Is the Irish pub in trouble?

topper75 · 09-04-2018 10:14AM

Deleted User wrote: »

No loss if they are. The whole tvs blaring in every corner crap when you just want to have a quiet chat with somebody long ago turned me off them. And heaven forfend that you decided to meet on a night when a group of obnoxious people are screaming at it/ imposing their noise on you.

Excellent points Fuaranach - but there are a few decent places left that don't entertain that.

razorblunt · 09-04-2018 10:27AM

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

The food in pubs in Ireland tends to be far superior to the equivalent found in England. The casual dining scene in England and Wales tends to be shïte in general. Chain restaurants, Pret, and microwaved pub grub.

You've been going to the wrong places then.
Or maybe its a good job I live in Scotland.

chrissb8 · 09-04-2018 10:48AM

Tell me how wrote: »

I think both parties need to think what type of venue they want. Some pubs could do more certainly, some people could also consider their responsibility/opportunity towards generating an atmosphere.

Take quiz nights, they're something we aren't very good at doing here, a pub could organize it very easily but it needs people to participate.

Quiz nights, karaoke, pool, darts or card tournaments are very easy to put on, but, they need people to turn up or else they'll be a bust and won't happen again.

P.S. I like Heineken. Think there's a lot of snobbery around artisan beers.

Agree with your points but people will come because the events themselves. Sweeten these competitions up with prizes and people will come.

Just on the Artisan beer snobbery. I liken it to food. We all like good quality tasty food aplomb with variety. I don't see why this should be any different to drink. Heineken is grand but frankly there are companies putting out much tastier and better made stuff. Think people have copped that and started thinking why they even bothered sticking to 2 or 3 beers for years and years when beer is very diverse with 100's of years of different techniques and the same amount of varieties.

I mean I don't sit there laughing at others for drinking Budweiser I just think it's a bit sad that something that people do a lot in this country can be a little unadventurous when it comes to having some beers. Each to their own though.

beefburrito · 09-04-2018 11:17AM

JupiterKid wrote: »

Welll as an alcoholic in early recovery I personally don’t lament the demise of the pub culture.

But look at how much booze can be bought now in supermarkets, petrol stations as well as offies, Home drinking might actually be more dangerous than pubs where the barman might tell you to go home as you’ve had enough.

I’d love to see much more late evening cafes here. In Dublin it’s virtually impossible to have a coffee or a cuppa after 8pm unless it’s in a pub.

Nothing better than gossip and taking people's inventory in a cafe

Zebra3 · 09-04-2018 11:26AM

Big shout out to those in rural pubs with their WhatsApp groups to advise each other about AGS checkpoints that may be operating in their area.

Help keeping the bodies piling up.

Agricola · 09-04-2018 11:35AM

I was sitting in the viewing area of a local mountain one Sunday afternoon and I was struck by the number of middle aged fellas with paunches packed into a lycra top, that whizzed by me on a cycling event. 20/30 years ago and more, these lads would have spent their Sundays in the local scoffing pints.

We've moved on. We like to live up to the "happy drunken Irish" stereotype every now and again but the days of the pub being like a second home for people is long gone. People have finally discovered that there's lot of other things you can do with your time off.

JohnnyFlash · 09-04-2018 11:43AM

Zebra3 wrote: »

Big shout out to those in rural pubs with their WhatsApp groups to advise each other about AGS checkpoints that may be operating in their area.

Help keeping the bodies piling up.

Any proof of this, or just idle speculation and hearsay?

Day Lewin · 09-04-2018 11:44AM

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I don't think the smoking ban affected anything. Even as a smoker, I find the environment much more pleasant.

The big problem, that is now irreversible, is that the pub is no longer THE PLACE to socialise. Even through the Celtic Tiger era and the crash, the Pub was still the place to catch up with close friend and bump into old acquaintances from the area. Now social media does this for us.

For my closest friends, I haven't been out with them in nearly a month, but I know what they're all up to, all the big news etc via WhatsApp etc. For old acquaintances, they update their Facebook, Twitter and whatever.

10 Years ago, if you didn't go to the pub you were out of the loop. It was a fun place to but more importantly it was the primary place of socializing. Now its not, it's just an occasionally fun, yet expensive place to be.

Things like Netflix and Video on Demand are also a big player in the death of the local pub.

Yeah, but that isn't a weakness: it's a strength. Pubs can now be appreciated from time to time as the social oasis that they are; it is no longer a default that anyone MUST go there because there's nothing else to do!

I have a varied social life which includes friends, family, parties, visits, travelling and social media. So I don't go to pubs all that often. But when I do, I can sit, sip a drink, chat or read, and just relax. And there are several near enough to walk home from.
It is a traditional pleasure, a temple to the art of conversation. Which is far from dead!

