MJ23 wrote: » What about the people working in the pubs? Surely they'd like a day off. It's two days in the year.
Scortho wrote: » We don't need tv today. But there's some technician in rte I'd say making sure nothing goes belly up.
Scortho wrote: » 1. Staff in pubs get more than two days off in a year. 2. Just because a business is allowed open every day of the week doesn't mean that they all open on Christmas Day now does it? They'll only open if they want to and think they'll make a profit. Most won't. Why don't we give everyone a day off for Christmas. Sure it's just a day in the year. We don't need tv today. But there's some technician in rte I'd say making sure nothing goes belly up.
MJ23 wrote: » Ah scalder, go to bed will ye.
Mr Viking wrote: » I think the choice should be there for anyone to go to a pub if they so choose. There are a lot of sad individuals who have nowhere else to go. Closing a pub on Christmas Day can leave them in a very sad lonely destitute place. As the son of a publican in the North I have lost count of the number of people my ole fella brought home for Christmas Day dinner on closing up at lunch time. My ma was always livid but would never see them on their own so we were always stuck with the bar flys! As for the workers, they are paid to work in a service industry be it Xmas day or not. What about all our nurses, doctors, gardai who have to work also. You only have to take a look at the British soaps to see how many story lines focus on the pub on Christmas Day! It's not that big a deal to open up at Xmas in my book!
Shout Dust wrote: » I don't think looking at the drama on British soaps is a good advocate to open them But still, we'd probably need more doctors, nursers and gardai on duty on Christmas day if the pubs were open. I think Christmas is a time for family and everything should be closed except for essential services. It transcends religion, unlike Good Friday, which I disagree with
Mr Viking wrote: » A time for family......if you have one! If you don't and the lads at the local boozer are the nearest thing......**** you!
Shout Dust wrote: » Or drink in someones house for the day, the pubs open for the rest of the year. Let people with families enjoy the day and do what we can to allow as much people have the holiday.
hotmail.com wrote: » You assume everybody celebrates Xmas. They don't.
Aidric wrote: » Still haven't seen a coherent argument put forward by the keep them closed posters on this thread. The central tenet of your argument is based on an assumption that people would get hopelessly drunk and put a strain on resources. The point about the staff needing a day off is also nonsense, completely ignoring the fact that they will have already received their statutory entitlement.
Iggy154 wrote: » What it comes down to is that people who want pubs open on Christmas Day are selfish. They are the very type of people who should stay home at Christmas. They cause enough trouble during the remainder of the year,
Henlars67 wrote: » I don't cause any trouble. I go to the pub maybe twice a month on average, but sometimes I wouldn't go at all for 4-6 weeks, but I'd like to have the option to go any day I please provided some publican in my area is willing to open their premises. I'm not selfish. I don't have kids,I go to my parents house for dinner, play with my nephew for a few hours, that's my xmas duties done. I never ever drink in the house. Why shouldn't I have the option of going out for a pint tonight?
Iggy154 wrote: » What it comes down to is that people who want pubs open on Christmas Day are selfish.
Lia_lia wrote: » Not that I would ever go to a pub on Christmas Day (how Coronation Street!), but I think it should be allowed in this country. As some people have said, many families don't celebrate Christmas. It's about time Ireland realised that! The whole argument about bar staff needing a day off is stupid. And I worked in a bar for 7 years! Many people work on Christmas Day. My Mother does it every year. Many medical staff, call-centre staff, hotel staff etc work Christmas Day. I've done it.
Shout Dust wrote: » But most do celebrate it, whether for religious reasons or not. It's a tradition and part of our culture, and a good one imo. If I was in Japan and they had or have some equivalent of Christmas over there, where everything non-essential was shut down and all families and friends come together once a year I'd respect that as a tradition and part of their culture. I certainly wouldn't see it as some personal affront to my freedom or attack by the religious to impose their religion on others, as some seem to on here.
systemicrisk wrote: » Do you not think its important to have one day a year that everyone can have a day off and spend time together. Im from a big family and this is only time we are all off at same time. We are all living away from home and it is something I really look forward to every year. I am no in any way religious.
mango salsa wrote: » The open them up arguments make absolutely no sense to me to be honest. I mean seriously - talk of opression is a ludicrous argument and a lot of the other arguments seem like they are from children having tantrums.