Some pubs will never open again

Some of the bars that have closed their doors in a bid to help quell the spread of COVID-19 will never reopen, predicts the chair of the local Vintners Federation.

Despite Eamon Denning’s bleak prediction, he insists the temporary closure remains the correct decision. He locked up his bar, The Stray Sod, at 11pm on Sunday night, after noting a 50% fall in business.  
“We all totally agree with it,” said Mr Denning of the Federation’s Cavan membership. “I was on the phone to members from 8.30am yesterday [Sunday] morning to see what their feelings were, and they all said that we should close. It is our responsibility at the end of the day to look after our customers and look after our communities.
“The general feeling was that they were not happy that it took until now to do it.”
Many bars across the county, including the Slieve Rossa, The Imperial, McMahon’s and The Abbey in Cavan Town, Smith’s in Cootehill, the Riverfront and Whistle Stop in Virginia, and the Widows in Belturbet, among others had apparently called last orders themselves before the decision was made for them.
The day before, there had been massive online support expressed for Slieve Rossa proprietor, Mickey Mooney, who announced that anyone known to have returned from last week’s Cheltenham Races would not be served at his Coleman Road premises until after March 22. 
That ban became a moot point by the following day when closure until at least the end of the month was announced.

‘What’s the point?’ 

Eamon Denning believes that this temporary closure could prove the final nail for some bars.
“There will be a lot of pubs that will never open again, unfortunately,” opined the Drung based publican. “The pubs around the country - they’re just keeping the doors open. 
If the pub is going to be closed for two weeks, or a month, some of the publicans that’s doing nothing will say: ‘To hell, what’s the point in opening?’
“It’s not that people will plan it - that’s the way I expect it’ll happen.”
He suspects that older proprietors, and those who are renting their premises, may be most at risk of permanent closure.
“If they are going to be without a pub for two weeks or four weeks and the landlord is looking for the rent and they can’t afford it, that pub will be closed,” he said.

Staff

Speaking at lunchtime on Monday, Mr Denning explained he had earlier been facilitating staff who were then facing the reality of applying for Jobseekers Allowance to cover the duration of the closure.
“Some of my staff are married with children and they’ve rent to pay and mortgages to pay, and they won’t be able to pay it without their wages - it’s as simple as that.”
While not all bars will fear the threat of permanent closure, Mr Denning observed that all proprietors are facing into a difficult period.
“We have no cashflow now to pay wages and help out our staff. In two weeks’ time all the suppliers are going to be looking for their money for the February accounts, and the publicans won’t have the cashflow to pay that,” said Mr Denning, adding that many members will have to turn to the banks for overdraft extensions or short-term loans.
A significant percentage of many pubs’ income is generated from bar food - should such gastro pubs close if restaurants remain open? Mr Denning suspects that anomaly will soon be removed by the closure of restaurants.
He noted that the COVID-19 emergency was the latest in a series of blows to bruise the Irish bar trade in recent years.
“As if we weren’t hit hard enough with the drink driving and all this kind of stuff for this to happen. Then of course the supermarkets will get the whole sale of the drink again while we’re left with nothing.”
The Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) and government officials will meet again before the March 29 deadline passes to review the decision. Mr Denning doesn’t expect pubs to reopen again that soon, but will again be supportive of the decision to remain closed: “If that’s what has to be done, that’s what has to be done.”

‘Nightmare’

Cootehill man Michael McDonnell and his partner had exciting plans to buy and run a pub in their hometown. A respected journalist with the Northern Standard for 21 years, but looking forward to a change in career, he had grown increasingly fearful over recent weeks of the impact of COVID-19 on their new venture.
“It turned out to be the exact nightmare I thought it was going to be, and it puts a big question mark around the timing of my plans and whether it will ultimately be able to go ahead at all.”
He had previously stumbled into separate legal issues, which had delayed the purchase of the bar, and just as everything was finally “falling into place”, the global pandemic arrived.  
While Michael stresses that this setback is “very inconvenient”, he’s mindful that there are many people across the country in the bar trade - and other sectors - who are facing the prospect of unemployment, in addition to the major concerns for the general public’s health.
“No one working in that business in any town at the moment can say for certain what’s going to happen, and that it’s all part of the bigger issue.”
Despite the crisis facing the sector, Michael is eager to add: “I am still hoping that at the end of this we will be able to finalise the thing and move ahead with it - nothing can be said 100%. There’s no certainty in this whatsoever - it’s pure turmoil.”
That turmoil is also being felt on an admittedly lesser scale by those fond of an early tipple, as Eamon Denning recalls: “I had a fella trying to get in this morning and he wasn’t very happy that he didn’t get in. But it is the right thing to do.”