nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Paddy Losty the pintman

flookdgates

Some of Dublin's great pintmen have been known to put away thirty pints or more a in day.
Leaving aside the memes and jokes for a moment, can you imagine the kind of life this man led and the effect it had on those around him? He more than likely was unemployed if he sat in a pub from morning to night drinking, squandering away his dole money. His kids probably never knew their father. His wife may as well have been a widow and probably had to get a part-time job herself just to feed the children and keep the bills paid while daddy drank away the dole. Yet wider Irish society would label Paddy a harmless character or even herald him as a legend.

Time for the country to adjust their attitude to alcohol and grow up. It's only when you move abroad and look at the country from an outside perspective that you realise the Irish have a major problem with booze. A few years down the line you will look back on the Reddit memes and the light-hearted articles on the Journal about this alcoholic and cringe.

Sorry if this post comes across as aggressive but it has touched a very personal nerve.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

topper75

flookdgates wrote: »

Instead of having twenty pubs in every small Irish village, imagine if one was converted into a kickboxing club so the beer bellies could get a workout. Or maybe an art club.

The pub beats these options because it is open late and it is a lowest common denominator. Any fool can drink a pint.

Late opening gyms or art classes (etc.) is the way forward. But they would be hard enterprises to run.

It'll probably be after I'm dead, but the day is coming when Irish can socialise, even meet partners, whilst sober.

There used to be that joke - "if they Irish gave up the drink, they'd run the world"

I wouldn't mind giving it a shot just to see :-)

El Tarangu

van_man wrote: »

in ireland we often celebrate the kind of people who would be labelled " losers " in the likes of the usa

growing up , i was aware of men with six children ( one had ten ) who spent most waking minutes on a high stool , it never done their parish reputation a bit of harm , i was at school with the kids and they were poorly dressed and ate the same basic lunch every day , stands to reason they had to go with less , incredibly selfish men when you think about it

But do you really think that such a person would be met with anything other than mild-to-severe revulsion for the same type of carry on today?

Attitudes have changes significantly for the better in this regard, I don't think the OP's premise really stands up to much scrutiny today.

DEFTLEFTHAND

7 days X 30 PINTS = 210.

Average weekly Dole payment in 1988. £45.

Average cost of a pint in 1988 (Dublin). £1.40.

£1.40 X 210 = £294.

Now we can be sure that Losty was gaming the system and receiving more than 45 a week in welfare but it's hard to see how he was spending 294 per week on porter and still maintaining a home and a marriage.

cdeb

flookdgates wrote: »

Please be civil. No need for the aggressive tone.

"Please be civil" says the person whose first post literally tells me to grow up?

I've commented on the rest of your post too. How does one person, who may or mayn't exist as described, at some stage in the indeterminate past, have any relevance to the entire country today? Especially in light of the fact that we are only average in EU tables for alcohol consumption?

This incessant puritanical PC nonsense is infuriating. Have a few pints, enjoy yourself, stop beating people up for enjoying themselves

SEPT 23 1989

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

7 days X 30 PINTS = 210.

Average weekly Dole payment in 1988. £45.

Average cost of a pint in 1988 (Dublin). £1.40.

£1.40 X 210 = £294.

Now we can be sure that Losty was gaming the system and receiving more than 45 a week in welfare but it's hard to see how he was spending 294 per week on porter and still maintaining a home and a marriage.

he was probably a docker,worked in smithfield market or printing newspapers

doubt he was on the rock and roll

hynesie08

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

7 days X 30 PINTS = 210.

Average weekly Dole payment in 1988. £45.

Average cost of a pint in 1988 (Dublin). £1.40.

£1.40 X 210 = £294.

Now we can be sure that Losty was gaming the system and receiving more than 45 a week in welfare but it's hard to see how he was spending 294 per week on porter and still maintaining a home and a marriage.

