Irish pubs closing Down

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123505289#Comment_123505289

We're going to see an epidemic of 40- and 50-somethings dropping dead of heart attacks due to steroids and cocaine. The drink was safer…

CrabRevolution

My local town is the usual story of dwindling numbers of pubs. Was probably 15ish pubs plus a nightclub when I was a child, down to a dozen by the time I was drinking and it's sub 10 now with the nightclub also gone a while. This despite the town's population probably doubling since I was young.

When I started drinking, at least 2 thirds of my age group would try to get out for pints as regularly as our meagre finances allowed, especially on bank holiday weekends or the night of big games during the summer when we were off college or school. Today though the only night it seems the youth go to the pub is on 12 pubs night, when the town's streets and pubs are suddenly heaving with young revellers. It's not so much one pub at a time getting the crowd as about 4 or 5 pubs are jam packed for 2 hours while the enormous swell of punters passes through.

What it really illustrates to me though is 1. There is a huge demographic bulge of young people in the town and 2. These young people clearly aren't drinking in pubs the rest of the year because the pubs would be nowhere near as quiet if even 10% of them were there. There must be a large cohort of youths for whom going to the pub once a year at Christmas is enough. It's a major behavioural change from when I was young anyway.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506158#Comment_123506158

51mg is very very far off being drunk, but still lands you in a world of shít if caught.

For some drivers it's 20mg. FFS you can legally captain a 747 at 20mg.

Burt Renaults

I'm not much of a drinker - mainly because I've never liked noisy pubs. I happened to be dragged into my local one a few months ago, at around 10pm on a Friday. And I really enjoyed it. There can't have been more than twenty people in the whole place (half of whom were outside in the smoking area). A far cry from my younger days, when the place would be uncomfortably crowded and sweaty, full of boisterous laughing and shouting. You could actually have a conversation.

I'd happily go back, but it closed down last month.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123506528#Comment_123506528

You do realise these "limits" are completely made up?

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507320#Comment_123507320

Evidence based, on the damage that alcohol and the resulting cortisol does to human bodies is hardly "made up".

suvigirl

When I was young there was over 20 pubs in my home town, now there are 9 pubs, and they don't open except for weekends etc. I think there's only 3 that open during the week.

Society has changed, young ones don't want to go to pubs full of old wans from the town. They have their own stuff to do.

Hotblack Desiato

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507411#Comment_123507411

If they're "evidence based" why are our "recommended limits" different from those of the UK? Do our livers differ?

BP_RS3813

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507008#Comment_123507008

You are right

My apologies I should have elaborated - the amount we had used to be sustainable because a lot more of the population was drinking and the pub was the local community hub.

Now thats changed and not everyone drinks or considers it the community hub so the amount of the pubs is now far too great. There are not enough customers spread about evenly so that the amount of pubs we had has people coming in.

El_Duderino 09

The habit of going to thr pub has changed. One example from my life is parenting. In my parents generation, parenting was mostly done by mothers and the men could arrive in from work and go to the pub (or go to the pub after work for a few pints). But my wife and I both work full time so we split the parenting. One of us can't just be absent 3 nights a week and leave the other to do the parenting. It's not the kind of agreement we have. It would cause resentment in our relationship. I go to the gym 2 nights a week and that's fair enough for health reasons. But simply dipping for pints regularly would be out of order.

If you're parenting working full-time and parenting full-time, then there's very little room for pints. If you're paying childcare and saving for or paying a mortgage, then the good news is you probably won't have money for pints anyway, so it's all good.

Hermy

I don't drink that much or that often anymore which is no bad thing.

But last year I was up in Dublin for a gig and stopped into a nearby pub afterwards for a couple of pints.

It was quiet enough in there so we sat at the bar.

About 11:25 I asked for another pint - only my third, it was no big session - before we headed back to our hotel.

Sorry we're closed, I was told.

Is this a common thing now where pubs stop serving before closing time?

Now don't get me wrong, it was no big deal not getting another drink.

What bothered me was the fact that the barman, who we were sat in earshot of, couldn't be bothered asking us if we'd like another drink before they stopped serving, especially as they stopped before closing time.

There are lots of great pubs in Ireland where the staff do a great job and there's really no better place at times than a good pub with good food, good drink and a good atmosphere.

