp

Staplor wrote: »

So why is there one particular pub that'll guarantee me a throbbing hangover on 4 pints, while other pubs I can have 8 no bother? Because the beer is ****e, the delivery system is all I can attribute it to.

Now BTW, this is the quintessential rural village **** pub.

It might have something to do with how far the keg is from the tap. Long lines don't help.

Or out of date beer or different glass cleaning chemicals could also play a part.

Staplor

It really shouldn't matter. This pub I'm talking about has practically a minority in a small village, pool table, cards, musical acts at the weekend. There's no need for ****ty pints. I've stopped frequenting the kip because it is just that.

A decent pub is worth travelling for, even a decent pint is worth travelling for. Pubs need to up their game, they've far too much competition and need to modernise.

And the Guinness in particular tastes rank, and the draw isn't all that far either!!!

[Deleted User]

McGrath5 wrote: »

Also - and this goes not just for rural pubs, the selection of drinks available tends to be quite poor. If you wish to drink something apart from Guinness, Heineken or Bulmers, you'll quickly find that your choice is very limited.

At least in the likes of Lidl or Aldi, I can try something different each week and for a more reasonable price too, rather than having some overpriced Diageo slop thrown at me in a smelly pub.

Key reason IMHO.
Many pubs refuse to stock anything other than the usual suspects - not even a few bottles of craft beers let alone draught.

JupiterKid

hurler32 wrote: »

No im not but Gardai ..Ban Gardai in particular seem to specialize in bagging honest law abiding sorts ( in many cases teetotaler ) in the morning time.....seem to like scaring the elderly into been afraid to have a drink at all or venture out.....
Where as when these elderly are been broken into by travellers etc theres no guards to be found...Probably a broader piece on guards picking the handy catchs as opposed to tackling some of the evil scumbags outthere....

There havent been any ban gardai in over 25 years. You must mean female gardai who are paid the same as their male counterparts (and rightly so)

Rural pubs are dying because of mass urbanisation which is unstoppable, rural depopulation, high alcohol prices, the long term effects of the indoor smoking ban, poor standards and choice of drinks, declining and more discerning alcohol consumption and the drink driving ban. The future for those pubs that do survive is to offer a good food service, in rural towns, a heated smoking area, good choice of beers, a minibus service to take punters home. It was ridiculous anyway where every small town had 15 pubs. Good riddance to the filthy tiny establishment with 3rd world jacks, 2 beers on tap and decor from 1961.

Pubs are in serious decline everywhere. They will be halved in number in less than 20 years time. Irish people are wealthier, more sophisticated, more cosmopolitan and are preferring to eat out at restaurants or "gastropubs" than go to some local shebeen at the weekend.

mikemac2

My small village of 600 had three pubs and another two just 2km away

The three that are left worked hard to establish a food business, have trad music sessions, card nights and marketed fhemselves to tourists (lakeside tourist hotspot) and don’t just rely on locals

The ones that are gone had a darts boards, boring selection of beers and most of their elderly customers are not even alive anymore! They could blame drink driving, smoking ban or whatever but it was survival of the fittest and they are not missed. An old mans pub with your small paddy or powers, no music or TV can work and some want that but in a rural area that’s not enough turnover

5 pubs in a village isn’t sustainable anyway

foxy farmer

Some of these "publicans" are their own worst enemy. They have some romantic notions about running a pub. There was a fine pub with overhead residence built here back in the mid 80s. Rural location, off road parking, bar lounge dance floor pool table plenty seating. Closed after 30 yrs in 2015.
It had 4 owners. Of the 4 only 1 had any business acumen. He'd have music and dancing at least one night on the weekend sometimes 3 nights. Ceili dancing lessons line dancing, cards, pool darts competitions etc. Ran it for nearly 12 yrs. The other 3 were clueless amadans. Poor attitude to customers and no interest in anything but selling drink. The last crowd bought it in 2000 for 0ver 300k. Were rumoured to open kitchen and do grub. Thankfully they didnt as the pub turned into a pure kip. Cold, damp seats stinking toilets and a barman who was only interested in the big shot customers. They ran it for the last 6 months without renewing the licence. The drinks companies wouldn't supply them over it so they resorted to buying kegs off pubs in the nearby village and buying spirits in the supermarket.
After trying to sell the place for nearly 10 yrs it was finally sold as a residential property in 2016 for about 85k. I have yet to hear someone say they miss the place.

andekwarhola

Dunno if the point has been made but there's too many pubs as well. And that's from somebody that likes going to pubs. My wife is from a small rural village and there's about 6 pubs in the place.

