2,100 pubs closed over the last 20 years

I don't go to pubs too often anymore but by chance found myself in one yesterday watching Donegal v Meath. It was a nice pub, nice decor, clean, but the atmosphere was dreary. About 40-50 patrons and I'd say 90% men. There were a couple of groups of lads making a bit of (welcome) noise, but other than that the atmosphere was just sour. I didnt enjoy it at all.
 
This really bugs me too. There was a time you'd get a pint of coke (two bottles). The tiny bottles are a joke. It's really more expensive to not drink alcohol in a pub.
 
T McGibney said:
More than that, the blandness of and lack of choice in pub beers is utterly depressing.

Most pubs think it's beneath them to offer a single draught craft beer let alone the cask beers that make the better English pubs special and distinctive.
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Wetherspoons (cue burning torches) have a great range of beers such as you mention but are only in Dublin I think and I've only been in the one on Abbey Street and it seemed a bit dead (admittedly it was early in the day and I was only there for 30 minutes).
 
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I love pubs and would be a frequenter of some of the well-known spots in Dublin and the surrounding suburbs. (Was in Gleeson's Booterstown yesterday early evening and in recent weeks have been in The Horse & Hound Cabinteely, Gibney's Malahide, Smyths of Haddington Road, Doheny & Nesbitts Baggot St, Finnegan's in Dalkey, Harbour Bar in Howth and a few others.)

The recent warm spell has been a godsend to pubs with outside frontage and/or a beer garden - I definitely detect a slight increase in young people (early to late 20s) in some of the above.

Also, a big fan of London pubs having been there half a dozen times in the last year and a bit. Some favourites include The White Horse in Parson's Green, Fulham, Cadogan Arms on the Kings Road, Zetland Arms in South Kensington and The Fitzrovia - in Fitrovia. Too many favourite Soho pubs to mention!

Long may they reign!
 
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When I was in my 20s the local pubs were hopping most nights, and certainly at weekends. Same pubs 40 years later are dead most nights.

One local pub changed hands a couple of years ago. The new owner is there most nights, he has worked incredibly hard and it shows. His pub is busy at the weekends and has a few busy nights mid week too. He has added a limited menu, live music, screens for games, a well trained team of floor staff and quiz nights.
Meanwhile 300m away a pub that would have been turning away people in the 1990s is closed and the site has OPP for apartments. Sad it’s a lovely old building but as a pub it died a long slow death over the past few years.
 
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