37 Comments

• peterson | Jan 04, 2013, 01:52 PM EST

  Let's have a "Save the Pubs" party this Saturday!! Sounds like fun, right ??? See you there !!!!!

• merefalow | Jan 03, 2013, 03:31 PM EST

  easy,its a RIP OFF,BY THE BREWERIES AND GOVERNMENTS.NOT WORTH ENDING UP BROKE AND HAVING SOME COP STICK A BREATHALYSER INTO YOU.MAKE YOUR OWN OR DRINK AT HOME.SCREW THEM.

• seamus60 | Jan 02, 2013, 03:27 PM EST

  Less just might be better if people can ever afford it again.

• Will Hamilton | Jan 02, 2013, 07:55 AM EST

  Pub in Ireland have been in decline for at least 12 years now. First there was the Millennium price scare combined with American cultural influence which saw the growth of home drinking. Then the smoking ban combined with high prices charged by publicans trying to recoup the enormous cost of buying the pub in the first place. By 2000 people had already begun their evening drinking later and later. Nowadays the previously unimaginable sight of closed pubs in densely populated parts of Dublin is more and more common. As the customers dwindle the pub has to spend more and more trying to get people in: live bands, food, and special smoking areas. Go by any off licence on the weekend and they have more people behind the counter than the pub beside it with three times the floor area. Why pay €6 for a glass of wine when you can buy a bottle for €8? Five pint bottles of pure German beer can be bought for less than €10. The same 5 pints in a pub costs €30 and more when you get into the city centre. If you don't smoke you might enjoy the pubs smoke free atmosphere since the ban came in. To get there you will most of the time have to pass by the Irish ignoramus smoking in the doorway.

• Buffalobrave | Jan 02, 2013, 07:35 AM EST

  mairint; Yes indeed "The Olde Castle Bar" In Donegal town. My cousin lives around the corner from The Diamond in Donegal Town. My Canadian wife loved the place. I hope it stays for ever. One of the best pints outside of Dublin.

• Smyrnian | Jan 02, 2013, 06:00 AM EST

  Carol - I and a great many others have no wish to go back to disgusting smoke filled pubs where we had to literally stand outside in order to breathe. It was appalling and bringing that back would in no way improve anything. Now everyone can enjoy the pub.

• Searlit | Jan 01, 2013, 11:07 PM EST

  It's a shame. I liked going to the pubs in Ireland. The ones where lively sessions happen when the local musicians play spontaneously. Fantastic! I hope some of them are still around.

• Ron | Jan 01, 2013, 08:15 PM EST

  The Irish pub is on the way out in Australia too.. Seems that all a pub owner has to do to cash in on this gimmick is to 'decorate' the joint with rusty buckets, ould black and white photos and play 'My ould Irish granny' over the loudspeaker. They're a filthy bloody disgrace. And the prices are not lower either!

• CarolAST | Jan 01, 2013, 07:01 PM EST

  Repeal the smoking ban. It's that simple.

• michaelidaho | Jan 01, 2013, 06:40 PM EST

  This past spring I visited several pubs in the west of Ireland. Most of the patrons were tourists and most of the bar staff was non-Irish. Many pubs closed before 10:00 PM. All my Irish relatives stay at home and rarely go to pubs. Fifteen years ago, it was the complete opposite. I would have to say that the title of this article is an understatement, if there ever was one.

• ourlady | Jan 01, 2013, 06:33 PM EST

  dublin is a pure rip off for beer

• pilib04 | Jan 01, 2013, 06:06 PM EST

  Mea Culpa, the Hide Out sold and was refurbished and reopened under a new name,the Cornerhouse Bar and Lounge. Great news for Letterkennys oldest pub.

• pilib04 | Jan 01, 2013, 05:59 PM EST

  I believe that the Hide Out in oldtown part of Letterkenny is still up for sale. If someone would like an almost 200 year old pub, this one is a deal and I would love to see it saved. Met Danny Morrison there in 1985.