It's like the taxis thing was in Dublin: a public service that needs to adapt with the times rather than a profession to which you're entitled to in perpetuity, even to the point of jackass legislation like MUP.

cycle4fun

Victor wrote: »

A lot of it is down to drinking at home

And a lot of people are terrified of going to the pub and having 2 or 3 pints as it would mean driving home, so they do not go to the pub. Losing the licence is not an option. Going to the pub at the weekend was all some people had to look forward to after a weeks work on the farm.

weldoninhio

JupiterKid wrote: »

There havent been any ban gardai in over 25 years. You must mean female gardai who are paid the same as their male counterparts (and rightly so)

Rural pubs are dying because of mass urbanisation which is unstoppable, rural depopulation, high alcohol prices, the long term effects of the indoor smoking ban, poor standards and choice of drinks, declining and more discerning alcohol consumption and the drink driving ban. The future for those pubs that do survive is to offer a good food service, in rural towns, a heated smoking area, good choice of beers, a minibus service to take punters home. It was ridiculous anyway where every small town had 15 pubs. Good riddance to the filthy tiny establishment with 3rd world jacks, 2 beers on tap and decor from 1961.

Pubs are in serious decline everywhere. They will be halved in number in less than 20 years time. Irish people are wealthier, more sophisticated, more cosmopolitan and are preferring to eat out at restaurants or "gastropubs" than go to some local shebeen at the weekend.

There are more people living rurally now that 25/30 years ago.

BattleCorp

I passed the nearest rural pub to me on my way home from work last night. It was about 10.20pm and there were two cars in the car park. The pub is on a crossroads with very few houses within easy walking distance.

Rural pubs are fcuked. Well, at least that one is.

Skyfloater

Staplor wrote: »

So why is there one particular pub that'll guarantee me a throbbing hangover on 4 pints, while other pubs I can have 8 no bother? Because the beer is ****e, the delivery system is all I can attribute it to.

Now BTW, this is the quintessential rural village **** pub.

If drinking 8 pints on a night out is normal for you, you've got bigger issues than dirty lines.

JupiterKid

weldoninhio wrote: »

There are more people living rurally now that 25/30 years ago.

In the immediate commuter hinterlands of our cities yes, but these people don't tend to patronise the local pubs. Nor are they packing the local churches out. In more remote rural areas, they are dying and being denuded of people, especially young peoole who are moving en masse to Dublin and the other cities for jobs and opportunities. The clock will not be turned back nor should it.

Rural Ireland is indeed dying and no amount of arguing about the census trends will change that. Irelands rate of urbanisatiin is accelerating and if the discgraceful scourge of one off rural housing wasn't as bad as it was here, it would be even more so.

BattleCorp

Skyfloater wrote: »

If drinking 8 pints on a night out is normal for you, you've got bigger issues than dirty lines.

8 pints every night is a problem. 8 pints on an odd night out wouldn't be mental excessive.

Staplor

BattleCorp wrote: »

8 pints every night is a problem. 8 pints on an odd night out wouldn't be mental excessive.

Thanks for that, never said 8 pints would be a normal night out, it was in the spirit of context from one particular **** hole.

seamus

cycle4fun wrote: »

And a lot of people are terrified of going to the pub and having 2 or 3 pints as it would mean driving home, so they do not go to the pub. Losing the licence is not an option. Going to the pub at the weekend was all some people had to look forward to after a weeks work on the farm.

Good. Because they shouldn't be having a drink and driving home.

"It's all I have to look forward to", is no excuse. You cannot justify putting lives at risk because some farmers are unwilling to have a bit of imagination.

We're better off with these idiots sitting at home whining than having them going to the pub and driving home after a feed of pints.