Country Article / Postcards
Your Own Irish Pub
Date: 04/08/2004
What do you need to know to own your own traditional Irish pub? Read on...
Dear Reader,
Peat fires and hot whiskeys...card games, gossip, and ceilidh bands. Customers with unslakable thirsts...
Ireland has no restrictions on the foreign ownership of pubs. The only things you'll need are capital, a liquor license, and (depending on your nationality) a business permit. Around 10,500 pubs serve Ireland's thirsty population. Although it's hard to find anything for sale for under 400,000 euro ($485,000), the good news is that most pubs include owner accommodation.
Where should you look to buy? Well, chances are that a place that appeals to you will also appeal to tourists--pubs in holiday hot spots are packed to the rafters during the summer. However, you also need to consider how busy your pub is likely to be during the winter months.
In the Roscommon/Mayo area, agent John Earley (E-mail: jearley@propertypartners.ie) generally has a number of pubs on his books. For instance, $695,000 currently buys a pub in Toreen, a village in county Mayo. As this is the village's only pub, you've got a captive clientele. On the main road to Knock airport and four miles from the town of Ballyhaunis, the price includes owner accommodation--a modern three-bedroom house.
Rooney's (http://www.rooneyauctioneers.com/) has a good selection of pubs in counties Limerick, Tipperary, and Clare; $480,000 is the price of The Fiddle and Firkin in Borrisokane, county Tipperary. In what the agents describe as "a prime trading position in the town" it's both a pub and an eight-bedroom B&B business.
Also up for grabs is The Corner House, an old-style pub in Cappamore, Limerick. Considering that this also has five bedrooms, the $310,000 price doesn't seem too unreasonable.
Steenie Harvey
Roving Euro-editor, International Living
P.S. I'll have more for you tomorrow about owning your own Irish pub...as well as your own B&B, thatched cottage, or even a restored castle.
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