Local Pub Saved: Community Raises €300,000 to Prevent Closure

The 26-person group, comprising 25 men and one woman, bought Aherns, the only pub in Kilteely near Pallasgreen, Co Limerick, after it went on the market for €300,000.

The group renamed the premises The Street Bar and have extended an invitation to the White House for US president Donald Trump to visit and drink his first pint of non-alcoholic “Kilteely cream”.

One of the pub’s local investors, landscape gardener Noel O’Dea, said: “They say it takes a village to raise a child, but I tell you, it also takes a village to save its pub.”

Not one of the 26 investors has pub trade experience.

“The pub is the heart of any community, and because all the shops and pubs here were gone, this was our last meeting place,” Mr O’Dea said.

“We just couldn’t see the people in the village having no place to go to, because otherwise it is just a group of houses.”

Lamenting the loss of two pubs, two shops, two post offices, and a creamery locally, O’Dea said the only other business in the Limerick village is a recycling venture, KDI (Kilteely Dromkeen Innovation), which employs seven people and was also set up by locals “after the last recession hit and because employment was hard to get”.

The group of locals invested up to €15,000 each to keep the drinks flowing at the bar.

The eclectic group, which includes a clinical psychologist, a barrister, a solicitor, a pharmacist, a carpenter, an accountant, a teacher, a sign-maker, builders, farmers and electricians, is also considering how best to use a shop premises that was included in the pub sale.

Today’s News in 90 Seconds – August 19th

“There were a few suggestions, but I don’t think we would get away with some of them,” Mr O’Dea said.

One of the group suggested they should invite the media-loving US leader Mr Trump, who does not drink alcohol.

“Yeah, we could, sure listen, why not, send out the invitation,” Mr O’Dea said.

Extending the invite to presidents, princes, princesses and paupers, Mr O’Dea added: “We have a festival every year and it’s on in two weeks’ time, and this year we are going to have Ireland’s first-ever black pudding festival, so everyone is welcome.”

“We are starting that off this year, we’re asking butchers and anyone who is good at making food at home, because the art of making pudding is dying out and we are just trying to revive it.

“During the festival we’ll serve you the perfect pint and pudding.”

Another member of the group, barrister Liam Carroll, said: “Rural pubs are dying out all over the country, so we decided to come together to save ours, and hopefully we can keep it going, employ a few people and harness the community spirit that we have on tap here.”

Mr Carroll also encouraged other communities to get together to keep their dying pubs alive.

“I would encourage others to do the same thing, there is little or no profits in this type of venture, but it is vital to keep local communities from dying out,” he said.

The rebranded Street Bar opened its doors last Saturday.