Publicans step up to the bar and demand support

The news came a day after Cavan publicans took to the picket line outside local Fianna Fáil constituency office in the county town to demand an appropriate support package for publicans to reopen their businesses.

The protestors had intended to hand in letters to local TDs include Deputies Brendan Smith and Niamh Smyth but the offices were closed at the time.

John Farrell from Farrell's Pub in Mullagh was one of those holding a placard. He told the Celt: "The draft guidelines will be difficult to implement but we are going to have to do it and that's it. We want to open our bars – end of story. There is a roadmap there now if they [government] stick by it and let us open."

He said it won't be without difficulty. "The 'no counter service' will be hard to explain to an elderly man coming in for a couple of whiskeys, that he can't sit at the counter," said Mr Farrell.

John McCaffrey from McCaffrey's Bar and Lounge in Redhills said the business has to be viable.

"We have to be able to make a living out of it, to pay our bills and pay our way, as we always did. If there are impediments in our way, then it is not going to work," he said.

He said that social distancing measures will be a problem for some smaller pubs, which will have their occupancy levels greatly reduced.

"I am fortunate that I have good space in my premises and can seat 40 people no problem, without having anybody at the bar," revealed Mr Caffrey.

"It is a crying shame that we have been left for six months as the forgotten businesses of the country. We are the centre of the community. We are the last ones left in rural villages where there are no post offices and very few shops. People can identify with their local and it is important that we are left there," he said.

Michael Shiels, proprietor of the Farnham Arms Hotel, which serves food, said that customers are generally adhering to the Covid guidelines.

"We strictly adhere to those guidelines and we are effectively treating our bar as a restaurant. I don't see it as a bar any more – there is no one sitting at the counters. You come in wearing a mask and you sit down at a table and your order is taken. The only reason to get up is to go to the toilet, paying and leaving," he outlined.

Michael is of the view all the pubs should have been reopened at the same time regardless of whether they serve food.

"You look down the street in Cavan Town on Saturday night and it is very quiet. I have a full bar inside with people dining and having a drink. This is not good for the town and we have had our gloom and doom over the years and this is not sustainable.

“It is not fair and I feel that our Government is completely letting us down. We got a new Government in the middle of all this with both FF and FG on board and still things are not looking good for the publicans," he lambasted.

Mr Shields also express sympathy for people in the bar trade who have been unemployed the past six months. "I know lots of staff who are still out of work with no jobs to go to," he said.

The letter from Cavan publicans to all local TDs, it's understood, highlights their current economic plight, the urgent need for them to re-open and the supports necessary to help them to do so.

Meanwhile Deputy Brendan Smith told The Anglo-Celt that he was unaware the publicans would be attending his offices on Monday afternoon. He explained that, due to Covid-19 restrictions, he meets constituents by arrangement.

However, he reiterated his full support for the rural publicans.

"Some weeks ago I had a meeting with representatives of the Cavan/Monaghan Vitners and we discussed in detail the challenges facing this sector and the need for government support. I have raised these issues with a number of Ministers and I hope that pubs can reopen at an early date with adequate and proper protections in place for customers, staff and publicans.

"I fully appreciate the difficulties that have arisen for publicans with their businesses closed for 6 months. I also recognise that pubs are an integral part of local communities. I have a number of PQs [Parliamentary Questions] due for answer on these issues this week in Dáil Éireann where I raise again the concerns of publicans and a need for a path to reopening. That should not be delayed," said Deputy Smith,

He has since welcomed the confirmation today that pubs will be permitted to reopen from Monday, September 21.

* To hear more publicans' views on the guidelines for reopening pubs, see pages 8-9 of tomorrow's print edition of The Anglo-Celt.