But too many of them just don't bother putting the effort in so it's little wonder that they might be struggling.

If they really are struggling they need to work hard to earn their custom instead of taking it for granted as they did for too long.

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507305#Comment_123507305

The entire system for the prevention of drink driving is flawed. That is why there have been so many cases in the courts over the last twenty years or those disqualified continue to drive . The system has no credibility .
As you imply,, there have drivers disqualified at alcohol intakes that they couldn’t possibly be impaired at .
There have even been cases where one test contradicted another while both were conducted by the same Garda.

bucketybuck

Theres something rather snide and arrogant about saying that there was no socialisation in pubs anyway, because of old lads nursing their pints at the bar.

What, do you have to do a standup routine or join a sharing circle for it to be considered socialising?

Perhaps that old lad at the bar nursing his pint lives alone and never gets to speak to anybody, finds it difficult to over share his thoughts, but still takes some value from listening to conversation and not feeling completely forgotten in the community.

The same people dismissing the dreary old holes would in the same breath preach to these lads about mental health and never once see the irony.

And no, I don't prop up any bars these days. But the sheer pretentiousness of some posters here would annoy you.

hawley

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507874#Comment_123507874

It seems like some of these people would like to see every pub closed. How many people in their fifties or sixties are going to the gym? Nothing wrong with people going out for a few pints and socialising in the evening. There's no atmosphere in the pubs in smaller towns now at the weekend. A lot of younger people are heading into the cities for a night out. They'll pay for a taxi between a group of them. See the pubs in Cork full on Friday and Saturday nights.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507874#Comment_123507874

I also see a contradiction in complaining about pubs as dreary and have bad toilets, wanting lots of money put into decorating and chefs for a gastro experiences, then complaining about the price increase.

If you price out locals who go regularly and know each other, and replace them with people who go occasionally, dont know each other and sit at their table to eat their food and read their phones. Then you're getting what you asked for.

GNWoodd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507874#Comment_123507874

Not just the pretentiousness but the sheer puritanical nature of what some of them post.
If posters don’t want to go to pubs, there is no one forcing them . Those of us who do don’t need a lecture on disordered behaviour or the numbers of units of alcohol we should drink .

HazeDoll

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508133#Comment_123508133

You're taking all this very personally. Nobody on this thread is responsible for pubs closing. Nobody but you is making it about your drinking habits.

Pauliedragon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123507411#Comment_123507411

I'm not disagreeing with you but hotblack isn't too far wrong. I used to have a serious drinking problem for years that was so bad I needed professional help. I had to get my liver and all my organs checked a few months ago due to medication I'm on. (medication has nothing to do with alcohol) and they all came back in perfect health. The medical community do over state things from time to time.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508001#Comment_123508001

There is a huge space between bad toilets and gastro pub.

You can put effort in to a pub without spending much money and without doing food. Some publicans think you can still just open the door and start making money. A lot of pubs barely have a mop.

An old fashioned pub that didn't renovate much over the years is now a gold mine if it is run well. Look at the likes of Callanan's, Tom Collins, Grogans or The Long Hall. No food and little else going on other than being a well run pub.

Quitelife

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508233#Comment_123508233

The pubs uiu speak of are in Dublin with lots of tourists and well off people , few parts of rural ireland have those types of people to get custom from

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508325#Comment_123508325

Cork, Limerick and Dublin actually.

Most big towns would have a few examples too. Yes they have more footfall but "well off" is definitely not true. There are plenty of people out drinking in Irish cities that are no more well off than out the country. Large parts of rural Ireland are populated by people commuting to cities doing the exact same jobs as city people.

Most proper rural pubs I have been into are exactly the kind of cliche dump you hear people talk about. No effort put in and an auld one behind the bar who is actively hostile to the idea of being a bar person. Rare I have been in one looks worth saving.

Dick phelan

Pubs need to diversify and find a niche. The days of just selling the generic stuff with football on the telly being enough to draw people in are gone. I do think we need to develop more evening social outlets, Cafe is great but not going to be open at 9pm.

Orban6

Rural area. Used to have 7 pubs within 2 miles or so. Only 2 now.

