Irish Examiner view: Energy war claims its latest casualty

Closure of an otherwise successful business — Bunnyconnellan’s in Cork — is a reminder of the challenges facing us all today

Having withstood many storms, literal and figurative, the O'Brien family have had to close Bunnyconnellan's restaurant in Myrtleville, Co Cork, due to surging energy costs. File picture 

Day by day, the casualty toll mounts of businesses ravaged by soaring energy charges and the rampaging cost of living, bearing witness to the validity of the warnings that have been with us since the summer.

When a landmark pub and restaurant such as Bunnyconnellan’s in Myrtleville, with its sumptuous views over the entrance to Cork Harbour, has to be “put to sleep until the economic storm passes”, we know that the long arm of Vladimir Putin has reached across Europe and into the Celtic Sea.

The restaurant, which has been run by Paul O’Brien and his family since opening in the 1970s, has been a popular spot for generations of Cork families and visitors who have enjoyed its location and gastropub menu. While it survived a buffeting from Hurricane Ophelia and managed to weather the dark days of the Covid pandemic, rapidly increasing gas and electricity charges made the business unsustainable.

The longer the energy squeeze goes on, the more likely it is that the rate of attrition among leisure attractions, retail centres, and charities will accelerate, particularly as hard-pressed families curtail discretionary spending. At Fota Wildlife Park, home to 1,300 animals from a variety of climates, the cost of keeping warm this winter will double its bill to €500,000. The not-for-profit conservation centre has to use multiple heating systems to keep giraffes, its tropical house, and even a new baby Indian rhino warm in the coming months. Feed costs have already increased by 12%. And there are other penalties. The conversion programme to green energy and reducing the park’s carbon footprint will be delayed as resources are transferred to keeping Fota running.

Although Bunnyconnellan’s is a high-profile example, the distress signals about the mothballing of hotels, restaurants, cafes, pubs, and shops have been visible since May.

Even in midsummer, one hotelier could itemise the increases he was facing: Electricity from €8,300 to €18,000; insurance up by €60,000 per annum; linen costs for rooms doubling to €10,000 per month; cooking oil up 111%, flour up 60%, eggs by 30%, Coca-Cola by 18%, mayonnaise by 66%, fish by 33%. 

It is a stunning litany of challenges which indicates why many proprietors, owners, businesspeople, and enterprise managers have decided to take a step back either temporarily or permanently.

In The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, all the inhabitants of the planet Magrathea decided to hibernate when a recession came along until the economy returned to a level where their services were required and could be paid for.

We don’t have that ability, but we will be diminished as a society as the familiar starts to disappear and the lights go out around us for winter. It will place pressure on our sense of unity, but that must be maintained despite the challenges ahead.