Pubs in Galway closing at 1am

Bazzo

Hadn't heard of this until last night. Arrived home from work around 12.30am with one of my housemates, headed out for a quiet drink and everywhere was dead & closed, had no idea what was going on. Eventually wandered up to Eyre Square to see what was going on. Karma seemed to still be open, but everywhere else was closed. Outside of Supermacs looked like an even huger riot than usual, back home without our pint by 1am.

KKBL

Don't Karma, Halo and Electric Garden stay open until 3 am though?

yer man!

KKBL wrote: »

Don't Karma, Halo and Electric Garden stay open until 3 am though?

not in a very long time, i was Electric Garden last sat and we had to go at about 1:45

keano89

I think a lot of the problems stem from some peoples attitudes and behaviour towards drink. If the closing times were extended to say 5 or 6 a.m. some people would view this as an order that they have to stay in the pub/club until that time and make sure that they twisted drunk. Unfortunately it is these irresponsible drinkers who ruin it for the rest of us. Maybe stricter serving policy might sort this problem out and we could at the same time have extended serving hours.

yer man!

yer man! wrote: »

not in a very long time, i was Electric Garden last sat and we had to go at about 1:45

I was in there last Saturday as well and nobody left till near 3am. Maybe your watch was broken.

Unless they cleared out the downstairs part and left us upstairs at the outdoor area as thats where I was from 1am on.

inisboffin

There is merit in the argument that we tend to be 'time-ist' with our licensing laws - catering for a 9-5 crowd when not all of us have those hours.
But as with all business, majority often dictates, and people do mostly work 9-5.

On the note of the tourist thing, surely this has no effect on 'residents bars'? If people come on holidays here expecting a late pint, then back at the hotel might be the job. I'd agree that Galway doesn't have the best club scene in the world, so the lateness probably is more about the gargle in fairness.

So just to be clear, as people have said conflicting things on here - from reading the Advertiser post (correct me if I have this wrong)

Mon - Thurs hours are serving 'til 11.30 with a half hour drinking up - out at 12
Fri/Sat - serving until 12.30, out by 1

Late *extension* lets you serve until 1 (out by 1.30).

In other words it's probably worth it for pubs to do it on a Thursday night say, as it buys them an hour and a half more serving, but it essentially only buys a half an hour at the weekend, so Thursday might become the new Saturday for all those non-traditional hours people!

bigpink

Whats is the actual law on this??Coppers in Dublin goes til 4 amd and later

djPSB

bigpink wrote: »

Whats is the actual law on this??Coppers in Dublin goes til 4 amd and later

Exactly, same rules should apply everywhere.

leeroybrown

bigpink wrote: »

Whats is the actual law on this??Coppers in Dublin goes til 4 amd and later

Each district court (and if I understand it correctly even local mayoral districts) have discretion to extend licensing for bar exemptions from the default 1am at their whim. Unfortunately the Galway City whim is 1am and the Gardaí for the first time in many many years have decided to strictly enforce this.

djPSB wrote: »

Exactly, same rules should apply everywhere.

Exactly the same law does apply. Unfortunately licensing in general is outdated and a mess.

yer man!

gilberto_eire wrote: »

I was in there last Saturday as well and nobody left till near 3am. Maybe your watch was broken.

Unless they cleared out the downstairs part and left us upstairs at the outdoor area as thats where I was from 1am on.

Ya i was downstairs anyway for the latter half of the night. Were they still serving drink upstairs at that time?

Predalien

Little My wrote: »

Seriously, how many foreign tourists come for the clubs?

Nightlife, the pubs, the craic, yes... but I really don't think they come to go clubbing between 1 and 2am.

I've worked in hospitality a good bit and most of my experience is that the majority of foreign tourists go to be early and are up at the crack of dawn. They would be queueing to check out when I started my shift at 7.30am.

Irish tourists, maybe, but if all they are interested in is clubbing they will probably go somewhere else. Galway clubs really aren't that jaw-droppingly spectacular.

