Tag Archives: Clare branch of Vintners’ Federation of Ireland

“FEAR and despair” is impacting Clare publicans’ mental health as the closure of pubs and uncertainty over their re-opening continues, Clare Vintners Federation of Ireland chairman Darragh McAllister told a meeting this week. The meeting of the Clare branch held at the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis saw six of Clare’s Oireachtas members hear the concerns of the county’s publicans. The meeting comes a week after it was announced that the re-opening of pubs that don’t serve food been delayed until August 31 at the earliest. In attendance were Cathal Crowe TD, Michael McNamara TD, Violet Ann Wynne TD, Joe Carey TD and senators Timmy Dooley and Martin Conway and Mayor of Clare, Mary Howard with apologies from senator Róisín Garvey. At the meeting, which was limited to 50 attendees as per Covid-19 regulations, Mr McAllister, welcomed the presence of the Oireachtas members. In a wide-ranging address detailing the current state of the trade, Mr McAllister highlighted the many false …

  THE Clare pub trade is on the up, according to Matthew Griffin, chairman of the Clare Branch of the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI). The Ennistymon man made the comment ahead of the annual general meeting of the VFI in Killarney next week. “This time last year I was of the mind that the pub trade was starting to turn a corner. Thankfully, this has been the case and we have seen a gradual improvement. Granted, this isn’t the case everywhere and undoubtedly some pubs are still struggling but I believe we can say that what seemed a terminal decline of the pub is coming to an end and we can look forward to this gradual improvement continuing. Pubs in busy cities, towns and tourist areas will always recover first but the recovery will take longer to filter through to smaller towns and villages,” he said. According to Mr Griffin, external economic factors are helping matters for publicans. “Firstly, …