Wasn't he a cattleman? Afaik, that was a fairly well paying job back then, and in reality it was probably closer to twenty pints 2-3 times a week. Still a ridiculous amount mind you but I've seen lads do it on a fairly regular basis, and have hit that threshold myself on one or two occasions.

DEFTLEFTHAND

hynesie08 wrote: »

Wasn't he a cattleman? Afaik, that was a fairly well paying job back then, and in reality it was probably closer to twenty pints 2-3 times a week. Still a ridiculous amount mind you but I've seen lads do it on a fairly regular basis, and have hit that threshold myself on one or two occasions.

I had a grandfather who was a cattle dealer at that time. Yeah, if you had the smarts for it you could make some serious money. He was a big drinker too coincidentally, would be all over the country 5 days a week behind the wheel of a cattle truck with porter down him.

Different times back then.

You don't really see guys like that in the business anymore.

squawker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkcXjholnGk

kupus

sbsquarepants wrote: »

Addiction is really more of a disease than business model!

Addiction. It is a great business model. Repeat customers.

Why do you think the gambling sites kick off the successful punters but keep the guys that lose.

Cigarettes, alcohol, gambling even the medical pharmaceutical drug industry all love their addicts.
but They are never going to come and and say it.

These addicts pay their running costs while they are able to market new improved ways to tap into new customers.

umop episdn

flookdgates wrote: »

I promise if you had personal experience with somebody like Paddy Losty you wouldn't think it was funny. I envy you that you can make jokes about it

I promise you that you are wrong.... but don't let that get in the way of your sermon

Claw Hammer

flookdgates wrote: »

Instead of having twenty pubs in every small Irish village, imagine if one was converted into a kickboxing club so the beer bellies could get a workout. Or maybe an art club.

you could well find, the way things are going, 20 villages but only one pub between them. What is worse than someone going to the pub and drinking, someone going home with a massive quantity of alcohol and drinking their. At least in a pub it is public and can be seen. Something can be done about it. What is going on now, is far worse.

ArchXStanton

kupus wrote: »

Addiction. It is a great business model. Repeat customers.

Why do you think the gambling sites kick off the successful punters but keep the guys that lose.

Cigarettes, alcohol, gambling even the medical pharmaceutical drug industry all love their addicts.
but They are never going to come and and say it.

These addicts pay their running costs while they are able to market new improved ways to tap into new customers.

Rehabs love them too,it's a revolving door business,dry them out,send them on their way andddd see them back again in a few weeks\months

Effects

flookdgates wrote: »

Time for the country to adjust their attitude to alcohol and grow up. It's only when you move abroad and look at the country from an outside perspective that you realise the Irish have a major problem with booze.

I think we pale in comparison to other countries. I've been to festivals in Italy, similar to our St. Patricks day, where they have children on the floats filling cups of wine for the spectators in the street. The uniformed police are also drunk, and it continues all night.

FrancieBrady

Effects wrote: »

I think we pale in comparison to other countries. I've been to festivals in Italy, similar to our St. Patricks day, where they have children on the floats filling cups of wine for the spectators in the street. The uniformed police are also drunk, and it continues all night.

Try a beer festival in Germany too.
From my experience working there Germans drink far more regularly than us. I have seen them bring crates of the stuff to work.

DEFTLEFTHAND

sugarman wrote: »

https://www.dublininquirer.com/2017/02/22/on-the-trail-of-the-pintman/

Heres an interview with Paddys daughter in law last year, he worked as a docker in the area and would stop off on his way home.

I wonder what a dockers wages were like in the 70s?

Claw Hammer

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I wonder what a dockers wages were like in the 70s?

It depended on how often they worked. The stevedores controlled the work and decided who could work on any board which had to be unloaded, or loaded.

Wanderer78

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I wonder what a dockers wages were like in the 70s?

pretty good by the sounds of it

DEFTLEFTHAND

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Try a beer festival in Germany too.
From my experience working there Germans drink far more regularly than us. I have seen them bring crates of the stuff to work.

