{"id":48025,"date":"2025-09-06T21:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T21:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/48025\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T21:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T21:59:08","slug":"for-sale-signs-go-up-outside-five-limerick-pubs-as-locals-told-to-use-it-or-lose-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/48025\/","title":{"rendered":"For sale signs go up outside five Limerick pubs as locals told to \u2018use it or lose it\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FIVE prominent pubs across the city and county have hit the market in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p>The Seven Sisters in Kildimo; O\u2019Shea\u2019s Pub, Ballysimon; Barr Na Sraide, Ballyhahill, Jack O\u2019Rourkes Bar &amp; Accommodation, Abbeyfeale and JC Barrett\u2019s Bar, Glin have all been advertised for sale on Daft.<\/p>\n<p>The licensed premises are all being sold as \u201cgoing concerns\u201d with residential accommodation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ NEXT:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.limerickleader.ie\/news\/local-news\/1887544\/end-of-an-era-for-popular-county-limerick-restaurant-as-sale-is-announced.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">&#8216;End of an era&#8217; for popular County Limerick restaurant as sale is announced\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Promotional material accompanies each advert. The Seven Sisters is described as \u201cone of County Limerick\u2019s best known public houses\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is quite rare that a multi-generational and strongly trading pub\u00a0 \/ lounge \/ function room area with adjoining residential aspect comes to the market and interest is sure to be strong both locally, nationally and internationally,\u201d say selling agent, Hogan Durkan.<\/p>\n<p>GL Auctioneers say they are delighted to offer O&#8217; Shea&#8217;s Pub to the open market for sale, \u201ca renowned public house with residential accommodation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe property enjoys a prominent location and has the added benefit of a huge catchment area on its doorstep whilst still only a short commute to Limerick city centre.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>West Property Group say Barr Na Sraide is an excellent opportunity to acquire a long established licensed premises that is trading very successfully.<\/p>\n<p>JC Barrett\u2019s is described by DNG Declan Woulfe as a long established licensed premises and \u201cenjoys an exceptional annual turnover\u201d. It is the only one to include a price &#8211; \u20ac385,000. The other four are price on application.<\/p>\n<p>The Leader contacted Eamonn O&#8217;Rahilly, chairman of the city Vintners Federation branch, to get an insight into the publican trade at the moment. He stressed the importance of pubs to communities and spoke of the issues they are facing.<\/p>\n<p>Mr O\u2019Rahilly said there is a lot of taxation involved, not just the publican business, but all SMEs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re campaigning at the moment for the reduction in VAT from 13.5% down to 9% on food sold in pubs. We also carry the burden of 23% VAT on all products sold, plus the excise duty added onto that. Going back a few years ago, they introduced the USC\u00a0 which they have never removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the employer&#8217;s contribution on PRSI and the demand on us for PRSI to be paid monthly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is the constant struggle of increasing wages. You have the minimum wage there now of \u20ac13.50, hoping to rise to \u20ac16 by 2026 or 2027, and the burden of PRSI comes with that as well. So it&#8217;s a constant, not only for our industry, but all SMEs have been hit very, very hard by this constant taxation,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Rahilly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He continued: \u201cThen when it comes to the publicans, you have IMRO, Sky, you have TV licensing, Every year you have pub licensing, which has to be done and we agree with that, but those costs are going up. Just to get your pub open, the cost of public liability insurance. So there&#8217;s a whole plethora of costs there that&#8217;s going against not just publicans but all SMEs.<\/p>\n<p>Getting young blood coming into the industry is another obstacle. He said some may look at the hours involved and think of pursuing a different career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryday everybody else wants to celebrate &#8211; Christmas Eve, New Year&#8217;s Eve, St Stephen\u2019s Day, Mother&#8217;s Day, Father&#8217;s Day, Valentine\u2019s Day, Sunday, Saturday, Friday &#8211; you have to be there to provide that service. We&#8217;re not complaining,\u201d said the proprietor of The Spotted Dog in Janesboro.<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on a recent report that revealed Limerick has seen the steepest decline in pub numbers of any county in Ireland, Mr O\u2019Rahilly said \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a fabulous standard of pub. Initiatives like Twilight Thursday have brought a vibrancy,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Rahilly, who points to significant investments made by The Old Quarter with the revamped Forde&#8217;s Courtyard and by Bobby Byrne\u2019s in the city and 26 locals coming together in Kilteely to save their pub.<\/p>\n<p>He spoke of their importance as venues for communities to celebrate happy occasions or after funerals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Irish pub still has a vibrancy but it has to be used. It&#8217;s use it or lose it. We don\u2019t just offer alcoholic beverages, we have a plethora of new products with Guinness 0.0, Heineken 0.0, non-alcoholic wines, gins and vodkas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t have to go and drink. You can socialise with friends and family and enjoy a nice night out. We&#8217;re there to be enjoyed and it\u2019s in a controlled environment as well. We lead the world on how to run pubs,\u201d concluded Mr O\u2019Rahilly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FIVE prominent pubs across the city and county have hit the market in recent weeks. The Seven Sisters&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[35582,9,10,889,18,13,14,35581,6,19,17,15805,11,12,7587,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-48025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-abbeyfeale","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-county-limerick","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-glin","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-kildimo","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-limerick-city","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}