‘It’s getting harder and harder to stay open’

Confirmation from Diageo that the wholesale price of a pint of Guinness will go up by seven cents, while unwelcome, was expected by publicans in Cavan and Monaghan.

The price hike will come into effect on February 3, leaving many publicans across Cavan and Monaghan frustrated at the timing of the most recent increase, Diageo’s fifth in the last three years.

“We knew it was coming,” Belturbet publican and councillor Brendan Fay told the Celt when asked about price increases.

“They have been talking about this since last November, it always comes. They do it every year.”

When Cllr Fay opened his business in Belturbet in 1999, there were 18 pubs in the town, today they are just five trading. The most recent figures provided by the Vintners Federation of Ireland shows that there were 174 active pub licences in Cavan at the end of 2024.

Twenty-one pubs in the county terminated their licences during the ten years previous, although the Belturbet councillor says the number of live licences does not necessarily reflect the number of pubs in operation.

In Monaghan, there were 85 active licences in 2024, while this figure stood at 105 ten years earlier in 2014.

A pint of stout, ale or larger all costs €5.50 at The Widows Bar. Cllr Fay took the decision to price them equally for convenience, so that customers aren’t left searching for coins, and explains that, what he loses on one, he gains on the other. However, the news from Diageo on Tuesday (January 13) will “definitely” see his prices go up, although Cllr Fay is unsure of when it will filter down to his own taps.

“I haven’t made a decision on when I am going up, it mightn’t just be on the day it happened.”

“I’ll just take stock of where I am and where my business is. It’s just getting harder and harder to stay open all the time.”

Each time the price goes up, the consensus around the counter is “that’s a few less pints for me”.

While Cllr Fay has his locals, he says it’s the young customer who is looking for alternative options. It has become easier on the pocket to go to the off-licence to buy beer.

“That’s where the problem is, we’re missing a couple of generations.”

The optics in Monaghan

Meanwhile in County Monaghan publicans are experiencing similar trends. Diane Wright Kendrick owns The Coach House and Olde Bar located in the picturesque village of Glaslough. Her family pub originally opened in 1962 and Diane took over the business with her husband Ron in 1989. With its cosy, traditional interior, the bar won Monaghan pub of the year last year, as well as featuring in Turtle Bunbury’s book ‘The Irish Pub’ where the creators set out to find Ireland’s best old-style pubs, and also served as one of the settings for the 2002 film ‘Puckoon’.

Diane had just made a lodgement at the bank when she meets the Celt, and like many pubs in January and even February, it’s not as high as other months.

“People have a dry January,” she explains.

A pint of Guinness in her pub will be going up to €5.70; twenty cents more than what she currently charges. Diane fears that customers will think it is the publican’s choice.

“They don’t know who Diageo is,” she says, adding: “We’ll have to put it up.”

Since the pandemic, she sees that people are drinking at home and the pub has become a place for “occasions”. While The Olde Bar has its regular customers, Diane notes how people are no longer coming to the pub for a drink after work. Their main trade is on the weekends, and they also receive a lot of ‘day two’ wedding parties from the nearby Castle Leslie Estate.

“Years ago I would have the same people on the same stool up at the bar all the time. They’d all be meeting each other and having the fun coming straight from work. There’s none of that now, it’s a completely different culture.”

Her pub opens from Tuesday to Sunday. They open early in the week “out of courtesy” and Diane admits “we’re not making anything”.

“The other pub takes two days and it’s awful if people come into a village and there is no pub open.”

The cream of the crop

“The difference in your pub, and a house is your draught product. That’s the difference,” Monaghan chairperson of the Vintners Federation of Ireland Raymond Aughey tells the Celt.

Cllr Raymond Aughey owns The Squealing Pig in Monaghan town and felt “very shocked” to get the news from his drink supplier. The price of a keg of Guinness is going up by over €6, while Guinness 0.0 “went up even more”. Diageo, he says, raised their prices at the same time last year.

“To the day almost,” he adds.

“Our problem is the cost of inflation and the cost of business.”

“Inflation leads to inflation, it’s not rocket science. They’re [the government] putting fuel on the fire by increasing wages all the time.. We’re not disputing that people need to get paid but, the more they increase wages, the more inflation goes up the more they need to get paid. When does it stop?”

The result for Ireland’s pubs is the customer is paying more, or part-time staff are getting less hours to try to “balance” costs.

From the first of this month, minimum wage increased, auto-enrolment was introduced, food costs increased, overheads, and now stock. Cllr Aughey also foresees other drinks companies following suit.

“The one thing we buy to sell is our drink so where night follows day, Heineken will be on it in two weeks’ time,” he predicts.

He says, “in fairness” to the government, excise duty has not gone up, but feels the Government could do more to support the sector.

On food, which is served at The Squealing Pig, VAT currently stands at 13.5%, which is due to come down to 9% in July this year.

“In County Monaghan out of our members, there’s probably 60-70% that are not serving food,” he says, therefore the reduced VAT is “no plus” to them.

Prinks!

Cllr Aughey also maintains those in their late teens and early twenties have “changed their whole attitude in life”.

“You used to visit a pub to meet somebody to date or go to a disco, they’re all online.”

Now in business 35 years, another trend among the youth is “prinking”.

“They do all their drinking at home and they just top up in the pub.”

He also believes that drug driving is on the rise, “and that speaks volumes.”

From January to October last year, there were 322 arrests by gardaí in the Monaghan, Cavan and Louth district for people who were suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol. Meanwhile, the figures show there were 128 arrests in the same period for suspected drug driving.

Looking at the future of the industry, are young people inclined to take over the family pub? Or buy one of the many on the market in counties like Cavan and Monaghan?

“Absolutely no way,” Cllr Fay maintains.

“I love this industry,” he begins, reminiscing about his time working behind the bar in America and his 26 years in Belturbet, where he opens seven days per week. However adds: “I wouldn’t want my kids to be in this industry.”

The reality of being a publican these days is “hard graft”. Fourteen shifts per week comprising up to eighty hours, missing out on family events, difficulty finding staff, increasing overhead costs, a “high” stock cost, which is now increasing, and starting each week “hoping” it will be a busy one.

“Pubs are closing because they can’t make ends meet.”