PS And the drink doesn't have to be alcohol, either. I'm not so sad that I can't socialise without booze.

The Bishop Basher · 09-04-2018 11:45AM

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Now that Ireland is less bleak, the pubs (and mental homes) are less needed.

Everyone's just medicating at home now instead.

The rise in addiction and mental health issues is disturbing.

At least the pub was a social outlet for many, talking to real people instead of strangers on a laptop.

Zebra3 · 09-04-2018 11:48AM

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Any proof of this, or just idle speculation and hearsay?

Had locals boasting about it to me.

Tell me how · 09-04-2018 11:59AM

Zebra3 wrote: »

Had locals boasting about it to me.

Well that's empirical evidence.

Some lads tole me that no one in towns are drinking anymore because they're all bombed out of their skulls on coke.*

Can we take that as fact too?

* I am being flippant even though I suspect plenty might also tell me here that this is the case.

JohnnyFlash · 09-04-2018 12:03PM

Swanner wrote: »

Everyone's just medicating at home now instead.

The rise in addiction and mental health issues is disturbing.

At least the pub was a social outlet for many, talking to real people instead of strangers on a laptop.

The bottle of 14% red wine a night in front of the telly to ‘relax’ is becoming a huge problem according to the leading addiction psychiatrist in the country. He was on the radio a few weeks ago. Numbers going to rehab is through the roof.

thebull85 · 09-04-2018 12:09PM

I love pubs.

Stonedpilot · 09-04-2018 12:10PM

JupiterKid wrote: »

Welll as an alcoholic in early recovery I personally don’t lament the demise of the pub culture.

But look at how much booze can be bought now in supermarkets, petrol stations as well as offies, Home drinking might actually be more dangerous than pubs where the barman might tell you to go home as you’ve had enough.

I’d love to see much more late evening cafes here. In Dublin it’s virtually impossible to have a coffee or a cuppa after 8pm unless it’s in a pub.

Early recovery?. Dont get wrapped up in that 12 stepper AA diatribe.

I have met guys "in recovery" 40/50 years think they have an incurable disease havent had a drink in maybe 30 years and still think they are "alcoholic". And doing 12 steps will cure the incurable disease.
Alot of mental gymnastics to go through!.

The truth is recovery is a minset you are always in when does one leave recovery in AA. Never.
Not really step 12. Continued to ...

kunst nugget · 09-04-2018 12:10PM

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

The bottle of 14% red wine a night in front of the telly to ‘relax’ is becoming a huge problem according to the leading addiction psychiatrist in the country. He was on the radio a few weeks ago. Numbers going to rehab is through the roof.

And yet the amount we drink as a nation has dropped considerably since the height of the boom years and we've slipped down the European drinking league from 8th to 18th.

https://www.independent.ie/life/health-wellbeing/health-features/young-people-in-ireland-are-drinking-less-alcohol-than-their-parents-and-this-could-be-the-reason-why-35831374.html

I'd hazard the guess that if there is a rise in people going to rehab, it's because people are becoming more cognisant of the fact that their drinking is becoming an issue and seek help with it rather than just burying the problem under more drinking as would have been the more likely solution in times past.

draiochtanois · 09-04-2018 12:15PM

This post has been deleted.

Cienciano · 09-04-2018 12:16PM

Tell me how wrote: »

Well that's empirical evidence.

Some lads tole me that no one in towns are drinking anymore because they're all bombed out of their skulls on coke.*

Can we take that as fact too?

* I am being flippant even though I suspect plenty might also tell me here that this is the case.

Is a whatsapp group like that so far fetched? I mean, it's normal for pubs to tell people of checkpoints, pubs have been doing it for years. Doing it through whatsapp is unbelievable somehow?

JohnnyFlash · 09-04-2018 12:18PM

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I’d be pretty sure the recovery plans they suggest involve more than just a few pills. Medication, talk therapy, support groups, meditation, exercise, routine as well. A holistic approach to recovery.

Zebra3 · 09-04-2018 12:21PM

Tell me how wrote: »

Well that's empirical evidence.

Some lads tole me that no one in towns are drinking anymore because they're all bombed out of their skulls on coke.*

Can we take that as fact too?

* I am being flippant even though I suspect plenty might also tell me here that this is the case.

You can believe whatever you ever want.

JohnnyFlash · 09-04-2018 12:22PM

Stonedpilot wrote: »

Early recovery?. Dont get wrapped up in that 12 stepper AA diatribe.

I have met guys "in recovery" 40/50 years think they have an incurable disease havent had a drink in maybe 30 years and still think they are "alcoholic". And doing 12 steps will cure the incurable disease.
Alot of mental gymnastics to go through!.

The truth is recovery is a minset you are always in when does one leave recovery in AA. Never.
Not really step 12. Continued to ...

