Irish pubs closing Down

Sorry, I meant within a 2 mile radius of me. Actually I under estimated slightly, just over 2.5 mile radius.

The 2 pubs remaining are about 5.5 miles apart on the same road.

There were 3 others between them on that road. The other 2 were on a road off that road. One of those was likely a victim of Covid. It reopened briefly but closed shortly after.

You are the only one knows the area so do you think 7 pubs was the right amount or a bit much in an era men don't drink 7 nights a week ?

Defo have to agree ….. like you I do not go to pubs that often and stopped going on regular basis in around 2013 ….. precisely because of this attitude ….. staff stopping serving before closing time and having an attitude ….. also staff listening to loud modern country music on a radio and ignoring customers ….. I believe opening and closing times should be stated in plain sight for customers to see …..

A lot of these old places do not make the effort and have staff with an attitude ….. yet they think they have a god given right to our custom ….. if pubs were as 'magic' as some claim more would go to them ….. 95% of what I saw in pubs down the years were drunks, self styled Pat Kennies moaning about Anglo Irish Bank, unfriendly staff, impersonal bands, disillusioned owners and uninventive drink choices ……

It was too many, particularly when there were pubs almost beside each other. Just not enough people within walking distance (no car parks).

One of the pubs that closed, did okay at the weekend when they served food but when that stopped, they lost most of their trade.

I grew up working in pubs, from 13 years old until I was about 30. Always wanted my own pub but never had the money to invest. Became a bar manager in a large hotel but I could see the end of the trade coming. Thankfully I was never able to get the money together. Pubs were dying but COVID really put the nail in the coffin.

It's too expensive now to run a pub/nightclub unless you are in a really good location. Outside of good locations in very large towns or cities, forget about it.

I'm from a small rural town that used to have 18 pubs about 20 years ago. We've 5 now and only one of them does any business worth talking about. The others only open in the evenings and will close down when the owners retire. By the looks of things their owners seem to be doing it for a hobby rather than making any money.

Grogan's (aka The Castle Lounge) is famous for its ham and cheese toasties.

Where do young single people go to meet someone for a night and get their hole. This was my experience in C Face Jacks 15 years ago. Has tinder replaced this or is it just not happening anymore.

Seems to be a lot more late bars around now. Far nicer that some big crappy uncomfortable room that you had to pay for the pleasure of entering.

But nightclubs do still exist. Limerick City has 3 "proper" nightclubs which is all I ever remember it having.

You say the locals will ask new people questions about themselves and mistake it for paranoia. It's just general curiosity, often delivered without airs or graces. It's not threatening.

My Village has one out and everyone knows everyone. So of a new person walks in, they're the most interesting thing to enter the pub all week. Of course the locals are going to be curious. It's natural. Asking questions is one way to start a conversation.

In this thread we've seen people call the community pubs both a myth hostile. They can't be both. Maybe some people only want the anonymous city pubs where nobody knows anyone. That's grand, there are plenty of them.

I take your word for it.

How do you indicate your preference for being left alone or chatting?

Just ignore anyone who tries to start a conversation.

Works for me.

Did some work for a nightclub in Drogheda before COVID. He said on average they sell less than 1 drink per person on a Saturday night.

Most people predrink at home, then buy one drink when they get in the door, and that's it.

I didn't ask about cocaine use, but I assume that's a big factor too.

I haven't worked in an Irish nightclub since 2012 so I don't know what it's like now but people talked like that back then but it wasn't true. Owners love to play the poor mouth.

I don't know many people who can get drunk on pre-drink and then resist continuing to drink for the night. I also don't know anyone who takes coke who isn't also mad for the drink. In my experience it makes people drink more.

Nightclubs are dying because they were and are pure sht. They were a stupid Irish solution to a stupid Irish problem.