Changing Ireland: Time called on 1,477 pubs

Great change does indeed come dropping slow. The scale of that change may not be obvious immediately, but an inevitable day of reckoning can bring sobering news. And so it is with the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland’s pre-budget submission.

That document records that pubs have closed at the rate of more than two a week for 12 years and that there were 1,477 fewer pubs in Ireland last year than in 2005, a 17.1% drop in businesses.

Cork has borne the brunt of that change as the number of pubs has fallen by 25% in the county. This great change was in part offset by an 11.6% rise in off-licences, suggesting that we drink more at home than ever before.

There are many good reasons to welcome this decline, especially if you have to share your life with someone who abuses drink, but this sea change does not mark a significant fall in alcohol use. That figure is down slightly but wine sales are up by a similar margin.

Anyone who publically regrets the decline of that great Irish social institution — the local pub — can expect criticism, though this would seem an intolerant response to the loss of a pivotal cultural platform. Anyone who has seen the void a closed pub leaves in a British or a French village could not but be concerned. A post office may be a village’s lifeline, but a good pub is its beating heart.