Just because AA didn’t work for you, or someone you know, doesn’t mean it hasn’t worked for millions of people worldwide. It has saved literally millions of lives, and given them a life they couldn’t have imagined while in the depths of alcohol addiction.

Your advice to someone in recovery in that post of yours was less than useless.

JupiterKid · 09-04-2018 12:25PM

munchkin_utd wrote: »

more than that though, in the past Ireland was a different place than nowadays in so many ways
- houses were crap, seriously, my mother in law was brought up with 8 other kids in a tiny thatched cottage, which was then "renovated" by covering the thatch with corraged sheets. It'd drive you to the drink, but not at home, where would you sit with all the kids about the place !
- there was way more bachelors down the country than nowdays, often working and living on a relatives farm, in tiny crappy houses full of kids. It'd definitely drive you to the pub.
- if you were a bachelors down the country, and didn't own a farm, you were never going to marry as you just hadn't the means to support a family. Actually, your life was just horrible, and the only escape was the pub, or the mental home, or be a priest, or emigrate.

Its hard for a lot of people nowadays to comprehend how bleak Ireland was, but for so many up until relatively recently the pub was just the only escape from the bleakness.

Now that Ireland is less bleak, the pubs (and mental homes) are less needed.

All very true. This country was deeply repressed and dirt poor. I would also add that at least some of those bachelor farmers were deeply repressed gay men in the closet who drank their misery and sexual frustration away, often to death.

Young people have no concept just how bleak and miserable a society Ireland was, especially in the DeValera years before we begsn to develop.It was essentially a Third World country.

kunst nugget · 09-04-2018 12:28PM

JupiterKid wrote: »

But look at how much booze can be bought now in supermarkets, petrol stations as well as offies, Home drinking might actually be more dangerous than pubs where the barman might tell you to go home as you’ve had enough.

In all my years of drinking, no matter how scuttered and messy I've been, I've never had a barman tell me I've had enough.

tayto lover · 09-04-2018 12:32PM

The publicans share most of the blame for their own demise.
Any chance to raise the price of the pint by 10 or 20 cents was taken at the earliest opportunity always.
Greed got in the way.

NIMAN · 09-04-2018 12:35PM

The Irish pub is finished. At least the rural one is.

I know of a few local ones and they get a handful of people in them, no idea how they are staying open
Big ones around centre of Dublin, Cork, Galway etc might survive as they have tourists or visitors to keep them going.

Oasis1974 · 09-04-2018 12:41PM

kunst nugget wrote: »

JupiterKid wrote: »

But look at how much booze can be bought now in supermarkets, petrol stations as well as offies, Home drinking might actually be more dangerous than pubs where the barman might tell you to go home as you’ve had enough.

In all my years of drinking, no matter how scuttered and messy I've been, I've never had a barman tell me I've had enough.

Your blackouts would be the reason there.

Ubbquittious · 09-04-2018 12:51PM

JupiterKid wrote: »

All very true. This country was deeply repressed and dirt poor. I would also add that at least some of those bachelor farmers were deeply repressed gay men in the closet who drank their misery and sexual frustration away, often to death.

Young people have no concept just how bleak and miserable a society Ireland was, especially in the DeValera years before we begsn to develop.It was essentially a Third World country.

I'm not around that terribly long but Ireland has got considerably bleaker since the 90's.

Grayson · 09-04-2018 12:56PM

Ubbquittious wrote: »

I'm not around that terribly long but Ireland has got considerably bleaker since the 90's.

Not socially. In the beginning of the 90's it was illegal to have gay sex.

back on topic though, we need more options to the pub. A cafe culture like the continent would be nice.

kunst nugget · 09-04-2018 12:56PM

Ubbquittious wrote: »

I'm not around that terribly long but Ireland has got considerably bleaker since the 90's.

They stopped putting ecstasy in the drinking water in 98.

Ubbquittious · 09-04-2018 01:02PM

Grayson wrote: »

Not socially. In the beginning of the 90's it was illegal to have gay sex.

back on topic though, we need more options to the pub. A cafe culture like the continent would be nice.

Socially as well. Maybe things have improved for the gay crowd but they have disimproved for everyone else. The culture of landing up to someone's house for a chat is almost gone completely out the window now. Everything needs to be carefully planned ahead and people would rather sit behind a screen than mingle with real life peeps.

And feck the continent. The relentless desire to become more like mainbland Europe will be the ruination of this place

Cienciano · 09-04-2018 01:03PM

kunst nugget wrote: »

In all my years of drinking, no matter how scuttered and messy I've been, I've never had a barman tell me I've had enough.

And plenty of pubs have their share of local alcoholics that prop up the bar and spend every penny they have there.

Is the Irish pub in trouble?

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