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Child Item

Pubs of Ireland (No More)

brokenbad

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

Tullamore

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

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El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120158546#Comment_120158546

I do have a huge problem with regulated childcare. Fact is that the majority of households need two incomes to survive and that means more demand for childcare. Unregulated childcare which is in high demand would be a deviant's dream scenario.

In any case, that's the world we live in and big nights out in the pub are a luxury beyond lots of people's budgets nowadays. That's hardly the people's fault if they choose to save their money for other things like owning a house or having children.

Young people aren't drinking as much as before as a demographic. I read recently that there are more young people who never or rarely drink than generations past. Some of them are more into fitness and health than drinking. That's hardly their fault either.

Supply and demand. Turns out we have less demand for pubs than we had in the past.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120158953#Comment_120158953

I think the advances in technology helped porn more so than the smoking ban.

But back to the pubs.

In the old days mother's rarely worked, so no childcare costs.

And as a result of mothers not working there was no need for two cars.

Equally there was only one TV and no such thing as devices (including TVs) that incur both a capital cost and often a monthly subscription cost.

There was no fast fashion.

Holidays abroad were rare and more than once a year unheard of.

All of this meant there was money for the pub despite 18% mortgage rates, because you had little other entertainment options for spending on.

Plus we are more health concuious now, so less drink and more spent on gyms, bikes etc

Count Dracula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120158889#Comment_120158889

18% interest rates in the 80's, and no jobs going either. Pubs were hopping away.

The change is generational and cultural. The television was a big factor, people stayed in more.

Drink driving in rural areas for sure, cities don't really have that excuse?

I have ranted about this before but there is a strong line of argument about the smoking ban... this is a huge factor. I think it kicked the industry in the teeth bigtime. Smoking is and was an essential accoutrement to unwinding and shooting the shít over a few drinks and solving the worlds' problems. The simple fact of the matter is that the ban disrupted the flow of a pub. Compound this with having to converse with bland non smoking bores and the industry was defenseless against the onset of pubs being flooded with health conscious parasites who were hell bent on patronising smokers about their " disgustiing smelly habit " and handing out lectures on the perils of smoking whilst congratulating themselves on the smell of their clothes? Who the phuck wants to go drinking with that?

Interestingly you can also correlate the smoking ban with the onset of online pornography.... this is a true point people. Prior to a broad range of streaming scat games, fisting and interracial Tranny 3ways becoming widely available at the click of your mouse, porn was only available in a sex shop or through friends or in limited rental stores. Procuring porn involved allowing your rampant libido override any inhibitions you may have garnered. You usually rented it or purchase it of the same shop, or more likely in a variety of different shops on the other side of the city or in the next town, to protect your reputation of course. The reality is that porn has always been scrutinised as a symptom of perversion utilised by the desperate... but the introduction of online porn facilitated a dramatic improvement in the potential unwanted disclosure of your love of anal pegging and money shots to anyone else. From that point on it now became a viable option for men to spend their evenings at their computers with their trousers smothered around their ankles whilst staring glaze eyed into the computer screen with one hand on the mouse and the other you know where..... this became an option for many men who found the pub a challenge during the long winter months.

Given that the standard option was a night in having sex with yourself... as opposed to head nodding bored stupid to some stuck up non-smoking gym queen who hadn't experienced a proper belly laugh in a decade and I think it is fair to say that pubs were always going to struggle?

Dickie10

the elephant in the room not mentioned much is mortgages in the 80s and 90s they were manageable or people got a council house and could spend money on pints 2 nights a week. that money supported loads of jobs in a circular economy, now that money is swalloweed up into a black hole of a dutch bank never to be recycled.

BlueSkyDreams

I wonder if there is an urban/rural divide on this subject.

In Dublin there are new pubs opening and plenty of bars are very busy, even in the suburbs.

Not sure about the other cities/large towns though?

Butson

Pubs should get rid of Sky Sports etc. Use the savings to lower the price of a pint.

Everybody has dodgy boxes at home. The days of going out for a feed of pints to watch a match are over.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120158544#Comment_120158544

The pub has value or it doesn't. The licence thing is just a racket, frankly.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120158295#Comment_120158295

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.

waterwelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120155014#Comment_120155014

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.

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.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120153046#Comment_120153046

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.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120154374#Comment_120154374

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

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.

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.

GavPJ

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120155157#Comment_120155157

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

Baggot's Back door wasn't it called?

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.

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120154992#Comment_120154992

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.

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

brokenbad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120154992#Comment_120154992

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.

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.

https://www.gov.uk/premises-licence

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

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.

kneemos

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

[Deleted User]

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.

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

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120154368#Comment_120154368

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.

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.

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

kneemos

Priced themselves out of the market.

waterwelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120152566#Comment_120152566

€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.