Padraig Cribben: Outdoor opening welcome, but viability still a long way off for pubs

With massively reduced capacity and the vagaries of the Irish weather, this reopening will not be plain sailing for most and certainly not a long-term route to viability

Staff members Emma O'Connor and Ben Swayne at the Walter Raleigh Hotel in Youghal. Picture: Dan Linehan

This week’s reopening of pubs for outdoor trading is a significant waypoint on the journey to what might be called “normal” business.

At some point in the not too distant future all restrictions will have to be lifted but, for now, permission to drink and eat outdoors is progress after a long, hard series of lockdowns.