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Record Pub Lockdown Leaves Rural Ireland High and Dry

Agence France-Presse

   DUNMORE, IRELAND - In the pubs of Dunmore in the west of Ireland, the
   Guinness glasses gather dust and the kegs are stacked dormant. Among
   the locals, a sober mood has taken hold.

   The lengthy coronavirus shutdown of pubs in Ireland has hit the 3,000
   or so people in the village and surrounding area particularly hard.

   Five out of its six village pubs have been shut since March, depriving
   the community of institutions that act as pillars of rural life.

   Publican Joe Sheridan unbolts the door of Walsh's Bar in the County
   Galway village.

   "They drink their pints along counters like that with their peers to
   discuss politics, to discuss the news of the day, to understand what's
   going on in their own life," he told AFP.

   "I have people that would confide in me here in the bar that may not
   necessarily say to their GP [doctor] what's going on with them," he
   said.

   With bars shut, "you can see the people carrying the woes of life on
   their faces," said Sheridan, a seventh-generation publican.

   Inside his wood-paneled pub, he finds a pile of unopened mail and the
   musty smell of inactivity.

   Walls are jammed with group photos, sports memorabilia and dusty
   bottles.

   It is testament to the pub's fluid role as community hall, museum and
   an understated sort of group catharsis in the village.

   "The lights are going out in rural Ireland," he said.

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