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“It was a lot easier close than it will be to reopen”

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JUST 24 years of age, Diarmaid Murphy must be one of the county’s youngest publicans.

He runs a venerable establishment, Flan McArthur’s, near to the top of the windswept hill of Tulla.

It was just last October that he took over the pub, and it will be at least a few more weeks before he pulls another pint, with the move to stage 4 now put back until August 10, at least.

“I thought we would be back some bit anyway, I was kinda gearing up for it, but I suppose it was never going to happen,” says Diarmaid.

He feels that the August Bank Holiday was a stumbling block, with the numbers that would have been moving around had the restrictions been eased in advance.

Now he wonders if he will even get to open his doors on the new target date. “It’s hard to know. They’re putting such an emphasis on opening schools, if they open the pubs three weeks earlier would that jeopardise it? Don’t get me wrong, I want to be open, but it was a lot easier to close than it will be to reopen.”

One of East Clare’s smaller pubs, he said he had put up sanitiser stations and signs to prepare for reopening, although he knew social distancing was going to be a challenge given the premises he has.

In general he feels that a big challenge for publicans will be preventing people from coming together when having their few drinks. “Let it be a small pub or one the size of a hurling field, it’ll be very hard to socially distance people inside, it could be next to impossible. It goes against the whole nature of socialising, if you’re not going to be interacting with people wouldn’t you be as well off to stay at home?”

Before taking on the pub on his own, he had given a hand to a nephew of the late Flan McArthur, and Diarmaid says he had a fondness for it from when he first started visiting it. “You’d have people from 18 to 80 in it, everyone just seemed to mix away the finest and it just seemed to work.”

He feels that pubs have been a big loss in rural areas, taking away a valuable social outlet, while he wonders will there be much of a rebound when they are allowed to reopen. “You would wonder about rural areas. Lads can’t go to a hurling match now, they have to have some kind of an outlet or they’re going to crack up. A lot of the people coming in above would have been single men that would have come in to talk about a hurling match or a few cattle and that was their life. Going to the pub too can be down to force of habit, you go because you were always going, but once that circle is broken it could remain broken.”

Just over the Tipperary border, Des Hassett runs Goosers, which has been open for some time now, as it serves food.

In contrast to Flan’s, introducing social distancing wasn’t very hard, given the size of the premises. “We were lucky enough with the way the bar is designed, we just had to take away a certain amount of tables and the bar stools as well, but it wasn’t too bad.”

Things have been quite busy, he says, “It’s going very well, it’s very busy. Last Sunday was exceptionally busy. The weather was good, last night (Tuesday) even was busy.”

He also doubts that the next phase will be entered on August 10. “My honest opinion is they’ll open the schools before the pubs. It is disappointing but there is nothing we can do about it.”

Owen Ryan

Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.

About Owen Ryan

Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.