I have some shocking news this week, the Irish pub is dead and will be waked in homes throughout the country in the coming months.
In fact, the home is set to become the new Irish pub if it isn’t that already.
Its passing won’t be announced for a while but the traditional bar we came to know and love over our lifetime is probably gone for good.
And if you too are shocked, sit yourself down and have yourself a large one – for the future of drinking is at home.
All that talk about bars coming back as restaurants is the kind of guff you’d have heard at the bar on a Saturday night.
It’s drink talk by publicans with no drink taken. The people who’ve been going into bars all their lives, myself included, are not going there for food, it’s drink and talk they want.
The very fact they can’t do this renders the experience null and void.
It was the close contact, seeing old friends and meeting new ones, while having a few drinks that drew most people there in the first place.
What’s the point in going down to the pub for a chat with your pals if the nearest one to you is two metres away.
Think about that for a second. If someone is 6fty 6ins away across a table in a noisy bar the only way you’re going to have a conversation with them is by phone. And that’s the other thing – tables.
Drinkers don’t want to sit at them and be served drinks by a waiter service.
Still, a recent survey carried out by the Licensed Vintners Association of pubs in Dublin shows 45% of bars plan to reopen as restaurants in June. Good luck with that.
I’ve been going to bars over 45 years and you can take my word for it what is being proposed by publicans won’t work.
If I want something to eat I go to a real restaurant not one offering food as a cover for selling drink.
Those old enough to remember how back in the 1970s and 80s night clubs served so-called “meals” as an excuse to stay open late will know what’s coming.
The rubber chicken could have doubled as rubber bullets.
It’s no easy job converting a small bar into a something that sells anything other than soup and sandwiches. But if the Government were to help it might just happen.
Over the years Irish pubs have been voted as one of the main reasons people visit Ireland and that ain’t going to happen in the future if bars are masquerading as restaurants.
And let’s face it, even before the pandemic many pubs were health hazards and in some cases you were taking you life in your hands going to the toilet. How do you social distance at a small urinal?
While you have to admire the publicans for trying to adapt to a dreadful situation the real danger for this industry is that the home will become the new bar.
After nearly three months of lockdown the online socialising thing is wearing thin and people are already hosting parties for friends at weekends.
Given the choice of shouting across a table while trying to attract a waiter’s attention and having a few drinks with friends in the comfort of your own home at a fraction of the cost – it’s a no-brainer.
This is borne out by the story in the Irish Mirror this week which shows off licence sales are up 43% during the Covid-19 crisis with the public spending €5million a day.
Of course the death of the Irish bar can be delayed if not averted and tens of thousands of jobs saved if the Government helps.
The industry should not be allowed to die and the only way it can survive is if the Government offers financial help in the way of grants and interest-free loans to help pubs adapt to the new reality. Didn’t we hand over €64billion to the banks which in turn robbed us.
The joke doing the rounds claiming that if the bars don’t open soon everyone will be alcoholics also has some truth in it as it has been shown that people drink less in the controlled environment of a pub.
For the financial and mental health of the nation the pubs should be helped to survive.
