'They're cycling and going to the gym' - Louth publican on changing drink culture in Ireland
Dundalk publican from the Windsor Bar explains the changes within the pub business over the years.
Publican Donal McGeough from the Windsor Bar in Dundalk has been speaking about changes within the pub business since he started working in 1980.
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment was told last week that 2,200 pubs across Ireland have closed since 2005. The rate of closure in recent years sees around 128 pubs shut their doors each year in Ireland.
The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) also told the committee that publicans have experienced significant increases in key operating costs over the past five years, including electricity costs rising by 70%, wages by 40%, and water tariffs increasing by 30% in 2024 followed by a further 10% increase in 2025.
There is also the changing landscape around pub and drinking culture in Ireland and Donal McGeough says he has seen this in action over the course of his 45 years in the pub trade.
“So in the 50s, 60s, 70s and right up into the mid-80s, pubs were places where people went and drank and that was the end of the story,” he said.
“Then pubs started getting into food and we would have been one of the first to do it here in Dundalk purely because you could see the trend in drink declining and you had to increase turnover one way or another.
“So if you had the facility and the kitchen, you could expand and get into food and so we did. By the 80s, 90s and the 2000s, nearly every pub, if you weren't doing food, you were nearly going to become extinct.
“When it comes to the drinking end of things, again, back in the 50s, 60s and even right up to the early 2000s, the pub was the centre of everyone's social life, but that has all changed as well with the increase of sports facilities and gyms and people being a little bit more health conscious.”
He pointed out that people still enjoy visiting their local pub but it’s maybe less frequently than before and people have more social outlets and healthier lifestyles than generations before them.
“Even though there's still an appetite for enjoying yourself and having a drink and special occasions, there's still a lot of pubs, but a lot less of them are really full and a lot more of them are struggling to sell a drink because people have other things to do. They're cycling, they're going to the gym, they're playing sports.”
Donal praised the introduction of 0.0 drinks and claimed they were one of the best introductions he’s seen in the pub business.
“My age group would have grown up socialising in pubs and that's what I still do.
“But I can now do it drinking a 0.0, feeling that I'm part of the craic but without all the side effects the next day when you're trying to do a day's work.
“I'm all for it, because I think you can go out and have a drink some nights and there's other nights you can actually still go out, but you don't have to indulge in actual alcohol yet you can still participate in the chat and the craic.”
Donal claimed his favourite part of working in a pub is that every day you get something new.
He said you can chat with new people nearly every day, keep up with the news and hear great stories.
On the other hand Donal’s least favourite part is that the pub is almost always open, even if he’s off work he will still be thinking about the pub and how staff are getting on.
“I think we should be aiming towards a much more consumption-friendly kind of hours, that we don't have to open right through and into the middle of the night.
“There should be enough hours in the day for anybody to get whatever alcohol they need into them.”
The VFI pointed out to TDs and Senators last week that “pubs are under pressure” and that many more will close given the current strains on them.
Chief Executive Pat Crotty has previously said the closure figures reflect the growing strain on businesses attempting to absorb sustained increases in operating costs.
“These figures are clear evidence of the pressure pubs are under. Publicans are being forced to reduce staffing levels simply to keep their doors open. For many smaller and rural pubs, the current cost environment has become completely unsustainable and poses an existential threat to future viability.”
Mr Crotty told the Committee that the continued loss of pubs would have consequences far beyond the hospitality sector itself.
According to the VFI survey, 65% of publicans said rising business costs are having an unsustainable impact on their operations, while 41% reported that trading conditions are worse than they were 12 months ago.
Confidence in the future outlook is also weakening, with almost 42% expressing a lack of confidence in the future sustainability of their business.
While welcoming the restoration of the 9% VAT rate for food-led hospitality businesses, the VFI will told the Committee that the measure does not benefit the majority of rural pubs, with 64% not serving hot food.
As part of its Budget 2027 submission, the VFI is calling on Government to introduce a new On-Trade Sustainability Scheme aimed at protecting smaller and rural pubs.
The proposed measure would operate through a targeted tax credit linked to verified purchases of draught products, with support capped at €20,000 per premises.