The fallout from Covid-19 has left a Cork couple unable to reopen their pub, which had flourished in its first three months of trading prior to the coronavirus lockdown.
Former IT worker Tony O'Leary and his wife Sharon are stuck with €8,000 worth of alcohol and large utility bills after they had to hand back the keys to Paddy Mac's in Coachford. The couple only opened the pub to the public last December.
Ms O’Leary had some experience with bar work, but opening the pub was a steep but fast learning curve for her husband, who says they “were absolutely flying it” until the lockdown. They had opened a function room and had live music, and local dart and pool players had also gathered in large numbers.
Mr O'Leary says they had stocked up on alcohol in expectation of a bumper St Patrick's weekend. But everything changed in an instant when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar made his mid-March lockdown address to the nation.
“We have handed the keys back and this is a pub that won’t reopen again,” he says. “It was closed for three years before December when we went in. It was going so well. People are crushed that we closed.”
He says he “ didn’t know how to pull a pint” when they first opened.
“It was a total learning curve. Going from not being able to pull a pint to opening an account with the breweries, accountants, wages, payroll and VAT,” he says. “It was crazy but we absolutely loved it. We would still be there right now only for Covid.”
He says they are “absolutely gutted” not to reopen but there is no financial future for them in a pub setting with social distancing regulations.
“I was in the pub when the Taoiseach made the announcement that we were advised to close. We thought it would only last a few weeks.
“But then as it went on and we learned about restrictions, Perspex at the bar, staff having to be trained, we just knew we couldn’t afford it.”
He says they used to make their money at the weekends when they had live music and young people playing pool. “If we can’t have crowds or we can’t have music to draw people, then how can you do it?”
‘Very difficult’
Meanwhile, fellow local publican Pat O’Riordan, of O’Riordan’s Bar in Coachford, plans to reopen after the lockdown, but acknowledges it will be difficult with the restrictions.
“I am going to see how it goes,” he says.
“It is very difficult for people like me who know people who are coming in to the bar, saying to them that they will have to leave after 90 minutes.
“The 90 minutes will suit the bigger bars who don’t know the customers. The customers here are our best friends. If they are coming in of an evening to have a bite to eat and a pint, we’ll have to ask them to leave after a set time. It’s not fair on publicans to ask them to police this.”
He says pubs are going to have their backs to the wall financially for years to come.
“People have opened home bars and are used to drinking at home now. Are they going to come back to the bars again? I hope so.”