Has the pub lost it's way

ScumLord · 06-12-2007 03:29PM #1

All that can be done in a Public house these days is consume alcohol which means it's not somewhere for kids or non drinkers, or even drinkers. I don't go near a pub during the week as I don't want to be around alcohol.

I remember when I was a kid we used to spend a good bit of time in pubs playing pool, arcade games and just hanging out.

We always hear that pubs are dieing thanks to the the government but what are landlords doing to stop that? I think the pub should go back to being a public house that has something for everyone not just a place to get drunk. There's little or no service provided by pubs.

jameshayes · 06-12-2007 03:32PM

where's the darts, pool, pacman and puzzle bobble gone?!?

and a basket of chips and saussys

P_1 · 06-12-2007 03:32PM

I agree completley. Even having a conversation in a pub is difficult these days due to the loud pumping music that most places insist is the 'in thing'.

monkeyfudge · 06-12-2007 03:34PM

All those things would be the death of the pub!

You go to a pub to drink, socialise and have conversations. Or perhaps have a nice quite lunch time pint with the newspaper.

It's bad enough that there is televisions and piped music in most pubs... If you want to play pool, go to a pool hall... if you want to play videogames go to an arcade...

Mr.Nice Guy · 06-12-2007 03:41PM

monkeyfudge wrote: »

All those things would be the death of the pub!

You go to a pub to drink, socialise and have conversations. Or perhaps have a nice quite lunch time pint with the newspaper.

It's bad enough that there is televisions and piped music in most pubs... If you want to play pool, go to a pool hall... if you want to play videogames go to an arcade...

Agreed. And I consider it bad parenting to take a kid to a pub. If you want to get pissed don't do it with little ones about, especially when said little ones tend to run about the place screaming.

Hail 2 Da Chimp · 06-12-2007 03:43PM

Deffinatly agree, the demise in pool tables, darts boards is down to the fact that they take up too much room, all publicans want is to cram as many people into the pub as possible.

A lot of people complained about having kids in pubs also, even I avoid certain pubs on Sat / Sun afternoons as I know there will be a lot of families out there with kids running amok.

Dave! · 06-12-2007 04:07PM

Mr.Nice Guy wrote: »

Agreed. And I consider it bad parenting to take a kid to a pub. If you want to get pissed don't do it with little ones about, especially when said little ones tend to run about the place screaming.

You don't have to get p*ssed in the pub. Used to be taken to the pub with my parents most weekends to watch the football and have a bit of dinner. Nowt wrong with it.

Ponster · 06-12-2007 04:08PM

I haven't lived in Ireland since pre-Celtic Tiger days but aren't there a load of different types of bars out there? When you're growing up you may tend to head to the cool bars that blast music but at some stage (about 22 for me) I started to go to 'old men bars', you know, the ones that only have Guinness and Smithwicks on draught. Bars which 2 years privously I would have avoided like the plague.

In Paris I head to the Lollipop for sports (4 tellys with sound in 4 different areas of the bar) and The Cork&Cavan when I want a quite pint (telly is almost never on, music is usually jazz, easy-listening, background-stuff).

A bar for each mood. Isn't that possible?

06-12-2007 04:13PM

Ponster wrote: »

I haven't lived in Ireland since pre-Celtic Tiger days but aren't there a load of different types of bars out there? When you're growing up you may tend to head to the cool bars that blast music but at some stage (about 22 for me) I started to go to 'old men bars', you know, the ones that only have Guinness and Smithwicks on draught. Bars which 2 years privously I would have avoided like the plague.

In Paris I head to the Lollipop for sports (4 tellys with sound in 4 different areas of the bar) and The Cork&Cavan when I want a quite pint (telly is almost never on, music is usually jazz, easy-listening, background-stuff).

A bar for each mood. Isn't that possible?

Not really anymore. They're all trying to become these damn awful "super-pubs" and try and make as much money as possible.

I used to love going to the pub next door to me when I was younger and playing a game of pool. I'd be there for hours with my friends just hanging out.

biko · 06-12-2007 04:14PM

I concur in that there is not enough pub games available, pool, darts, etc.
A few of the old men pubs still have them though, if you know were to look.

06-12-2007 04:16PM

biko wrote: »

I concur in that there is not enough pub games available, pool, darts, etc.
A few of the old men pubs still have them though, if you know were to look.

But I find that some old men pubs have very depressing atmospheres. Especially country ones, where you'd regularly see them falling asleep at the counter.

Ponster · 06-12-2007 04:17PM

Isn't *every* country pub an 'old mens' pub?

