Following the closure of a Cork village’s last pub, a group of 70 locals clubbed together to re-open the establishment as a social hub for the community. Now residents of a 400-person village have raised €380,000 to re-open ‘Tigh Laitiarain’, named after St Laitiarain. AdvertisementOn The Hard Shoulder, director of Tigh Laitiarain, Damian Hickey, said shareholders’ goal in opening the pub was to “bring back the social venue for everyone, for young and old.” He said he hoped Tigh Laitiarain would prove financially viable in the future but that the main hope was to “keep the rural community alive.” Mr. Hickey said “the heart and soul went out of the village” when the pub closed and that smiles have returned to the faces of locals.