Did we eat out to help out and who ultimately did we help out?
£500 million put aside by the government to fund the scheme could have perhaps gone to more worthy causes
The rising cost-of-living is having a knock-on affect right across the commercial sector, and some would argue the worst affected, is that of hospitality. Was this not also the story during the (dare I mention it) pandemic? With February 27, 2020 being the official date Covid-19 arrived in Northern Ireland.
You’ll all remember it, many of us availed of it. The government scheme to drive us all back into restaurants following the closures due to Covid-19.
Great scheme or was it? Well there’s the debate. To encourage as many people as possible to take advantage of the scheme, there was no onus placed on customers to apply for vouchers or claim their money back from the restaurant or the government. Instead, participating restaurants would simply make the necessary deductions before giving customers the final bill. Simple.
Maybe too simple. The scheme was met with great enthusiasm and equally as much criticism. Many felt the scheme was launched too early, as we did end up back in lockdown in December 2020 (sorry it was a ‘circuit-breaker’).
We have already seen many closures across the industry with popular Lurgan bistro citing ‘current economy’ as it closes year after opening at the end of January and in August there was heartbreak for the Portadown business owner of Apple Patch as it announced its closure. Many establishments have been added to the growing list of industry casualties. The Flamin’ Grill, which opened at Mandeville Street, to much fanfare in January 2019, had become a popular eatery in the town, but like many hospitality business, was severely impacted by Covid at the beginning of 2020, announced closure in April 2022.
More recently, this week the owners of a popular donut shop in Newry, set up during the pandemic, says it is “with a heavy heart” they have been forced to close.
My own experience of the scheme was.. umm ok. I did avail of it a few times, but on the whole I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t go out to a bar for a drink with one or two friends but I could go to a restaurant with as many people as I wanted, only to find that where there was previously a dance floor was now a make-shift restaurant.
There were problems with this scheme. Restaurant staff were met with hostility whilst trying to cope with the increased pressures on service adding to the strain on social distancing, not to mention the customers getting around the £10 maximum discount by splitting bills. (Come on people), not to mention the countless no-shows!
You have to ask yourself, was it all worth it? Could £500 million have been better spent on our hospitals and wider medical profession? Cancer treatments were being cut but we could eat out… I’m not entirely certain this was the way to go and now there’s the silver bullet - the price hikes and the impending doom of the rising cost of living which again might see us turning more to loaves and fish than the locally eateries.
In the headlines:
Markethill man allegedly threatened to smash ex-partner’s face with Buckfast bottle.
ABC towns among those shortlisted for ‘Let’s Celebrate Towns’ UK-wide showcase - and Armagh, Lurgan, Portadown and Banbridge made the cut!
Drug paraphernalia found near a Co Armagh primary school is a “huge cause for great concern”.
A man was stabbed in the neck during an aggravated burglary in Armagh on Wednesday night.
John Dalzell OBE raised a staggering £140,000 for the Southern Area Hospice during his 31st annual Christmas Sit Out in Newry. John Dalzell was presented with the Armagh I Special Recognition, Lifetime Achievement award in February for his service to Southern Area Hospice.
Armagh Jobs:
Hotel Receptionist for Armagh City Hotel, Roland Mikels has enjoyed a world of experience through his career in hospitality.
Messy Play NI design and manufacture a wide range of high-quality timber outdoor Learning and Development equipment and now due to continued expansion and secured contracts they have a requirement for a woodworking and assembly professional.
No two days are the same at CLS Signage. CLS Signage is a sign-making/ digital print business located in Armagh. The company is now recruiting for a graphic designer
Gribben Motors have been at the forefront of the accident repair business for over 51 years. During this time we have built up a unique working partnership with all the major insurance companies and local business. They now require a Panel Beater
Check out roles within hospitality companies Armagh City Hotel and Barista Express
Around 20 new jobs are to be created in Co Armagh after planning permission was granted for a new multi-million pound factory in Portadown
Competitions
Congratulations to Patricia Maney who has won a pair of cinema tickets for Omniplex Cinemas. Patricia check your emails for details on how to claim your tickets!
For the rest of you, here we go again!
Look Back…
Leading on from our Tuesday newsletter The great debate, Are town centres a thing of the past we decided to take a look back at Tandragee. We wound the clock back 50 years to Thursday, February 15, 1973, to the aftermath of the Market Street bombings.
The Armagh Guardian reported that the bombs, which were packed inside two beer barrels, had contained 50lbs of explosives each. The bombs had detonated outside prominent public houses, The Farmer’s Inn and Cullen’s Bar, the previous Sunday. Fortunately, the residents of the town had all escaped the explosions without serious injury.
Remarkably, one eye witness - Billy Kennedy - told the paper that he believed vandals had “saved his life” that night.
Billy had been at a friend’s home the night of the attack and had heard the first explosion at around 8.45pm. He said that the force of the blast was so intense that he and his friend had almost been “thrown from their chair”.
Alarmed, and intrigued, the pair ventured into the town centre to see what had occurred. They found the town in a state of disarray with considerable damage to Cullen’s bar, windows “blown out over a wide area” and a “chaotic mass of milling people frightened and stunned by the bomb”.
Billy hurried to the end of the street, near Gilford road, to the telephone box to alert emergency services. However, upon lifting the receiver he found no dial tone. The booth had been vandalised several days prior.
Across from the phone box lay parked a Ford Cortina directly outside The Farmer’s Inn. Unbeknownst to Kennedy, the car contained a further 50lbs of explosives.
Kennedy, left the phone box and started back up the hill towards the scene of the first blast. Three minutes later the second bomb detonated. As Kennedy recalls, the telephone booth had been “wrecked”.
Notably, an Urban Council member had remarked in a separate article that - despite the bombs being targeted towards two “Roman Catholic owned businesses” with the intention of causing division amongst the town’s residents - that a “binded link had been formed that would never be broken”.
He said, “people of varying religious and political outlook toiled in frantic efforts to restore normality”, “causes were forgotten and differences dropped. The community stood shoulder to shoulder and were not divided".
