Castleisland, and for that matter every rural town in the country has experienced a phenomenon of massive closure of pubs. Some towns that used to have 50 pubs have now been reduced to single digit numbers. A combination of many factors have caused such a dramatic downfall to occur. 

Over the years, Castleisland town has experienced many closures of businesses, but one that is appearing to occur more and more often these days is the closure of pubs. In the past five years alone, ´Hickeys Bar´, ´The Half Barrel´, ´Con´s Bar´ and many more establishments have been forced to shut down. This is has led to many people facing unemployment in the past few years and is the cause of most of the derelict buildings that can be seen on Main Street. We have decided to investigate why such closures have taken place since the heyday of the Irish Pub. What has made rural towns such an inhospitable place for small local publicans when such a trade used to be a gold mine?

In Kerry alone, in the last five years, 35 pubs have closed, and over 90 have closed in the past 20 years. 2000 have closed across Ireland as a whole since 2005 according to DIGI (Drink Industry Group of Ireland). This is a staggering statistic, but there are many reasons why Irish nightlife is on the decline. Firstly, there has been an increase in drink driving laws. This means that older people can no longer drive to town for one or two drinks, forcing many of the quieter pubs to close as they have lost their regulars.