Sunday 11 March 2012

An Irish lament

One of the most common of the many Irish laments of the last few years has been the steady decline of the pub. 

From being at the very heart of the social fabric in its heyday, many of the once vibrant tithe tábhairne now resemble funeral parlours before the evening rush – and that’s on a supposedly busy Saturday night. 

So how did it come to this? Well, the worst recession the country has ever experienced has certainly played its part. 

As a BBC Radio 4 reporter smugly put it – as only the British can – when the true extent of independent Ireland’s financial woes were coming to light, “even the pubs in city centre Dublin are suffering. Now for the Irish that’s really saying something.” Indeed. 

Some people say the seeds of the public-house recession were sown well before the economic downturn – they point to the arrival of the smoking ban as the beginning of the end. It’s an easy scapegoat but similar restrictions in other countries have not led to a massive slump in the number of people heading out socialising.

An Irish lament: A few Irish lads having some drinks at home - it's now a far cheaper option than going to the pub.
Bringing the pub home.
Of course, the fact that the most ‘hedonistic’ age group – those in their late teens and 20s – are departing the forlorn state in search of much greener pastures is also a big contributing factor to the Irish pub’s sad and painful death. 

But what of those who remain, are they drinking less? The short answer is no. Most studies into alcohol consumption in the Ireland find that we’re drinking as much as ever. The crucial difference is that the venue has changed. 

The reclining sofa in front of the flat screen TV has replaced the high stool at the bar. For a nation renowned for its affability, that’s quite a sad turn of events. 

Instead of hitting for the ‘local’, having a few drinks and a chat in the company of others, many Irish are deciding to stay in and crack open a few cans in front of a rectangular box in their living room – where there is absolutely no monitoring of alcohol intake. 

So, it appears, the main reason why the humble Irish pub has witnessed a mass exodus in recent years is a matter of cost, pure and simple. 

At the very least, the price of a regular pint at a bar is three-times more expensive compared to what you will pay at a supermarket or off-licence. In such straitened financial times, people feel that there is no longer value in going to a pub, whatever the negative social consequences. 

In fairness, you can’t really blame them. Why there is such a mark-up between what you pay in a shop and the price for the same product – more or less – at your local hostelry is a mystery, especially when you see how things are done in other countries.

Take Colombia, for example. It’s possible to head out to a little bar here – or tienda, as the locals call them – and pay less (and that price is very small too) to consume a beer on the premises than you would if you wanted to bring it home. 

So, unsurprisingly, these places get hefty crowds daily – a sociable environment where you are drinking and chatting with others, with at least a modicum of supervision to boot. 

This is much better than drinking at home in front of the kids, right? Irish law-makers, backed up by the anti-drink, anti-pub campaigners think not, it seems. ‘Let’s make socialising in a pub so expensive that nobody can afford to go anymore’ is their mantra. The suck-the-life-out-of-the country policy has fully taken root.
Drinking 'out' in Colombia is just as cheap, at times even cheaper, than buying drink in a supermarket and drinking at home. It's far more sociable too as this picture shows.
Thumbs up to cheap beer in a sociable environment.
Now, from a rural Ireland point of view we can’t write about the decline of the pub without referring to the far stricter drink-driving laws that have been introduced in recent years. It’s a difficult, emotive subject that will rumble on. 

There is still an out-of-sight-out-of-mind approach taken by some country Gardaí to breaches of the law, especially towards older citizens. It might not be right, but it works most of the time. 

One thing, though, our Government could do, if it truly cared about rural Ireland, is to put some decent thought into providing proper public transport outside of the bigger urban areas. 

However, the chances of that happening are about as high as Brian Cowen becoming the next president or a Colombian sticking to his word. 

So, is the Irish pub as we once knew it, particularly the rural one, now just a blurry distant memory, never to be revived? 

Well, if the powers that be continue to pursue their current line of attack, then the answer is yes. Plus, with very few people left to stand up for life in the Irish countryside, who’s going to stop the rout? 

The sad thing right now is that it’s all happening under the watchful but seemingly indifferent eye of a west of Ireland prime minister. The west – along with other rural parts of the country – is falling asleep once more. 

This time, though, it might not wake up again.

12 comments:

  1. Sad, but true, it even made a feature in an Irish magazine over here. I like your Irish model!

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  2. Indeed! And I think you mean Irish-American - Brian was born in New York... ;-)

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  3. As yes, those drink driving laws have certainly played a part in the declining numbers heading to the "Local" if only there were such laws for "boy-racer" driving the roads would be a much safer place altogether. The "local" may benefit from public transport being provided in rural areas, as would the economy through a jobs boosts but that will never happen......wait, is that a pig I see flying over there.........

