Shortly before Christmas, I read a letter to the editor of the Irish Times written by Dr Kathy McLoughlin. Dr McLoughlin is a psychologist who has spent decades working in health and social care, specialising in disability services, palliative care, gerontology and mental health. She decried the decline of the Irish rural pub and her words affected me profoundly.

“When the pub shuts,” Dr McLoughlin wrote, “so too does the informal welfare system that has quietly operated for generations.” She goes on to say that if it is considered important to sustain rural Ireland, it will be necessary “to stop treating pubs solely as private businesses and start seeing them as pieces of community infrastructure”.

Her words echo my own feelings precisely. In fact, those two quotations sum up my position on the significant role of the pub to society in both Britain and Ireland more succinctly than I have ever managed. In particular, the idea of the pub as “community infrastructure” struck a chord. As a former museum curator, I have seen parallels between pubs and the cultural sector.

I worked in museums and galleries for a decade and a half and not one of them made any significant money. Certainly not enough to be entirely self-sustaining. That doesn’t mean that they lack worth. Cultural institutions are considered essential community infrastructure, and often supported by centralised money, because without access to art, history and inspiration all of our lives are poorer.

But when the only pub in a village closes, detractors on social media are quick to jump in.

“If it made money, it wouldn’t have had to close, would it?”

The usual, predictable sneering response. Those faceless keyboard warriors don’t seem to notice, or care, that a vital community lifeline has been lost. Perhaps we need to collectively consider ideas of intangible value more closely. As Dr McLoughlin wrote in her letter, “we should examine whether every rural resident is entitled to a local social hub within reasonable reach, in the same way they are entitled to broadband or public transport.”

I would argue that this examination should extend to urban populations as well. All of our third spaces, those areas where we can socialise outside of work or the home, are disappearing at a frightening rate. Since austerity measures were first implemented in 2010, there has been a decimation of so-called “non-essential” services. Libraries, youth clubs and more have been closed. Budgets have been severely reduced for charities and, indeed, museums, leaving them hobbling along, usually with reduced hours and skeleton staffing.

This leaves private enterprise to pick up the slack. We heard so many stories during the pandemic of pubs offering services that were simply not accessible to some nearby residents anywhere else. Checking in on the elderly and vulnerable. Offering affordable, or even free, home-cooked meals to those in need. Forging connections and supporting mental health across all demographics.

Pubs have always done these things and, indeed, still do them. They just attracted more media attention during Covid. There were plenty of pubs near me offering Christmas Day meals to those who would otherwise have spent the day alone this year, for example, many of them at no charge. I’m sure that examples of such altruism can be identified in every county.

My friend, Denzil Martin, landlord of the Unicorn Inn in Little Dawley, Telford, has just hit his goal of raising £10,000 for the Samaritans in a year. He’s done this through completing 12 marathons in 12 months, but also through a programme of fundraising events and activities in the pub through 2025. That’s a huge contribution to an important cause, and again just one example out of many hundreds of fundraising efforts that are spearheaded by our wonderful publicans.

These big gestures should not overshadow the day-to-day though. So many pubs offer important access to non-drinking activities throughout the year. There are men’s shed clubs, book groups, veterans groups, in fact, every kind of organisation you can think of that find a warm welcome in the pub. Even just offering the day’s newspaper and a board game or two at a pub can give people the push they need to take a step away from isolation or the stresses of daily life.

It’s hard to imagine what can encourage our politicians to offer genuine financial support to our privately run pubs, when public services are already dangling on the end of a shoestring. But it seems to me that they need to start thinking very hard about their priorities. I can’t imagine life without easy access to the pub any more than I can contemplate living a full life without the arts playing a key role.

There are perhaps many more people who could be benefitting from our existing “informal welfare system” too. But for that, we need to keep the lights on in our pubs.