half penny bridge Dublin

 

Pubs In Ireland - What To Expect When You Visit Ireland. This information is aimed at those not living in Ireland.  The Irish people already know all about the pubs here.
The Price of alcohol in Ireland is more expensive than most European countries when bought in a public house. The price will differ from pub to pub and from town to town. The cities of Ireland will charge the most for alcohol compared to rural tows and village pubs. Dublin would be regarded as the most expensive place to buy alcohol. The price of a pint of beer in the City area would range from.€4 in a standard pub to €6 in Temple Bare area.

 


 

But alcohol can be bought much cheaper in off licence shops. These are generally separate from the pub and most supermarkets and petrol filling stations sell all types of alcohol. For example a bottle of wine will be as cheap as €3 in an off licence while a pub will charge anything from €4 to €6 for a glass of wine.

 

Bottled beer in the pub will set you back around €5 for half a pint bottle while an off licence will charge around €2.50.The best seller beers in Ireland are Guinness, Carlsburg and Smithwicks. You can buy 20 cans of beer in an off licence for less than €20.

 


 

Most Irish people now drink at home rather than going to the pub. This is a recent happening since the smoking ban and recession took hold. Households will generally buy their alcohol along with their weekly shopping in the supermarket. The smoking ban has changed the whole way Irish people socialise. Before the ban most pubs would do a great trade with full houses most nights of the week and especially at week ends. Alas this is no more and along with no smoking came no craic because the punters were staying at home drinking.

 


 

Irish pubs, well at least the ones in Ireland were known the world over for having a great time. It formed part of our heritage and social life for generations. Tourists from all corners of the world came to Ireland to visit our pubs to enjoy themselves with the entertainment laid on and join the banter with the locals. With the stroke of a pen a Cork politician destroyed a whole way of life.

 


 

    Above Is The Palace Pub In Temple Bar Dublin, A Smoker has a puff.
Most Irish people now do their drinking at home, usually on their own. Women drink more wine than men and don't see any problem having 3 or 4 glasses of wine a night. Governments over the years have failed to address the problem with the over consumption of gargle In Ireland because of the huge amount of money it brings into the exchequer in taxes.

 


 

Even during the biggest recession ever to hit the country we still find money for gargle. Drink forms part of who we are as a society. The County with the most pubs is Dublin with 960 in 2012.


So do the pubs in Ireland open on Good Friday ?
As a rule all pubs are banned from opening on Good Friday, including off licence sales in shops. Some pubs do open on Good Friday. They are only open to regular drinkers of these pubs. They didn't always open, this opening has only come about because of the recession in Ireland, so it's mainly for the money. So how do I find a pub that open's ? A good person to ask would be a taxi driver as these boys know everthing that goes on in the locality. It's against the lay to buy and sell drink on Good Friday and you could be prosicuted for such an offence. But it's unlikely you will be found as the Garda are not interested in such matters any more. The Garda in Ireland have cut back on proscecuting many lay breakers because the Garda have had their pay cut and this is their way of getting back at government.
There are other ways of buying drink on a Good Friday, for example you could get a train to Cork or Galway and you can buy drink on most of these long distance train journeys. Another way is to get a cross channel ferry to England or Wales, drink is sold on ferries and Good Friday is one of the busy days of the year for ferry companies. But if you are that hard up for a drink on Good Friday perhaps it's time to ''Take The Pledge''.

So Do The Pubs In Ireland Open On Christmas Day ?
The easy answer is no. Unlike Good Friday, you won't even get a ''Speak Easy'' open. Irish people like to spend their Christmas day with their families, that includes bar men.

Who Are The Bar Staff Nearly All Men
The real answer to that question is that working in a pub is a thankless job and the bar staff have to put up with a lot of verbal abuse, men are better at putting up with slagging than women. Irish women tend to be sensitive when slagged off. A woman would bar a man far quicker from a pub than a man, this is not good for trade and that's another reason why pub owners prefer men working behind the bar that women.

Opening Times For Pubs
The general opening time for pubs in Ireland is 10am Monday To Friday and from 12.30 to 11 pm on Sundays. Pubs can stay open up to 12.30 Am on a Friday and Saturday if they want to, most do.Some parts of Ireland especially in rural areas the local pub might not open until the evening time. This is because of a fall off in trade because of the very strict drink driving rules in Ireland. Any more that 2 pints of beer and you will be over the drink driving limit.  If visiting the so called ''Tourist Areas'' of Ireland the vast majority of the pubs stay open until 12-30 am at week ends. In some rural areas the local will stay open until 3 or 4 am, the people living in these areas don't usually come out until late at night. It's not uncommon for rural drinkers to go to the pub at 12am as they know it will stay open for them. Again just like the Good Friday rules above the Garda generally turn a blind eye to late opening in rural areas.

So Who Owns The Pubs In Ireland ?
Unlike the United Kingdom, the pubs in Ireland are independently owned and managed. Most publicans will hold one licence which must be renewed each year. In Britain the pubs that are aligned to breweries only sell the beer that that brewery makes. Ireland is not at all like this and is free to sell whatever drinks they want to