At least the bar section, most have a lounge I imagine with pool/darts.

Latchy · 06-12-2007 04:20PM

I to am am an irish pub goer from the pre-celtic tiger days (hate the phrase) when i used to frequent Dublin pubs like the Auld dubliner ,Mc daids,Toners ,fleet inn ,and quite a few others in that area and they all had 2 things in common ,not to overcrowed and a good chat with whoever was around (which was mainly locals ) .There were a couple of hundred other pubs in the same vein dotted around the city ,all with there own style and charm .Not sure if there are many around like that now ,maybe mulligans and toners .

prendy · 06-12-2007 04:21PM

concur in that there is not enough pub games available, pool, darts, etc.
A few of the old men pubs still have them though, if you know were to look

i agree biko but it used to be the decent places that had these pool darts etc....now its the places you wouldnt wanna go.

i personally like nothing better than a game of pool or darts and listen to jukebox with the lads wen were on the beer...unfortuantely most places we used to go got "renovated" and now its a DJ and standing room only!

P_1 · 06-12-2007 04:24PM

Just out of interest, does anybody here actually enjoy the blaring music that is the norm in most pubs these days?
TBH if I wanted that I'd go to a club or something.

Catch_22 · 06-12-2007 04:27PM

no but if you cant here each other talk you drink more

Ponster · 06-12-2007 04:27PM

What we need is a national drive to list 'decent pubs' as defined by my generation (by the way the latest 'what age are you poll' puts me in a group of only 10%).

I propose a peer-reviewed pub list of places that you can either

a) enjoy a drink on a weekend withit it being *too* overcrowded
b) no 'piped' music that you have to really yell over
c) pool/darts/jukebox

I'm sure thought that 80% of Boards will just say that I'm just too old to enjopy the current Irish pub scene...

DO0GLE · 06-12-2007 04:28PM

All depends on the pub you go to....not all pubs are the same

Dave! · 06-12-2007 04:28PM

pithater1 wrote: »

Just out of interest, does anybody here actually enjoy the blaring music that is the norm in most pubs these days?
TBH if I wanted that I'd go to a club or something.

I hate it... I hate the way there's music EVERYWHERE you go, actually. Can't walk into a pub, shop, barbers, church, etc., without Spin playing in the background..... annoying...

biko · 06-12-2007 04:30PM

I get the feeling this is an inner city problem? Whenever I'm rural pubs there seem to be a whole different atmosphere.

prendy · 06-12-2007 04:30PM

i dont mind a bitta music so long as its not too loud to talk...i taut thats what they invented niteclubs for??????

Degsy · 06-12-2007 04:30PM

prendy wrote: »

i agree biko but it used to be the decent places that had these pool darts etc....now its the places you wouldnt wanna go.

i personally like nothing better than a game of pool or darts and listen to jukebox with the lads wen were on the beer...unfortuantely most places we used to go got "renovated" and now its a DJ and standing room only!

Dontp forget ten quid a pint.
I was waiting on somebody in a boozer and noticed they were selling Bavaria,its usually around three quid a pint and being the tight git i am i asked for one,when it arrived the bloke tried to charge me 5.40!!!!FIVE FORTY for a pint of Bavaria..its a loss leader in most pubs to t ry and ghet people back in.I told him where to stick it.
Another palce i was in was selling Larios gin.As anybody who has ever holidayed in Spain will tell you its a)undrinkable and b)4 euro a litre,so i asked was it on some sort of special offer,no,says the barman,thats what we "Carry" now.So thats nearly a fiver for a shot of gutrot gin that bars in Tenerife wouldnt sell.You can get it in mainland spain so i suspect the publican had imported the stuff by the truckload,christ knows how much he was getting it for,probably a euro a litre.Greedy,greedy bastards and they wonder why sales are down.

Lola123 · 06-12-2007 04:33PM

pithater1 wrote: »

Just out of interest, does anybody here actually enjoy the blaring music that is the norm in most pubs these days?
TBH if I wanted that I'd go to a club or something.

Yes, "old men's pubs" are lacking in atmosphere most of the time, and in a lot of "locals" girls seem to get funny looks if you sit in the "wrong" part of the bar.... ie. the part that is usually taken up by said old men.

If I want to actually talk to my friends, I'll go for dinner, coffee or have drinks in someones house. Sitting around having old men staring over does not make for a comfortable conversation!

