Towns that have the greatest number of pub closures

Is there any “correlation” between the number of pub closures in rural Ireland and the opening of chemists/pharmacies?

Edward Street in Limerick is a good example. Back in the late 90's you had O'Sullivan's, Ryan O'Neill's, Slatterys, Noonan's, Quaid's, Ann O'Connor's and lastly Bill Murphy's across from the barracks. Only Slatterys is left out of all those.

Have to agree, in the main rip-off merchants who also feel very entitled as a lobby group, supermarket pricing is hurting and also Aldi/Lidl have spiced up variety of choice.

Thats not very Pintman-like

Not a town but a suburb of cork,blackpool once had about 20 pubs now down to 6.

Ballaghdereen had 77 pubs for 1250 people - many only opened one or two days a month for market trade. Still has about 10 which is a lot for a town of its size but I think its probably unbeatable in loss.

There are areas of Dublin that have had huge drops too - Patrick Street/Bride Street/Kevin Street/Christchurch area had over 25 in the 40s and now has three - one of which is a hotel bar.

How were they sustainable? Were most of the publicans farmers or had other income coming in and the pub was only a sideline or hobby for them?

Pretty much all of Longford town seems to have closed down since the pandemic. I tried to find a pub for a bit of lunch last saturday at 1pm and i literally could not find one. I circled around the town to make sure but the pubs were either closed down or open later, and the only cafe available was full. I knew the place was desolate but not even one pub for lunch, shocking!

Late 90s early 00s saw a major change in Irish pups .

Pretty much every second pub rural and larger towns had an upgrade redesign most went open plan opening a small restaurant or having a d Jay.

This although not noticed at the time doing away with the lounge actually stop a lot of clientele going to pubs.

More younger generation made up most of the people drinking.

Then the recession hit and put a lot of there pubs under pressure.

They lost the restaurant trade and younger people didn't have the money to go out, a lot of older people who weren't drinking because of lack of a lounge.

Most pubs that are surviving now are the ones that stayed the same except for a lick of paint and a small face lift.

Wetherspoons are far from the only pub chain expanding with new pubs. Ignoring those expanding by purchasing or reopening you still have Press Up who are larger in Ireland than Wetherspoons and expanding faster.

And cheap with no music they aren't!

Yeah thats a big reason, back in the 80s and 90s your options for entertainment were limited to the pub, playing pool (often inside a pub) and the cinema if you lived in a bigger town. Some towns might have had a bowling alley as well. Nowadays theres way more things to do and people are doing them in big numbers.

Also the current generation in their 20s are a lot more healthy than any generation before them. Lots of young lads are more interested in going to the gym 3 days a week than drinking 2 or 3 nights a week. Stats are showing young people are drinking less than previous generation. Lots still have one big night out a week but they are not turning into habitual drinkers the way previous generations did. I remember Bank Holiday weekends back in the day meant many of us went out Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights whereas the current generation arent drinking near as much as that.

Also the food offering overall in many pubs has gone down over the years. Many pubs that have been serving food for 30+ years are just phoning it in at this stage with bland carveries populated by OAPs and then thinking they can charge 18 quid for an over cooked burger and chips in the evenings and people will be happy with that. Between cafes in the day time and casual dining restaurants in the evenings there is way more choice and better food to be had outside of the pub trade. Some pubs have recognised this and rebranded as 'gastropubs' with a better food offering but if you're going to spend 25 quid for a main course you'll likely get a better meal in a proper restaurant and go there instead. So pub food is getting squeezed from above by restaurants and squeezed from below by cafes and casual dining. There is less people going to eat in pubs as a result whereas years ago it was your main option to eat out.

That goes back to a time before phones when fellas met after work in the same pub every day knowing that his friends would do the same. Henry St. was the same and I used be up there a lot and you could see the generational difference. Young lads from Garryowen, Munsters or whoever would go there after the AIL match but on a normal day could use the phone to pick and choose the place offering the best "product" which those off O'Connell Ave pubs were not.

There were way too many identical pubs up in that area for them all to survive and it's no surprise the ones that survived. It's the same as the small villages and towns with multiple pubs.

Look at the OPs example where you had 19 pubs for roughly 800 adults and assuming that all 800 even liked the pub that's 50 people per pub which is nowhere near enough unless they are all drinking 7 pints 7 nights a week

Completely disagree on the food. Plenty of great pubs doing very well without it. Something more than 1 200ml bottle of wine per colour is important I would say though and a couple of spirits and beers beyond the basic too

I don't think all the blame for high prices should be put on the publican.

Its also their suppliers, two of whom are dominant, and charge higher prices in this market compared to other markets.

Guinness is made in Dublin, yet sells for lower prices in the UK (same excise, more or less).

I also blame high overheads: energy, rents, insurance costs.

Little of none of the price increases in pubs every year is about increasing profits. Maintaining yes but not increasing

Guinness has'nt been brewed in London since 2005. All Guinness for the UK and Ireland is Brewed in Dublin

Virginia, County Cavan, once had 10 on the main street, now down to 3. One is a restaurant so no good until after 10 at night. The other was described in Pub Spy of having the atmosphere of a Nazi Concertrantion camp, although it's been done up very well since that and the other absolutely jammed at the weekends so waiting 10 or 15 minutes for a pint.

I gotta say that the crackdown on drink driving, which predates the smoking ban, was also a significant factor for smaller rural pubs. But, again, that's not something anyone would choose to reverse.

I don't see the smoking ban having any real impact. Don't remember anyone at the time where I drank or worked who stopped coming to the pub after it.

Each increasing crackdown on drink driving was huge though and for some pubs the huge increase in the amount of houses with full Sky packages.

Those pubs in the 10 pubs in a tiny village type places lived of 7 day a week drinker which is gone and has been for a while and that's the main reason they closed often as the customers literally died off