Opening of "No-Food" pubs pushed out again

ReginaldSmythV wrote: »

The disgusting thing is people using it for every single little thing and belittling the few who have real issues.

If someone wants to go for a pint then just say it. Don’t dress it up as something it’s not because it’s a handy fashionable statement now.

Gervais08 wrote: »

Yes we get it, you hate pubs.

SB71 wrote: »

Can people please not keep referring to pubs as "wet pubs" whoever came up with that word along with the equally as cringe "staycation" deserves to be ridiculed, awful.

Chalk McHugh wrote: »

Because pubs and restaurants cannot open and sell drink until Friday i wasn't sure if hotel bars would open on Tuesday to residants. And none of the receptionists could clarify it either. I'll have a walk round town tomorrow and drop in to a few and confirm it.

The White Wolf wrote: »

I do wonder how far these people would be willing to go to enforce their will. I know a bloke from work who had a party over the weekend, should his door be kicked down and the place get smashed up (with a few heads cracked for good measure)?

Irish Steve wrote: »

Pot, kettle, black.

You have made your position very clear also, and are as unmoving and inflexible as you accuse others of being.

Irish society has for a long time unfortunately been going down a dangerous road that has ended up become a problem as a result of this pandemic. The fact that the pub has become so fundamentally embedded into the core social structure of the country is not something that we should be proud of, and the pub has become a substitute for many aspects of life that should have been encouraged to be more diverse.

Part of that is the change in the role of the church in the community, part of it is the massive escalation of costs (things like insurance) of running voluntary organisations, which has resulted in closures, and there has been a reduction in the number of people prepared to volunteer for all manner of clubs, societies and the like, so they are no longer operating.

I can assure you, I am not a NPHET anti pub fanboy, far from it, I enjoy a session in the pub with friends when it's appropriate, and I don't have a massive social circle where we play parlour games until all hours, so I don't fit your stereotype of the supposed opposition. I also recognise that there are some serious issues around pub culture that are influencing the thoughts of NPHET, bluntly, anyone that thinks there is not a problem with alcohol in this country is being delusional.

I see a country that is under threat, along with just about every other country in the world, and I see a group of people who are under massive pressure to come up with ways to manage a virus that has come out of nowhere with very little warning and even less information on how to defeat it. They don't have centuries of historic data on which to base their conclusions, they are effectively only one page ahead of us on the book of how to manage this pandemic, and because of that, there will be times when they don't know, and don't have the answers, so they have to base their guidance on the limited information they have, and the experience they do have in similar areas, and there will be times when they will get it wrong, not with malice, but because of a total lack of clear information on which to base their conclusions.

As for the politicians that then make decisions based on the guidance they are getting, the harsh reality is that they are even more clueless, and many of them have never worked in the "real" economy, so expecting them to come up with good plans to deal with a complex and fast moving situation is unfortunately an impossible ask, we've seen way too many examples over the last 30 years of massive incompetence and worse.

We have a health service that is at best disfunctional, and that's down to a management structure that is just not fit for purpose, and an ongoing lack of political will to face down some of the vested interests that have made it so, and that's only one aspect of the issues we still face and will have to deal with going forward, there is a whole corrupt golden circle that is also causing massive damage at the core of Irish Society

So, what is the solution. For the next few months, we have to manage the virus by limiting its ability to spread across the community, and that requires a continued vigilance to limit social contacts across the entire community. Until there is a viable vaccine available, that is the ONLY solution.

That's hard, for all sorts of reasons, and the pain of that action is not evenly spread across the generations, and some will be more vulnerable as a result, but the alternatives are even less acceptable.

After that, who knows. It would be nice to think that there will be a radical rethink about many aspects of life that have been shown to be not working, but I'm not going to hold my breath, people have very short memories, and are all too easily swayed by extravagent promises made by politicians who are more concerned to get re elected (and protect their gold plated pension) than to be making real change that will be good for the country.

Short term, forget the wet pubs, large crowds at places like Croke Park, music concerts, theatre, events at places like the 3 arena, skiing holidays, and many similar sorts of events, simply because the human misery of covid infections as a result of such events make them unacceptable. It means a lot of mental pain and stress for many people across all ages, but there is no real alternative at the moment.

As a society, we need, urgently, to look at ourselves very closely, and decide if our present social structure is viable long term, the total dependence on Pub culture in some parts of the country is bad, and needs to be addressed, but now is not the time to try and change that, however painful that might be.

Thats me wrote: »

The bigger problem will be new requirement to have masks worn at all times in public places and busy places outside. No visors allowed. I think many pub customers will find it difficult to drink a beer having mask properly worn during their antisocial socialisation.