Something to celebrate: Kerry village buys the local pub rather than let it disappear

As one local man says: 'There would be nothing in the place if you didn’t have somewhere to meet. It is the centre of what is a very rural community' 

Sean O'Sullivan's girlfriend, family, and friends threw a surprise 30th birthday bash for him last Saturday in the Inny Tavern. The sole pub in the Gaeltacht village of Dromid on the Iveragh Peninsula in Co Kerry was in danger of closing but the local community rallied together to buy it. Picture: Neil Michael

For a Gaeltacht community of just over 400 people, Dromid is not doing too bad.

While other parts of rural Ireland have seen the slow disintegration of vital services, this part of the Iveragh Peninsula in Co Kerry is raising a glass to toast its fight against creeping rural decline.