Sligo publican sells up after 36 years

A Sligo publican who has sold her business after 36 years said yesterday that takings had dropped 50 per cent due to the recent crackdown on drink-driving.

Eileen Scully, who bought the Horseshoe Bar in Ballymote in 1970 with her late husband Michael, said that she believed rural pubs were no longer viable.

Ms Scully stressed that she did not condone drink-driving, but said "morning-after" random checks were having a huge impact, even on responsible drivers.

"Most people are responsible and they will get a lift home, but now they are afraid of random checks in the morning when they are on their way back to collect their cars or going to work," she maintained.

She had sold the pub and had planned to retire in the coming months, but the slump in business prompted her to close the bar last Saturday night, she said.

"When we came here in 1970 there were 23 pubs in the town and now there are about seven," she said. "We had lean times before in the late 1980s when jobs were scarce and interest rates high and again after the smoking ban was introduced, but never anything like this."

She stressed that she supported efforts to reduce road fatalities. "I have a family myself and the last thing I would want is to get news like that, either because they were drinking or someone else was drinking," she said.

"The guards' hands are tied, but you can't keep a pub open and pay the bills if you have just one or two stragglers for most of the evening."

She also said she believed speed was a factor in many accidents, but it was not getting the same attention. Paul Stevenson, president of the Vintners' Federation, who owns a pub in Ballymote, recently described the crackdown as "over the top", saying it would force many rural pubs to close.