A POPULAR Dublin pub has admitted that reopening after the coronavirus pandemic will be far easier said than done, and some drastic changes may have to be made.
The Barbers Bar, an immensely popular local pub located near Smithfield and Stoneybatter would normally have been heaving with people every night of the week, particularly after St Patrick's Day and with the summer tourist season in full swing.
But The Barbers, like every other pub on the island, has been closed for close to three months now, and has half-joked that they would need to charge €50 per pint if they were to survive reopening while adhering to social distancing measures.
In a tongue-in-cheek post on Facebook, the bar wrote "Lots of talk about 1m and 2m distancing for bars".
"Safe to say we will have to charge €50 a pint if its 2 metres in order to survive!"
Co-owner of the pub, Ronan, told Dublin Live that "as long as social distance measures are in place, our business is of course at risk".
"Just because restrictions are being lifted on August 10 doesn't mean that an end is in sight".
New rules introduced to stamp out coronavirus in Ireland means that all businesses have to adhere to 2 metres between customers in the building, and for pubs, that will mean having to drastically reduce the amount of people allowed inside.
For The Barbers Bar, this means a maximum of 26 people will be allowed to enter the pub at any one time, with Ronan saying "we would have to charge an outlandish price for a pint to be profitable".
Hundreds of bars across Ireland will struggle to reopen following the lockdown (Getty)Saying that the 50 quid per pint post was said "in a jokey way just to highlight the outlandish and perilous situation most Irish bars are in", he continued "obviously we have no intention of increasing our prices but we do plan on soldiering on in the hope that restrictions will be lifted sooner rather than later."
The Barbers Bar, like hundreds of other pubs across the country, "are certainly at risk of going out of business".
"With the lockdown occurring during what is generally the busiest period for the trade and then ongoing restrictions after August, we may potentially stand to be down 70% on last year.
"And if social gathering restrictions are still in place for December and Christmas parties, I may as well hang up my ice scoop."
Earlier this month, Ireland got its first glimpse at what the post-pandemic pub might look like, with customers seated two metres apart-- you can check that out here.
