Communities suffer as rural pubs continue to shut up shop
Publicans have warned dozens more rural public houses face closure after a new report confirmed the continued decline of traditional Irish pubs across the West of Ireland.
A total of 122 pubs in County Galway have permanently closed in the past two decades, with six shutting on average every year since 2005, new analysis shows.
And the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) report published Wednesday highlighted that the rate of decline of pubs has accelerated since Covid-19.
In 2019, County Galway had 472 pubs but that fell by 4.2% to 452 during the pandemic years when 20 closed for good, according to the DIGI report ‘The Irish Pub: Supporting our communities’.
Chair of VFI County Galway, Joe Sheridan, told The Connacht Tribune the findings confirmed what his organisation has been highlighting in recent years.
“In one small country town, Dunmore in North Galway, in 20 years, we’ve gone from 21 licences down to four and a half – and I’m the half, doing Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday. That is replicated throughout the countryside,” said the proprietor of Walsh’s Bar, High Street Dunmore.
Nationally, almost 2,000 pubs have shut since 2005 and 450 closed since the start of Covid.
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Photo: Cllr Joe Sheridan outside his pub in Dunmore.