• pilib04 | Jan 01, 2013, 05:53 PM EST

  Sparklet, what part of England are you referring to? Certainly is not my experience. Your £7 barely covers a pint, let alone a meal. I would love to know where you can eat 2 for £7??? Certainly not in Durham or anywhere else in the North.

• oldboreen | Jan 01, 2013, 05:52 PM EST

  Surely there were far too many pubs in Ireland. Until recently, it was not unusual for a village with a population of less than 1000 people to have twenty or more pubs and bars. Many a family suffered the consequences of excessive drinking by feckless fathers. Fewer pubs can only be good for modern Ireland.

• Bocktherobber | Jan 01, 2013, 04:50 PM EST

  Dubwoman -- What sort of Irish pub has floor staff? Sounds like you were in some corporate drinking emporium.

• mairint | Jan 01, 2013, 04:19 PM EST

  The Irish Pub will never die. It may shrink. Best for socializing, eating, charity boxes, and shelter from the rain. A well pulled pub pint can not be equaled at the kitchen table. Long live the Irish pub - especially the Olde Castle Bar in Donegal town.

• bobby | Jan 01, 2013, 03:14 PM EST

  If one likes frozen food cooked in a microwave yes come to the UK. If you want quality food and leave feeling full go to an Irish pub. No complaints from me. Its all good. What is €10 for a good quality fresh meal.

• Sparklet | Jan 01, 2013, 02:12 PM EST

  Bobby, I prefer the Irish pub because there's more character, but my point is that no everyone can afford to eat out at those prices, and the fact that many pubs in the UK - not just Wetherspoons - do much cheaper meals, prove that Irish pubs are pricing themselves out of business. You can still get a good quality meal in the UK for a lot less than you can in Ireland, so it can be done.

• dubwoman | Jan 01, 2013, 01:59 PM EST

  Have just come home having had 2 drinks at €7.40 a drink.. Couldn't afford any more. Also agree with Frosty38 below... the floor staff weren't Irish but young foreign girls. The Irish pub has lost its gloss... it's just about profit now.

• seanaci | Jan 01, 2013, 01:35 PM EST

  I'm reminded of a phone-in piece from years ago on the Gay Byrne radio show from a man lamenting how a large proportion of his annual holiday, spent in Ireland, was wasted looking for a "good pint". He had some useful hints on what pubs to avoid. Those with "wimin", fancy furniture, pub-grub music and by far the worst, TV. However it was still a time consuming but obviously finally satisfying chore. If RTE still have this tape it should be released.

• Nicoletta | Jan 01, 2013, 01:34 PM EST

  The big enemy of pubs (after the alienation of smokers) is cheap booze. Pubs can't compete with the price of it in the supermarkets. Plus, more people are drinking at home - wine with their dinner, for example, something that was unheard of in my parents' generation.

• bobby | Jan 01, 2013, 12:58 PM EST

  @Sparklet you sound like a Wetherspoons regular...I find pubs in Dublin and Ireland alot better than the ones we have here in England. What annoys me about the traditional english pub here in London is the smelly carpet they all have. They stink. I would rather spend €10 for a lovely meal than £10 for frozen microwaved crap. `

• bobby | Jan 01, 2013, 12:42 PM EST

  @Towngate, are you a so called Unionist from Northern Ireland? You sound very Anti....And a Bigot. The New Year has done nothing for you, still the same old miserable self. @ Curitiba for once i agree with you. @ Sparklet they are expensive in Ireland but no more than the prices in London. You cannot get 2 meals for £7 in London. Maybe in places like Liverpool but it will be frozen food cooked in a microwave, if that is what you like.....

• pilib04 | Jan 01, 2013, 12:14 PM EST

  7000 plus public house licenses is hardly "no pubs."

