Workers' wages being paid by publicans

chewed

I was in the pub last night and we were discussing how workers' wages in Ireland used to be paid through the local publican in many towns and villages. So many families went hungry due to the fact the father would inevitably drink everything as soon as he was paid.

I can't seem to find anything online relating to this part of Irish history. Just wondering if this was something the pubs had control over, or was it a deliberate process by the British rulers to keep the workers drunk and families downtrodden to deter any rebellious notions!

If anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

CIARAN_BOYLE

chewed wrote: »

I was in the pub last night and we were discussing how workers' wages in Ireland used to be paid through the local publican in many towns and villages. So many families went hungry due to the fact the father would inevitably drink everything as soon as he was paid.

I can't seem to find anything online relating to this part of Irish history. Just wondering if this was something the pubs had control over, or was it a deliberate process by the British rulers to keep the workers drunk and families downtrodden to deter any rebellious notions!

If anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

It was a custom in the UK as well.

You'll find it discussed in

he Teetotaler's Companion; Or, A Plea for Temperance a 19th published in London publication. Its mentioned there as a dieing custom.

In that book its mentioned that the custom is dieing except for certain job which were listed. It seemed to me that these job would not necessarily have an office where staff would have worked so the public house may have merely been a convenient place for the office staffers to meet the out of office based staff to pay them.

Another item to bear in mind is that many large landowners had a public house they owned on their lands. Landowners were often employees. The public house may have been the easiest place for the landowner to have staff come to receive wages.

chewed

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

It was a custom in the UK as well.

You'll find it discussed in

he Teetotaler's Companion; Or, A Plea for Temperance a 19th published in London publication. Its mentioned there as a dieing custom.

In that book its mentioned that the custom is dieing except for certain job which were listed. It seemed to me that these job would not necessarily have an office where staff would have worked so the public house may have merely been a convenient place for the office staffers to meet the out of office based staff to pay them.

Another item to bear in mind is that many large landowners had a public house they owned on their lands. Landowners were often employees. The public house may have been the easiest place for the landowner to have staff come to receive wages.

That's brilliant, thanks. I'll check out that book. Yeah, I suppose the pub was always the heart of most towns so probably was the best place for collecting wages. I was just thinking this was a deliberate process.

Peregrinus

It wasn't so much a case of wages being paid through publicans as of wages being paid in pubs. Publicans would make a room available on (usually) a Friday evening, and company staff would attend there to pay wages in cash to workers, who would (of course) spend them at the bar.

The practice was progressively outlawed by legislation, starting with the tellingly-named Payment of Wages in Public Houses Act 1883.

Ipso

Then there was the practice of cashing checks in pubs. I worked for an Irish company in London and had to do that as opening an account was a pain, I heard one pub would pay half the wages first and half much later.

pedroeibar1

chewed wrote: »

Yeah, I suppose the pub was always the heart of most towns so probably was the best place for collecting wages. .

It wasn’t just wages…..By the latter half of the 1800’s critics of the legal system in Ireland had complained for decades that lower courts were sometimes held in public houses, a room provided free of charge because the publicans knew a court day was good for business.

Coillte_Bhoy

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

It wasn’t just wages…..By the latter half of the 1800’s critics of the legal system in Ireland had complained for decades that lower courts were sometimes held in public houses, a room provided free of charge because the publicans knew a court day was good for business.

Hasn't died out completely

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/what-the-world-made-of-our-pub-court-29900848.html

THE "pig in the parlour" reared his head in international reports of Jenny Lauren's air rage incident -- but in this instance we may well be accused of asking for it.

The 'New York Post' gleefully described the courtroom setting as "unusual by American standards . . . in a makeshift court in a pub near the airport because there's no courtroom in the area".

Earlier, it said: "Irish cop Yvette Walsh testified that Lauren . . . apparently couldn't understand the officers' brogue."

Fox News was kind enough to explain the situation, albeit erroneously, saying: "While western Ireland has several official court buildings, junior judges often travel roving circuits and hold weekly hearings in different public houses in outlying villages, to make it easier for residents of rural areas to attend." The BBC tweeted: "BBC NEWS -- Jennifer Lauren air rage case heard in pub courthouse."

The 'Daily Mail' was delighted to inform its readers that Lauren sat "only feet away from Guinness and Heineken taps and under switched-off disco lights as her name was called out in the licensed premises".

The 'Daily Telegraph' zoomed in on the incongruous setting in the opening paragraph of the story, saying: "It was perhaps not the most appropriate venue for someone accused of being drunk and disorderly to make a court appearance."

It went on to explain to its readers how she faced charges "in a makeshift court set in a west Ireland country pub".