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  4. Were you drunk when you wrote this? Drinking at home? Oh so cynical - maybe you should 'get out' while you still can...

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  5. Recessions never did any harm to the Irish pub. Dublin city centre super pubs don,t count. The rural or town pub thrived in the recessions as I remember it. In my early days as a service engineer repairing tills in pubs(Late 80's, a fairly serious recession in its self) pubs thrived. Lunch time in any pub would see the bar lined with out of work latchacoes. The dole and the lot was blown down the pub. It was not the smoking ban. It was the drink driving enforcement and the full employment that bank axed Irish pubs!

    The driving ban issue is down to the ribbon development of housing on the fathers farm instead of village development and thus having access to a pub within walking distance!

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  6. I hear you Micheál. But is it not the case that people are drinking more at home now than was the case in the 80's and early 90's..? You got much more 'bang for your buck', relatively speaking, in those times, no..? I like the 'latchacoes' bit!

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  7. People might be drinking a lot more at home but I doubt if they are happier! th great thing about going to the pub is getting out for the social aspect and have a few bevvies as well.

    No you did not get more bang for your buck back then. Beer was always expensive in th e pub!

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  8. On the social aspect, that's the point I'm making Micheál! And perhaps in the past there wasn't such a big difference between supermarket prices & those at the pub..?

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  9. While we´re on the subject of comparing Irish drinking culture with the Colombian equivalent, you can´t ignore the fact that the idea of drinking until you can hardly walk is one that hardly exists in Colombia. This of course makes drinking a much more sociable affair. Also the idea of having a few beers in the middle of the day is not frowned upon nearly as much as it would be in Ireland. All in all I would say the have a much healthier drinking culture.

    The problem in Ireland is the idea that drinking is our culture. We should ask ourselves if it´s really a thing we should be proud of. Surely we can be amiable and friendly without getting shitfaced as per the norm on a Friday night in any town in ireland. The Colombians are living proof of that.

    I am by no means a lover of all things colombian, (they are not exactly the safest group of people when it comes to drink driving or any other type of driving hazard for that matter) but I like being able to have a social drink without fights, puking teenagers and drinking related anti-social behaviour. There are underlying reasons for the lack of said drinking culture phenomena, principally the fear of getting shot, but I for one am glad to be rid of a lot of Ireland´s pub culture.

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  10. What we're talking about here is social drinking - going out in a neutral environment enjoying a few drinks at an affordable price with friends. Of course some human beings (if we can call them that) will consume excess amounts, get into fights, etc. It happens here in Bogotá - maybe the more agreeable climate in Cali means they're more laid-back there.
    The way the law seems to be going in Ireland now is to try & stamp out alcohol intake completely. So as a society should we punish the majority because of the actions of a minority? It's a point semi-related to an earlier post - http://www.wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2011/12/survival-of-dumbest.html
    As regards some of the things that irk us about Colombia, that's something we will address in the next post.
    Thanks for reading Marty agus Lá Fheile Padraig :-)

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  11. The idea of being punished for the sins of others is not by any means limited to this topic. Isn´t that where all laws come from?
    And I do realise that loutish behaviour is not unknown of here but I am pretty sure that even in Bogota it is not at the level of any Irish town. I have been to a good handful of Colombian cities, warm and cold, and never seen anything that could compare to Kilkenny. I can only imagine what Ireland is like this weekend.

    The decline of the Irish pub is a sad thing but like your friend noted, the Irish pub has survived many an economic crisis and many a law change. It´s up to the pub owners to be innovative. Bring back pool tables and dart boards, I say. Make it more sociable so that it´s not merely a place to drink.

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  12. Of course it's not limited to this topic, but where possible laws should punish offenders only. It's the indirect 'punishment' we're talking about here such as continually increasing prices, restricting opening hours, etc.
    Of course there will be plenty of Irish people that will get into ridiculous states this weekend - but not everybody. At least that's one trait we have - we are very self-critical. The Colombians could certainly follow our lead on that one.
    And yes, publicans could do more, although there are plenty of west of Ireland pubs with pool tables & dart boards that are just gathering dust at the moment. Then again, 'tis a numbers game - if the people aren't there i.e. they've left the country, what can you do...

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