• Sparklet | Jan 01, 2013, 11:53 AM EST

  They're too expensive. Tho it's nice to see the traditional pub - most of which don't look as though they've been decorated since they were built - the price you pay is much more than you'd pay for a more modern environment in the UK. We found it hard to find anywhere to eat that was less than ten euros a meal. In the UK you can get two meals for £7 in many places. Irish pubs have character, but just too expensive.

• Silling | Jan 01, 2013, 11:24 AM EST

  Smoke Bacon!

• jacersagain | Jan 01, 2013, 11:17 AM EST

  I fear for the survival of the old traditional Irish pub, chiefly in rural villages and towns. The death-knell was sounded with the introduction of the anti ‘drink & drive’ laws, worsened with the introduction of the law of no-smoking in pubs and confirmed with the availability of cheaply-priced alcohol in supermarkets. Now people buy their booze as part of their grocery list, drink and smoke at their own leisure at home and save a fortune by not going to pubs charging €50 a gallon for beer and €30 gallon for soft drinks. It is a shame really… the local pub was often the heart of communities for socialising with friends and neighbours over a drink and a smoke, with lively discussion and craic. I think the Pub Scene in Ireland has changed dramatically but will survive in major towns and cities as places to go out to once in a while, like going to the Cinema or Theatre as a change from home TV-watching or going to a restaurant as a change from home meals.

• Helen Ferone | Jan 01, 2013, 11:16 AM EST

  Hang in there, and don't close just yet. The gathering is this coming year, and a lot of vacationers will be returning to Ireland for the celebration so don't give up hope.

• Curitiba | Jan 01, 2013, 10:47 AM EST

  Four pubs a week close in England & Wales. The recession is not the only factor here; changing demographics is another cause. Immigrants who move into the area tend not to use pubs and the people who used to use them have sold their houses and moved away, or grown old and died. Many fine old Victorian-era pubs with magnificent decor and ornate stonework are closing and are either being demolished to make way for new housing, or being reopened as small convenience supermarkets.

• butlerreport | Jan 01, 2013, 10:43 AM EST

  Publicans killed their own business. They never invested a cent in providing clean air for non-smokers instead allowing their pubs to become smoke-filled and disgusting. Had they done so - installed air conditioning and exhausts over the years - they may have been exempted from the smoking ban. They price gouge the average drinker charging E2.50 for a small coke. And they regard themselves as a 'profession'. They deserve what they get; good riddance to most. Cheaper and more social to now drink at home.

• butlerreport | Jan 01, 2013, 10:30 AM EST

  Waiters? What kind of pubs did you go to?

• Redneck56 | Jan 01, 2013, 09:45 AM EST

  WTF !!!! No pubs??? THIS IS A CATASTROPHE !!! Something has to be done about this !!! OMG !!!! ;)

• Frosty38 | Jan 01, 2013, 09:20 AM EST

  One of my disappointments with the pubs was the waiters . I used to love joking with them and hearing the way they spoke. Now that is gone. They are more then likely working in a better job or left the county. So they are more Eastern Europe workers there.

• antoman | Jan 01, 2013, 09:17 AM EST

  Its dead. No one except our over paid politicians can afford to go to the pub. Instead what we do is take the money it would cost us to buy a pint in a pub and use it to buy four cans of beer in a supermarket.

• Nicopernicus | Jan 01, 2013, 09:01 AM EST

  Who doesn't like a good Pub... Alcoholics maybe? The old guard that used the pub as a source of communications and local news as well as a bad habit are disappearing, add in tough drink/drive regs and emigrating Irish types and you can expect to see a severe loss of cultural Ireland. However alcohol plays a part in that role good or bad...Its not a bad thing to shed the skin of dysfunction and the goto party island for something better.

• Towngate | Jan 01, 2013, 08:03 AM EST

  Dara: Whereas the Irish Economic Depression may be considered a bad thing - anything that helps reduce the Irish dependence on alcohol and makes them fitter for work - can only be a good thing. Close all the pubs! Who cares!