Phoenix Bar to re-open:​ ‘I don’t want to give up on it yet’

​In early July, we spoke to the bar’s owner Garry Meehan about his decision to close the doors on the bar, and he cited high rates, a lack of taxis and a lack of events in the city to entice people in.

However, he is gearing up to give it another go, and we asked him why he believed the time was right to re-open.

“Honestly, I don’t know if it is the right time,” he said.

“Obviously I closed the bar in July and that was me done. But my contract ran until October on the lease and when it came time to go, I just couldn’t go.

“I looked around at the work that I had done and I just don’t want to give up on it yet.”

When the bar announced that it was closing time there was an outpouring of support on social media from those who were sad to see it go.

“Anybody who I was talking to said the same thing: ‘I can’t believe the Phoenix is closing’,” said Garry.

“But the Phoenix didn’t close because it was flat out. We will need people to come back out, to keep bars open in general.”

Garry conceded that the worries he had when closing the place haven’t gone away, and he is presented now with the challenge of getting people through the door.

“Newry needs people to come back out again, that is the big thing,” he said.

“Bars can’t put stuff on if people aren’t coming out and if bars aren’t putting stuff on then people don’t come out. It becomes a vicious cycle.

“I’m doing interviews to get in new members of staff at the moment and I’m asking people ‘how can we draw people in? What do you think we should do?’

“They’re suggesting things like doing a quiz on a Tuesday, band on a Wednesday, open mic night on a Thursday, karaoke on a Friday. But if you add all those expenses together, unless you have people in your bar, it's not going to work.”

There is no concrete date set yet for a return, but Garry is expecting that the bar will be back up and running before Halloween.