Whilst I agree about the foreign tourists, Galway does attract a lot of stag/hen parties, who will take their business elsewhere if they know they won't be able to stay out past 1. They may not be the most desirable tourist but they are the type to spend a lot of money locally so it will have an impact.

df1985

speaking as someone from Kildare who loves a good weekend in Galway with friends, if this continues we'll be going elsewhere. the best thing going for galway is the nightlife.

and closing supermacs?? no sense...

leeroybrown

I have to say that last week I met tourists in the smoking area of a pub during normal licensing hours who were complaining about being kicked out early the previous night. They didn't understand what was happening. They'd come to Galway to do the normal tourist stuff by day then to enjoy the craic by night. Once they realised what was happening they said they'd be grabbing a bus elsewhere the the next day. People may not come to Galway for the "clubbing" but a decent portion of our visitors expect good night life while they're here.

dloob

The Gardai are not for turning it seems.

http://www.galwaynews.ie/27314-city-garda%C3%AD-stand-firm-face-pubs-furore

Galway City Tribune wrote:

City Gardaí stand firm in face of pubs furore

Galway Gardaí have moved to clarify that nothing has changed in relation to the closing hours of the city’s bars, ‘late night’ pubs or nightclubs amid claims that jobs will be lost in the hospitality industry due to stricter enforcement.

Garda sources say that the existing licensing laws governing late night opening of pubs and nightclubs have possibly been enforced more rigorously in the past couple of weeks, but nothing has changed in terms of the actual law on opening hours – late pubs and clubs can open until 2am Friday and Saturday and 1am the rest of the week, if they have special exemptions.

“I don’t know what the fuss is about or why there is a furore. This has been the case for years, late bars and nightclubs apply to the District Court for special exemptions, and that is 1am up to Thursday and 2am on Friday and Saturday. It has been the same for years and publicans and certainly their solicitors who apply for the special exemptions on their behalf know exactly what the closing time is. There should be no confusion,” said the Garda spokesperson.

I don’t know what the fuss is about or why there is a furore.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that while this is been strictly enforced, Eyre Square is still an open haven for scumbags to drink 24/7.
What a great image that gives of the city, first place you arrive too and there's a few dirt bags hanging around drinking.

Have no problem with the normal winos myself, but there is an element of scum that hang around Eyre Square who'd have no trouble putting the bottle over your head at night.

Why don't they start there before running normal people out of pubs.

I'd love to see a stand against this, wouldn't it be great if they turned up and all few 100 in the pub told them to take a hike, they'd have no option but to just leave again.

Shans28

This is just madness really. Some people won't be happy until every bit of enjoyment we have left is stamped out.

I agree with the pain that is anti-social behaviour. And yes, this is often related to drink. But from my experience, in Co Galway, alot of this behaviour is from younger kids, drinking down lanes and in car parks. Closing a pub or club in Galway at 1am is not going to stamp out the behaviour of these lads.

I was talking to a mate of mine that was supposed to be coming to Galway as part of a gang for a birthday in a few weeks. After hearing this, it looks like they are going to Dublin instead. There is a group of maybe 8-10 drinkers that I know of, already deciding its not worth the trek to Galway and are taking their business elsewhere. The problem is the laws, for sure. But the Guards on their mission for shut down Galway is sure not helping!

Little My

Shans28 wrote: »

I was talking to a mate of mine that was supposed to be coming to Galway as part of a gang for a birthday in a few weeks. After hearing this, it looks like they are going to Dublin instead.

I don't get this.... is an hour of extra drinking really that important?

Granted, I don't go out late but I just don't see what the fuss is for an extra hour.

I went to see friends in Spain a few times when I was younger and they all went out really late and the idea was that you would be out all night.

What I often seen happening was that by 2am or 3am everyone would be shattered but the hunt was always for somewhere else to go and no-one wanted to cave first. It seemed a little ridiculous to be honest.

Luca Brasi

In ciivilised countries licensing laws are a lot more relaxed but for some reason Irish people cannot be trusted to drink responsibly and any sign of the pulling down of shutters means a replica of the Pamplona bull run

lovefestguy

Just to clear up some confusion which seems to be permeating this thread, Galway late bars and night clubs have paid for their exemptions but due to one Judge's ruling and subsequent Judges upholding that ruling and the recent decision of Gardai to enforce that 2000 ruling, Galway is now a city apart from the rest of the country supplied herein are the two links which explain it. Link 1 is the intoxicating Liquor act 2003, see section 5.5, which reads a special exemption may be applied to 2:30 Monday to Saturday and 1:00 on a Sunday, this is for both late bars and nightclubs, unless the court for stated reasons deems an earlier time. Link 2 is the stated reason of Judge Garavan that the women frequenting them were “dreadful and not respectable”. So apparently if we can get some of the lovely Dublin women to frequent Galway bars and nightclubs we could stay open till 2:30 like the capitol.
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2003/en/act/pub/0031/sec0011.html
http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2000/07/25/current/ipage_35.htm[/B]

