Rapid tour of many Tipp towns by a Galwegian - my thoughts.

You got it spot on.

here is the bit for Thurles, from wiki, of which I have many happy memories.

Thurles was originally an agricultural market town. It is now a retail town, with chain stores like Dunnes Stores, Supervalu, Lidl, Aldi, Boots, and Holland and Barrett established in the town. The headquarters of the meat processing factory Dew Valley Foods is also located in the Thurles environs. Thurles Shopping centre was recently extended and plans to open a new a Tesco store to replace the current store in Liberty Square have also been announced.[when?] Stakelum's Hardware, which recently moved to the Nenagh road, is one of the biggest family owned business in the town. McKevitt's "Costcutter" is another large family business that operates with one supermarket in the town. High technology industries have been established in the Thurles Technology Park.

As a resident in Thurles I wouldn't agree with your assessment of it. There are a lot of shops that have closed in recent years in the square, with nothing replacing them. Nenagh is a far far better town that has lovely little boutique shops and has a lot more options for dining out. (Plus a lovely castle and other historical buildings)

I'm a Cahir man and actually worried at the route the town is going in regard to heavy traffic going through it

Really has been noticeable more recently how damn busy the town has become. There's less parking spaces in the town too, on top of that (removed some during covid for seating space)

In regard to Coffee Shop/Café options, they're actually not good at all

Lazy Bean is gone - You have one normal Café; River House, and it's poor

Lava Brew is a fairly specialised menu and probably too pricey to go to regularly

The Keep don't do freshly made stuff, and are more focused on take-away coffees & desserts

The council have done a great job with the Inch Field and Swiss Cottage walk though, that has to be said. But as mentioned, I'd worry of hitting a line of the town being too busy to handle it, if that makes sense

Yes Dougan's have now opened a hearing aid centre in the old Carl Scarpa, but I think the ACC building is unoccupied (sometimes a pop up shop goes in there).

The cinema plan was a fantastic idea but the uncertainty about the future of cinema versus streaming has put paid to those plans I'd say.

I also notice that DV8 are closing down for "renovations". I wonder will it re open?

DV8 reopening in 6 weeks. ACC bank has a beauty salon in there.

I didn't spot a Cahir thread but wondering if anyone can recommend a few pubs? Visiting on Saturday and looking for a few nice spots for a few drinks. Probably edging towards oul lads pubs at this stage! ;-) Thank you.

The main pub in the square is Irwin's. It is closed down.

Then you have morrisseys for the yanks. Across from the castle is the Gatehouse pub for underage drinkers, coke heads, assaults and drug pushers.

Outside of that in the outskirts of the town centre you have a variety of grimey locals pubs, usually strategically located in proximity to a bookie shop. Usually the hangout of choice for the locality's chronic alcoholics drinking their life away with the children starving at home.

You are left with the bar in Cahir House hotel. It is pleasant and a very much a place harkening back to the days of it being the big fish hotel in the small market town pond. And they do nice food.

Only reason farmers are getting good money is because of the CAP subsidies. They don't make money from farming, they make money from subsidies.

Farming is just what you have to do to qualify for the subsidies. The actual bit of income they get from the actual act and produce of farming is only a small fraction of their income - not even enough to cover input costs from what I have been told.

If subsisides were withdrawn in the morning, the entire farming sector would implode within a week.

That is why I equated farmers with social welfare recipients. The only thing keeping them doing what they are doing is the tax paid by the rest of the workforce.

What a super insightful and well researched post. You should run for the Dail.