WHAT long-term survival prospect can there possibly now be for the "wee local" in towns and villages across the north if the hospitality behemoth that is the Duke of York has decided to call time?
Adorned inside and out with clever murals and artwork, street signage, memorabilia and hundreds of old Belfast photos, the Duke isn't so much a pub as an institution.
It's been the lifeblood of the city. A magnet for tourists as well as locals. (And it's maybe just as well those heavily bedecked walls can't talk . . . .)
But that the craic, the music and the humour are on hold, possibly until at least next Easter, is the clearest indication yet of the excruciating damage that the restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus are doing to the pubs trade.
Its temporary closure - and the very human collateral damage of dozens of full- and part-time workers being put on notice - won't be the final nail in the coffin for the Duke of York and sister hostelry the Harp Bar.
Up to 50 jobs going as iconic Belfast bars set to stay closed until Easter
In the last three years alone, affable owner Willie Jack has injected something in the region of £3.5 million into regenerating the Hill Street/Commercial Court part of Cathedral Quarter, and that investment won't be thrown away.
For despite this stinging setback, the business isn't exactly on its uppers (last year it increased turnover from £6.5m to £8.2m while profits jumped to £2.1m - an enviable performance ratio in anybody's books).
No. There's clearly liquidity in this business, and the lights will come on again in the Duke and Harp, however long it takes.
But for other pubs across Northern Ireland, many already living on debt, with no extra funds around the corner, and with the state-backed job retention scheme ending this month, putting hundreds more jobs at risk, the stark reality is that the beer taps will be permanently turned off.
The decision by Commercial Court Inns to put staff on notice merely makes an already desperate decision even more urgent.
The lyrics of the children's nursery rhyme 'The Grand Old Duke of York' (they don't require repeating here) have become proverbial for futile action.
But there can't be any more futile gestures from government. It urgently needs to find a way to adjust the restrictions to ensure a balance in protecting public health and the need to protect those many hospitality businesses already teetering on the brink.