Various reasons for closures. In at least 2 cases, the older customers were literally dying off and the younger folk (not many of them anymore) just aren't interested.

One of the 2 remaining is open all day, everyday and seems to do great trade at the weekends when they have live music.

rolling boh

So many people need the use of their car so if you take drink driving laws seriously that limits your drinking quite a bit .

lumphammer2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123505465#Comment_123505465

I never found pubs to be particularly friendly and welcoming either ….. often the opposite actually ….. they can be very clannish and they can be paranoid of the likes of tourists and ask them out flat where were they from and what brought them here …… I more or less stopped going to pubs in around 2013 ….. it was just messy drunks and morose conversations about Anglo Irish Bank at the time ….. the same old same old week in week out year in year out ……

I do not believe that young people today necessarily drink less than those of other generations ….. those who drink will always drink many to excess too ….. but they are just not factoring pubs into the equation ….. many are meeting in each others' houses ….. and/or saving up to go to festivals and the like …..

The club scene has been dying for decades …..even 25-30 years ago the club scene was showing signs of cracking …… many began to tire of the clubs with the massive crowds, often full to capacity and one could not even get in …… not to mention the ear-piercing loud techno and rave ….. they instead met in houses and had their own thing going incl karaoke machines …… I remember my first night in a club ….. Cher's pro club reinvention from her original style Believe played non stop …… watered down budweiser and a beer called breo ….. and manky seats and tables ….. every time I hear Believe to this day I am brought back to the nights I spent in the clubs ….. and not with nostalgia !!!!!!!! …….

Mister Vain

A lot of opinion pieces in the indo about the death of nightclubs too and how its such a travesty that young people aren't getting to experience it nowadays. As if every single young person is going to be into clubbing. Most of the nightclubs in small towns were terrible anyway. Plus there are so many options for young people now that didn't exist 20 years ago.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508486#Comment_123508486

Don't know exactly how rural you are talking but 7 pubs in 2 miles with Ireland's lack of density sounds like the old way was the abnormality rather than the 2 you have now.

BP_RS3813

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508657#Comment_123508657

Ah yes, what an experience. Loud techno rave shyte, closed space with very little room, no air conditioning, people getting pissed etc.

Why do old cnuts want young people to experience pub and nightclubs (key thing here is the middle aged 40 year olds now still think clubbing is the 'thing" nowadays).

HazeDoll

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123508657#Comment_123508657

My first reaction when teenagers tell me they don't go to nightclubs is that they're missing out on a vital formative life experience. I used to love nightclubs. Loved revisiting a familiar haunt, loved finding the best new places. The building excitement as we queued outside listening to the bass emanating from within. Dancing, shifting, the craic at the chipper or on the bus home. Loved it.

But I had conveniently forgotten an awful lot of what went on too:

There was a lot of ecstasy in those days, and some very unsavory types supplying it.

Towards the end of my nightclubbing years, drink spiking had become a legitimate concern.

Almost every girl I knew had a story about being cornered, or worse, by some drunk and horny chap.

Horrible letchy creepy bouncers who would let a group of friends in and stop the last girl and make her beg and plead to be allowed in. Was this just a Galway thing? Never saw it anywhere else.

Waiting for taxis or buses often meant hours on the roadside or giving up and embarking on long walks through various towns and cities in silly heels and impractical clothes.

One friend of mine that frequently got so off her knockers that she would go missing. We often found her unconscious somewhere or wandering off with sketchy strangers. So many nights were ruined by her inability to stop when she had had enough. And there was never any shortage of sketchy strangers.

And the high-pitched humming in your ears when you eventually got to your bed!

I loved it and I came through it relatively unscathed but would I be happy for an 18yo to take all those risks? We had some great nights that went down in history but some very uncomfortable or forgettable nights too. And probably some very narrow escapes.

yagan

Demographics.

Twenty years ago a quarter of the population was of the prime pub going age of between 20 and 35, now that cohort is around 18% and more health conscience.

I went back contracting recently where the majority of the staff were in that 20-35 bracket and I was really surprised by how into the gym most were. Twenty years earlier when I was in their age group going to the pub after work at least a couple of times a week was a definite.

There's just a different dynamic and while I don't chime with it I don't miss the booze orientated social scene of the past.