I remember being amazed on my first visit over there that you could buy beer in vending machines.

It was a common sight to see office workers sitting out in the park with a beer on their lunch hour.

I don't think they tend to abuse alcohol to the same extent as the Irish though. They use drink, they don't let it use them.

begbysback

hynesie08 wrote: »

Wasn't he a cattleman? Afaik, that was a fairly well paying job back then, and in reality it was probably closer to twenty pints 2-3 times a week. Still a ridiculous amount mind you but I've seen lads do it on a fairly regular basis, and have hit that threshold myself on one or two occasions.

Actually in the YouTube he says it was more like 45 pints - and I've never heard a drinker exaggerate the number of pints taken before!!!

emo72

Since when were we heavy drinkers? Is there a starting point for it? What triggered it? The lifestyle, the weather, being oppressed? So some Viking back on the day, said "feck this, I miss the homeland." And then decided to go on a perpetual bender? And the rest of the pixies thought "jaysus! Major session lads" that's the way to live.

begbysback

emo72 wrote: »

Since when were we heavy drinkers? Is there a starting point for it? What triggered it? The lifestyle, the weather, being oppressed? So some Viking back on the day, said "feck this, I miss the homeland." And then decided to go on a perpetual bender? And the rest of the pixies thought "jaysus! Major session lads" that's the way to live.

Interestingly I did read one study that stated a change in absorption of alcohol DNA related to times previous where water was undrinkable for a long period of time and so people turned to alcohol more and more - specific to certain countries like Ireland and Australia

cdeb

Yep; Koreans and Japanese people are terrible drinkers because they boiled water to purify it, and so never evolved that gene. Boiled water is still a popular drink in China actually (ie tea with no tea in it). It's surprisingly awful

Giraffe Box

ArchXStanton wrote: »

Rehabs love them too,it's a revolving door business,dry them out,send them on their way andddd see them back again in a few weeks\months

That's a bit too cynical for me, the people at the Rutland Centre in Dublin do some great work and not all of their 'guests' return.

squawker

Paddy Losty on All Ireland Hurling Final Day

whisky_galore

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

I had a grandfather who was a cattle dealer at that time. Yeah, if you had the smarts for it you could make some serious money. He was a big drinker too coincidentally, would be all over the country 5 days a week behind the wheel of a cattle truck with porter down him.

Different times back then.

You don't really see guys like that in the business anymore.

That's probably no bad thing.

ArchXStanton

Giraffe Box wrote: »

That's a bit too cynical for me, the people at the Rutland Centre in Dublin do some great work and not all of their 'guests' return.

Without doubt there is genuine ones out there with good intentions,but there are just as many who are in it for the dough,a stint in rehab can be an expensive stay.

cdeb

Weepsie wrote: »

Having been to Korea, they are anything but terrible drinkers.

Just had a quick Google, and it seems it's Japanese and Chinese who are terrible drinkers, not the Koreans. So apologies for slighting them!

I wonder are the Koreans more Russic?

Effects

Giraffe Box wrote: »

That's a bit too cynical for me, the people at the Rutland Centre in Dublin do some great work and not all of their 'guests' return.

I know a guy who faced up to his battle with alcohol after 30 years or so. He went to the Rutland Centre for treatment and he stayed off the booze for more than ten years, until he passed away. They do great work.

corner of hells

ArchXStanton wrote: »

Without doubt there is genuine ones out there with good intentions,but there are just as many who are in it for the dough,a stint in rehab can be an expensive stay.

The vast majority of drug and alcohol counsellor's are members of bodies who set standards trying to regulate the industry , suggesting their in it for the money is unfair .
A lot of the time you're refered in by a by a professional and in some cases they may feel you are not suitable.

It's quite an event to get a chronic alcoholic from his worst right up to sobriety often involving GPs , addiction nurses , psychiatrists , counsellors and aftercare staff.

A stint in rehab is a very way simple of describing it.

Mr. CooL ICE