One of the country's longest running and most respected music venues closes its doors for the last time this evening. Our man in Mullingar, Ronan Casey, has broken the sad news on his blog that The Stables and Yukon Bar in the Westmeath town will be no more. Owners Miriam and Tommy MacManus have put the decision to wrap up their business down to the tough trading environment since the recession hit.
"The pub game has changed utterly," Tommy, who took over the then-O'Briens Bar in 1971, told Casey. "Music is also no longer what it used to be. Peo­ple expect it to be free and don’t want to sup­port the artists, either at gigs or by buy­ing their albums, so the time was right for us to step back."
The likes of Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, The Frames, the late Mic Christopher and Duke Special were just a number of the fine acts who graced The Stables' stage over the years.