Useless Weekend Nighsts in Rural Pubs

bodhrandude wrote: »

Where I stayed in Leitrim, Kinlough, there is just four pubs, I can understand why young folk scarper to hell out of there. Typical weekend entertainment in Kinlough consists of one guy with programmable keyboard with drum machine and a piano accordion who near enough plays in all the pubs throughout the weekend nights, well, Thursday to Sunday anyway. Mainly atrocious Irish C&W stuff. No doubt he will be practising some Garth Brooks numbers for the summer. Most of the young folk head off to Bundoran which has more pubs and nightclubs or Sligo, although they still seem like ghost towns sometimes compared to Galway.

Kinlough sounds like paradise compared to what I'm used to down this side. The fact that a pub can have music 4 nights would be very unusual in Southern half of the country. Yes, even poor music would be better than a silent, empty pub on a Saturday night.

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

It was just a joke - "thanks-whoring" gets applied to anything at all sometimes.

Not my experience of Cork. There's no way it's "not much better than" the dead rural pubs, which are dead at the weekends, whereas Cork has places that are unbearably packed, e.g. Crane Lane. It's normal for pubs to be quiet on a week-night, even in Dublin. I love Dublin too though, and I'm not saying Cork is amazing, but it's strange to say Cork pubs are as quiet as rural ones that are even dead at weekends.

I agree 100% with this. There is no problem with Cork city pubs, always full. It is the county ones that problem is with.

BillyMitchel wrote: »

Used to live on the Cork/Limerick border and there was always cracking nights to be had. Always made fell real welcome too. Shame it's gone that way.

OP could it have anything to do with the amount of lads from the sticks that's moved away to find work? Just a thought.

Yes, rural parts of Cork, Limerick, etc. are all nice and friendly places. I am from Laois originally but live in Cork at present. I find it a friendly place. But it is a shame how the pubs in rural places are dying.

I think for one place in particular, a gang who used to play pool and darts disintegrated because 7 of them left to go to Australia.

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

I live in a small village, there are 7 pubs here and 5 are now closed.

I go into Galway maybe once a month or up to Dublin a few times a year, there is a good atmosphere and although the pint is more expensive it's a lot better than drinking one from here where the pipes are not maintained and theGuinness tastes terrible.

The rural pubs did ok years ago where the local men went there every weekend but it's different these days.

I was in towns like Dromod, Manorhamiliton, Cavan, Mohill, Ballymahon, and so on and found the atmosphere here way, way better than what we have down in Southern Ireland at the time. It was a relief to get out of the Southern half of this country a few times last year and I will be arranging more time in Leitrim, Longford, Westmeath and the like again.

anncoates wrote: »

Pubs and other businesses need to adapt to changing times (and minor trifles like laws designed to save lives) instead of sitting on their holes whinging about the nanny state.

The current environment is hardly business friendly. While I am all for laws designed to save lives, these should be well thought out and not implemented in ways that do other damage. I am against drink driving but if that is to be implemented properly, a cheap form of transport to and from pubs and other venues needs to be implemented too. A lot lies at the government's door and something to kickstart rural business is well overdue (and the problem predates the 2008 onwards corruption economy).

That said, it is true that some pubs have only themselves to blame for why they are the way they are. I know 2 or 3 where the owner is not even friendly to the customers and others where no entertainment whatsoever is laid on. Yet, such venues assume a god given right to have custom!

It is often said that that some of the Western, Midlands and Northern counties are the poorest counties in Ireland (I'd put Kerry, Waterford and Cork (apart from the city) into the category too!). Yet, compared to the their poor Southern equivalents, overall people make the most of things, their pubs are much more welcoming, there is more entertainment and there is more of a sense of community. Medium sized midlands towns provide a far livelier and rewarding experience in general.

While the state's attitudes are anything but helpful, I don't believe that an end to the corruption economy, a reform of the drink driving laws (to incorporate a cheap/free form of transport), cheaper drinks or even if there was no smoking ban would affect a lot of the dire pubs out there. Their owners have no enthusiasm and while negative government policy make have initiated this, positive government policy will not snap them out of it. They have gone down a road of indifference and hate owning the pub and want to sell but can't. The only hope for many is that the economy improves and innovative buyers come along to purchase them and revive them.

flynnlives wrote: »

Its quite simple really.

What rurual pubs need is to turn into cafe bars. Were the selection of coffee and tea etc is as good as the drink available.

If we go to the local one of us will have to drive and they will get a manky cup of tea from a filthy cup and near gone off milk and then get charged 3 euro for the slop.

But alas publicans are only interested in feeding people pints. Society has changed. Time for the vintners to cop on.

True. Some publicans are totally uninventive. Most rural pubs often serve just Guinness and 2 lagers and that's it often. Another problem is that other drinks are frightfully dear like cider in a bottle. A nice selection of tea and coffee would be nice as you said. Especially in the cold weather, even for those drinking.

The best aspects of pubs plus new ideas to enhance them is needed. More inventive bar food too.