Reason behind the death of the Irish Pub

Rabidlamb

I was in my local last night with the good lady wife for her birthday.
There was us & 2 other customers.
I'd been out a few Sunday's ago with the father-in-law & there was 10 people in the place.
We're talking about an establishment that did a bomb back 10 years ago & the town is small so the punters haven't just gone elsewhere.
I've listed some of the main factors behind the decline as I see it below, please add.

(1) The price of the pint, encroached & exceeded €5 the closer you got to Dublin. It was like a watershed for people that made them question their drinking.
(2) Replacing the splash mixer with the baby bottle, nobody likes to be gouged.
(3) High excise duties which were passed onto customer with interest.
(4) Branded beers for below €1 a bottle in supermarkets, nobody could justify paying 5 times the cost in a pub.
(5) Smoking ban, obvious enough.
(6) Crackdown & social disapproval with drink driving.
(7) The rise & rise & rise & rise of wine, perfectly suited for home drinking.
(8) Intransigence from Diageo regarding price reductions.
(9) The minimum wage.

I haven't included the recession as the downward trend was in place long before 2007.
Most will agree that it's a combination of all these factors but is there any one which acted as the final nail on the glory days.
I'm going for the huge popularity increase in wine.

Pepe LeFrits

(10) Most Irish pubs are rubbish.

The_Kew_Tour

off license

Wile E. Coyote

I'd go with the ridiculous price of the pint and piss poor service in most places.

Degag

It is as you said a mixture of alot of things, but without doubt, mostly price. In my local we are "lucky" enough to be able to buy a pint for under €4, yet people still complain. I work in the trade so i know the costs involved, and they are huge, but anything over €4.50 and definately €5 are a rip off pure and simple.

Minstrel27

Excessive greed is what is killing the Irish pub.

rockmongrel

The price of a pint, simply put. Why should I pay 3 or 4 times as much in a pub than I can pay at an off licence, it's ridiculous.

orourkeda

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Excessive greed is what is killing the Irish pub.

That sums it up.

neilthefunkeone

Craft beers and the lack of pubs uptake?

Look at Against the Grain in Dublin.. Pretty much all craft beers.. busy every day of the week...

The Scientician

Price is of course the main thing, for a lot of drinkers the smoking ban was a big turn off. On top of that a lot of pubs are a bit neither fish nor fowl. They don't know if they want a young or old crowd so you've got blasting music, making it hard to converse in what should be a quiet pub. I also think tellies in pubs should be turned OFF when there isn't a match on. They really destroy the atmosphere. Or maybe they should put something on other than sports that people might watch.

Ray Palmer

The biggest thing is really the smoking ban all the other things had happened before.

Drink driving I guess effected more rural pubs.

I would even actually say that some of these things done for health reasons may actually have had a negative effect on mental health which will in turn actually cost more lives. It will be interesting to see.

leviathon

Most pubs just don't bother putting in any effort with entertainment - live music/table quizzes things like that are something you won't get in your sitting room.

Why would you bother going to a place to pay mad money for drink to do what you can do at home for a fraction of the price. Least if there's something on like a free band I feel the extra I'm paying for the pint is going to something.

Degag

neilthefunkeone wrote: »

Craft beers and the lack of pubs uptake?

Look at Against the Grain in Dublin.. Pretty much all craft beers.. busy every day of the week...

I don't think it's a problem. I presume that pub is in the city? If so it's a niche pub in a large area. A pub like that will do well. Having pubs who specialise in craft beers in rural areas wouldn't really work. The bottles would be gathering dust on the shelves.

Wile E. Coyote

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Excessive greed is what is killing the Irish pub.

I have to say, some pubs are starting to cop on though. Was at home a few weeks ago and one pub was doing a deal, 6 bottles of beer and 2 shots for €20.

TheZohanS

In order:

• Price gouging
• Opening hours: people drink at home first now and often leave it too late to hit a bar/club
• Poor customer service: Stinking toilets, waiting ages to get served

7Sins

Some pubs are just shi*te and some pubs are good.

ItsAWindUp

Televisions.

Wile E. Coyote

ItsAWindUp wrote: »

Televisions.

While I agree to an extent you can't beat the banter that goes with watching a big match, be it soccer, rugby, gaelic, hurling etc in a pub with a load of other people.

