All of the publicans in one rural town are going keep their doors shut and remain closed for business this coming Good Friday. Six pubs in Newmarket, County Cork, came together and decided they would not open their doors in spite of the State lifting the 91-year-old ban on serving alcohol on Good Friday.

John Scanlon of Scanlon’s bar, Church Street, who first proposed the move in an initial chat with a colleague, said: “We have only two days off each year, Christmas Day and Good Friday, and we want to hold on to that. It is a day publicans want to spend with their families.”

“It would be different for city publicans who would be giving up a lot of revenues by staying shut on a Friday night, but I don’t think there would be a lot around here on Good Friday,” he said.