As someone who works in the industry, this will impact heavily on jobs in this sector, as why would a club open from 11 to 1 during the week, much better to just close up shop and wait for the weekend. This will effect Galway badly as a tourist destination and will definitely curb the growth of Galway's main colleges.

inisboffin

An odd thing (which remains to be seen for sure of course) is that a few mates who play music in town (on both sides of the river) have noticed that the gigs were much busier than usual. People came out a bit earlier to go to a gig as opposed to a club.
If it encourages pub owners to pay more for more live music to entice people in earlier, rather than sticking on a CD late (or a crappy dj), then perhaps all is not negative about this change.

joeKel73

Each District Court has different opening hours, which is set by the District Court judge, which is why Cork and Dublin have later opening times than Galway.

^ Surely this is where the attention should be focused. Especially now that it's a hot topic the Gardai can't back down from enforcing the law as it stands.

cgpg5

Little My wrote: »

I don't get this.... is an hour of extra drinking really that important?

Granted, I don't go out late but I just don't see what the fuss is for an extra hour.

I went to see friends in Spain a few times when I was younger and they all went out really late and the idea was that you would be out all night.

What I often seen happening was that by 2am or 3am everyone would be shattered but the hunt was always for somewhere else to go and no-one wanted to cave first. It seemed a little ridiculous to be honest.

Yes it's huge.

At least you're in no rush to go out and can take your time. Lets face it when you go all the way to galway for a birthday you don't exactly want to be leaving a club at 1. Very often clubs didn't get busy till half 12 previously

Ficheall

lovefestguy wrote: »

This will effect Galway badly as a tourist destination and will definitely curb the growth of Galway's main colleges.

It will affect it, aye, but not necessarily in a negative way. Galway does have other attractions besides alcohol. I reckon in the long-term it could be a good thing.

Though the streets have certainly been messier than usual the last few nights..

Storm 10

I was in the UK a few months ago and every pub I went into it closed at 11pm how come they dont "Lose Jobs" Lose vIsitors"

THe whole thing is scare mongering

_Puma_

J o e wrote: »

^ Surely this is where the attention should be focused. Especially now that it's a hot topic the Gardai can't back down from enforcing the law as it stands.

Agree completely! Everyone I know is blaming the Gardai but at the end of the day they are just enforcing the law. I'm sure they could also be enforcing a lot of other laws, but there was probably a tipping point after the races and the new Super Intendant decided to dig their heels in over it!

But back to the point above why on earth was a law like this ever be allowed put in place by some judge who is obviously out of touch with modern Galway and couldn't give a flying f*%£ about tourism or how a modern city runs. Have really lost all faith in the Judicial system in this country what with the spate of Suspended Sentences being handed out lately!

aido179

Time to buy a winese.

What was the position before 2000?

I remember heading to nightclubs before 11:30 to get value out of the night.

cgpg5

What's the story with late bars on friday/sat. Do the likes of Buskers, Front Door stay open till 2 still on these nights? Cheers

Squeeonline

I think it would be interesting if the pubs/clubs/bars did a SOPA style blackout. Close for 24 hours. It'll let people know how terrible the situation is, and how much the venues will resist it.

lovefestguy

Ficheall wrote: »

It will affect it, aye, but not necessarily in a negative way. Galway does have other attractions besides alcohol. I reckon in the long-term it could be a good thing.

Though the streets have certainly been messier than usual the last few nights..

As a student city (25000+) it will definitely stop students coming here, as one of the main attractions is a vibrant social scene, this effects the colleges growth, rental demand and local businesses. As places such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Sligo will have clubs open to 2 all week, whereas in Galway everyone is told to go to bed at 1. Surely you can see this is one law for Galway and another for the rest of the country. Just because our Judges believe that no respectable people would frequent these vile dens of iniquity. This post is by one of those no good people who frequents these dens during the week, as all weekend I serve Judges, Councillors and other Galway business people, free wine at functions until 2, but then during the week I must be content to pay for my drink till 1.