At the foot of the Slieve Bloom mountains lies something magnificent: not a holy well or fairy fort, but something almost as rare – a reopened, bustling rural pub alive with chat and flourishing possibility.The Village Tap has been serving customers in Rosenallis, Co Laois, since December, 2025. Once known as Poole’s Tavern, it relaunched under a new name and new owners some six years after its previous iteration had closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The endeavour began as a labour of love for local men Wayne Walsh, who owns a construction company, and Mark Dunne, who runs a plumbing and heating business. Neither had owned nor run a pub before. “We have an interest in property – we’ve been buying and doing up properties since 2014, renting them and occasionally selling them. This building came up for sale. We didn’t want it to become derelict; that’s when we decided to take it on,” says Walsh. The two established a new company and financed the purchase of the pub through it, drawing on their backgrounds as tradespeople to undertake the extensive renovations themselves. They bought the building and yard in 2024 with an asking price of €375,000, and took over the pub licence in March, 2025. With a tight deadline in advance of the Christmas season, it was all hands on deck to refurbish and reopen the premises.“This was in a bad state of affairs,” says Dunne. “We did the construction, the rip out and the fitting. We got local tradespeople from the village and surrounding areas to do work. We had a designer on board, Intec Design, and Coburn Fitted Furniture fitted out the building for us,” adds Walsh. With just a few months to renovate and fit a new roof, was there ever a period where they thought they wouldn’t make the crucial deadline of opening before Christmas? “Every day,” laughs Walsh. His wife Ruth Farrell agrees: “It went down to the wire. It was six o’clock on the opening night and we were trying to bring in furniture,” she says. The project to restore the interior involved some vision. “We took down an old shed, the ruins of a shed, and salvaged the stone,” says Walsh.Owner Mark Dunne, manager Ruth Farrell and owner Wayne Walsh outside Village Tap in Rosenallis, Co Laois. Photograph: Alan Betson The Village Tap before its reopening and remodelling. Photograph: Wayne Walsh At the bar in Village Tap, Rosenallis, Co Laois. Photograph: Alan Betson Village Tap, Rosenallis, Co Laois. Photograph: Alan Betson But it is one thing to buy a pub and another to run one – particularly with no previous experience. “Working in construction, dragging concrete and doing manual work, I used to look at people in this industry and say, ‘They have it handy, inside in the heat.’ It’s actually the opposite. It’s back-breaking here. We thought we had the hard work done when we’d finished the building. But that’s when the work started,” says Walsh.Despite the positivity in new pints being poured in the Village Tap, there are hard figures to swallow for rural pubs. According to the most recent report from the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland, more than 2,000 pubs in the State have shut their doors in the last 20 years, amounting to one in every four pubs.“Pubs are closing down everywhere. Everyone asked were we mad to do this. We even asked were we mad to do this,” says Dunne. For a rural pub to thrive, parish support was needed. With a population of just more than 420 people, Rosenallis once had a filling station, small corner shop, pub and two churches. Now only the pub and churches remain, with parish priest Fr Tom Walshe and Church of Ireland Rev Lesley Robinson on hand to bless the Village Tap upon its grand opening. The village’s TidyTown committee had helped with the pub clean-up in advance, while in the beer garden, Rosenallis artist Tara Poole painted a mural showing St Brigid with the village in the background. The beer garden area prior to the reopening. Photograph: Wayne Walsh Tara Poole painting a mural for the outdoor area of the Village Tap The new beer garden at Village Tap, Rosenallis, Co Laois. Photograph: Alan Betson The new beer garden at Village Tap, Rosenallis, Co Laois. Photograph: Alan Betson “The whole village got on board. It’s a rural village with no amenities, now it has a pub and people are supporting it,” says Walsh. All three have noticed the benefits of the Local Link evening bus services, operated by Flaherty’s of Kinnitty, bringing people from neighbouring Co Offaly to Rosenallis, and from Rosenallis to Portlaoise. Two such customers are Rosenallis men Jonathan Bowes and John McEvoy. “It’s the best thing that’s happened to the village in years. For years we’ve had nowhere to meet up ... It’s just wonderful to be able to come out and meet people, regardless of whether you’re drinking or not. It’s a great resource to have in the village, and I’m very, very proud to say that I drink here and I’m proud to bring people in here. It really, really puts Rosenallis on the map,” says Bowes.“Come around the corner into the village two years ago, what were you facing in the village – dereliction. And you come around the corner now and your eyes just open up, it’s wonder and awe,” he adds.Restored pub, Village Tap in Rosenallis, Co Laois. Photograph: Alan Betson Jonathan Bowes and John McEvoy at Village Tap. Photograph: Siún Lennon “It’s excellent. brought a bit of life back around the place. The word seems to have got out about the place and the owners have done it up to such a high standard. It’s not only about drink. I’ve seen lots of people come in who are teetotallers, it’s somewhere to meet and have a chat,” says McEvoy. There is something to bring the non-teetotallers to the quaint village, too, though. With a pint of Guinness costing €5.50, it would be hard to find a cheaper pour in most Irish towns and cities. Along with the Village Tap, there has been another injection of business into the area. On the weekend of the pub’s opening, a beautician named The Beauty Haven opened next door, run by young local woman Faith Bennett. While keen to support new business in the area, Walsh also wanted to recognise older, more historic ties in the village. Beside the pub is a heritage Quaker building, originally a thatched two-storey, dating back to 1733 that was used as a soup kitchen in the Famine. There is also a Quaker burial ground in Rosenallis.In another, perhaps unintended, look to the past, there’s a striking realisation: very few patrons can be seen on their phones while visiting the Village Tap. The reason is simple: there’s barely any network available in the pub. It’s something Walsh, Dunne and Farrell acknowledge is a positive.Faith Bennett who runs The Beauty Haven, beside the Village Tap, Rosenallis, Co Laois.