It takes a village to save a pub

Pals club together life savings to buy their local for €300K

- BY DAVID RALEIGH

A POSSE of pint-loving heroes have cancelled "last orders" in their village after pooling their savings to save their only local pub from closure.

The 25 men and one woman purchased Ahern's in the Limerick hamlet of Kilteely after it went on the market for €300,000.

The group renamed the premises, The Street Bar, and extended an invitation to the White House for President Donald Trump to come and visit and drink his first pint of nonalcoholic "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, but they refused to drown their sorrows over the impending pub closure.

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