Hannibal Smith

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

I have to say, some pubs are starting to cop on though. Was at home a few weeks ago and one pub was doing a deal, 6 bottles of beer and 2 shots for €20.

The only problem with that is you'll have the ones that don't know how to stop drinking and will keep going till they're legless. After that guy was killed outside Annabels nite club in dublin (Brian Murphy I think?) there was a huge crackdown on happy hours and deals on booze.

Whilst I'd say the price of the pint is a factor, I don't think it's a major one. If people want a drink they'll get one. There was no money in the 80s and the pubs were all doing good trade.

The Scientician

Hannibal Smith wrote: »

Whilst I'd say the price of the pint is a factor, I don't think it's a major one. If people want a drink they'll get one. There was no money in the 80s and the pubs were all doing good trade.

It's my understanding though that the gap between off-licence/supermarket prices and pub prices then was much smaller. Can anyone confirm this?

Hannibal Smith

TheZohan wrote: »

In order:

• Poor customer service: Stinking toilets, waiting ages to get served

That's where the smoking ban has effected it....you never got the whiff from the loos until the smoking ban came in

As for the ages getting served, whilst that's a turn off for me, I don't think that's really why the pubs have died...the Irish love a good queue

Lustrum

The smoking ban was the best thing that ever happened to Irish pubs! I'd much rather go for a pint in the local now than before.

Granted the price in most city pubs is a rip off, but there are plenty of "old man" pubs around both Dublin and Cork cities with reasonably priced pints, good service, and a great atmosphere. I'd happily pay €4.30/40 for a good pint of Guinness in a nice bar with good company

sock puppet

I think it's changing tastes mostly. Whereas my parents would have socialised in the pub a lot, it's not somewhere I or any of my mates would think of going on a night out.

ItsAWindUp

Wile E. Coyote wrote: »

While I agree to an extent you can't beat the banter that goes with watching a big match, be it soccer, rugby, gaelic, hurling etc in a pub with a load of other people.

True to an extent, but what about pubs that have televisions on constantly with Sky News or something?

Degag

ItsAWindUp wrote: »

True to an extent, but what about pubs that have televisions on constantly with Sky News or something?

Some people like it. Some people don't. You can't please everyone.

Damie

Is it a bad thing that our culture is moving away from the "pub" social scene?

We are developing into a multi cultural race with more interests and lifestyles than before. Tis called progress(seemingly);)

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Damie wrote: »

Is it a bad thing that our culture is moving away from the "pub" social scene?

We are developing into a multi cultural race with more interests and lifestyles than before. Tis called progress(seemingly);)

Not really, "home drinking" is hardly a cultural improvement.

Hannibal Smith

sock puppet wrote: »

I think it's changing tastes mostly. Whereas my parents would have socialised in the pub a lot, it's not somewhere I or any of my mates would think of going on a night out.

Where do you go?

jimthemental

ItsAWindUp wrote: »

True to an extent, but what about pubs that have televisions on constantly with Sky News or something?

They have to now. There's so few regulars in bars these days the barman would drop from boredom otherwise. I filled in for a lad in one of my local pubs lately. About 10 people served over the course of 12 hours. I couldn't bear twiddling my thumbs that long.

Dyr

Damie wrote: »

Is it a bad thing that our culture is moving away from the "pub" social scene?

We are developing into a multi cultural race with more interests and lifestyles than before. Tis called progress(seemingly);)

Yeah we'll having a quiet night in throwing acid in the missus face or having the local witchdoctor over to chop the chungfellas foreskin off. Hurrah and huzzah :pac:

marketty

All the points mentioned so far are true, another thing I've noticed personally is the huge increase in the popularity of individual sports such as running, cycling etc. In this country there has always been a link between team sports and drinking, whereas now people are much more health conscious and getting into sport/fitness for health benefits rather than the social side. That has been my experience anyway. That being said I hav taken advantage of very very cheap drink in supermarkets, and now find that rather than buying 20 bottles for €20 and drinking them at home over a weekend, thereby affecting my training, I'd actually rather go to the pub and spent €30 on a half dozen pints, reducing my consumption and enjoying the social aspect. I guess what I'm saying is if drinking alcohol is something you do to relax and enjoy yourself in the company of others the pub can't be beat unless you want the hassle of hosting parties all the time! I used to drink to get drunk but not anymore, like many irish people I have new hobbies