P_1 · 06-12-2007 04:37PM

Lola123 wrote: »

Yes, "old men's pubs" are lacking in atmosphere most of the time, and in a lot of "locals" girls seem to get funny looks if you sit in the "wrong" part of the bar.... ie. the part that is usually taken up by said old men.

If I want to actually talk to my friends, I'll go for dinner, coffee or have drinks in someones house. Sitting around having old men staring over does not make for a comfortable conversation!

Not a big fan of old man bars myself but I asolutley despise having to shout to the person sitting beside me in the pub. Some sort of happy medium FTW IMO.

Ponster · 06-12-2007 04:38PM

I remember though some of the 'old men' pubs in Clonmel started to get popular enough that on an average Fri/Sat evening you'd get a good crowd of people in, enough to create a different sort of atmospehere. I guess the major difference is the lack of blaring music.

In the UK last year for Xmas I went for a pint in a bar in Mansfield and when I asked what the name of the song there were playing and why it was being played so loud the staff said that they didn't choose the music nor the volume. A company provided them with mp3s of music that had been choosen by 'experts'. The playlist and order of the songs was designed to get people in and get them to stay.

At least it's not that bad (yet) in Ireland.

cson · 06-12-2007 04:45PM

Had an enjoyable evening watching the match yesterday. Only 3.90 for a pint of Heinken in my local. One thing that gets my goat though is this; a couple of times in Dublin, in Break For The Border and some place off O'Connell st I've turned away a pint after the barman asked for €5.60 :eek: for it. And most of the time they've argued with me about it. I mean its not their fooking pint thats being wasted is it?

ScumLord · 06-12-2007 04:47PM

biko wrote: »

I get the feeling this is an inner city problem? Whenever I'm rural pubs there seem to be a whole different atmosphere.

Not really, I'm from a small town in the west and it's gotten to the stage the pubs won't open during the week. Every pub in town has a dart board and there's 3 pool tables, one of them's pointless though.

But they complain on ones coming to the pub during the week, but they can't really drive in and then be expected to knock back pints and no one wants to pay pub prices for soft drinks.

Pubs could easily go for a cafe setup during the day and drinking at night but not one of them tries.

Degsy · 06-12-2007 04:54PM

ScumLord wrote: »

Not really, I'm from a small town in the west and it's gotten to the stage the pubs won't open during the week. Every pub in town has a dart board and there's 3 pool tables, one of them's pointless though.

But they complain on ones coming to the pub during the week, but they can't really drive in and then be expected to knock back pints and no one wants to pay pub prices for soft drinks.

Pubs could easily go for a cafe setup during the day and drinking at night but not one of them tries.

It never occurs to them that they could sell burger n chips,sausages in a basket or something like that as well..with publicans its all about how much they can get away with screwing people for drink.

KingOfFairview · 06-12-2007 04:56PM

Lola123 wrote: »

Sitting around having old men staring over does not make for a comfortable conversation!

Makes for one hell of a **** though

meglome · 06-12-2007 05:00PM

ScumLord wrote: »

All that can be done in a Public house these days is consume alcohol which means it's not somewhere for kids or non drinkers, or even drinkers. I don't go near a pub during the week as I don't want to be around alcohol.

Well you wouldn't want to be a non-drinker given the price of a soft drink. And how many pubs especially in cental Dublin will give you a splash, very very few. You go to the UK and it's the norm.

ScumLord wrote: »

I remember when I was a kid we used to spend a good bit of time in pubs playing pool, arcade games and just hanging out.

Very true.

ScumLord wrote: »

We always hear that pubs are dieing thanks to the the government but what are landlords doing to stop that? I think the pub should go back to being a public house that has something for everyone not just a place to get drunk. There's little or no service provided by pubs.

It's not thanks to the government as much as you can point the finger at them for many other things. We have high taxes on booze but when you add into that the unmitigated greed of the publicans that's when you have a problem. They had it their own way for several years and now it's coming home to roost. The pub prices rose steadily for year’s, way more then they should have. I can go into the Da's local and he's buying a Guinness for €3.40 or so and in town it's a good €5, pubs which have several times the business.

MikeHoncho · 06-12-2007 05:05PM

There is plenty of proper pubs around. My local (Ballinteer House) has a snooker room in it and decent grub too. In town there is lots of great great pubs that dont play loud music and have a nice atmosphere. The problem is when your on a night out there is no ladies in these places so you end up going to the super pubs with blaring music cus thats what chicks like.

Off the top of my head:
The Old Stand
The Stags Head
The Bachelor
Grogans
The Long Hall
Nearys

Plenty more too if I thought about it.

Has the pub lost it's way

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