Wholly Thirsty

at

goodfriday

How bad is Good Friday?

Kevin Flanagan writes:

Libertarian Ireland & Students For Liberty Ireland hit the streets of Dublin to ask what people think about the Good Friday Drinking Ban.
Considering that Holy Thursday is one of the busiest days for off-licences and butchers, is the Good Friday drinking ban just seen as a “challenge” and excuse to break the law?
What do you think? Join the discussion and have your say using #bintheban

Libertarian Ireland

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75 thoughts on “Wholly Thirsty

  1. Hank

    It should be abolished purely to help rid ourselves of the grip the Catholic hierarchy once had on this country’s throat

    1. Robert

      The catholic hierarchy STILL has a grip on this country’s throat, and in that regard there’s bigger fish to fry than being allowed to the pub 365 …

      It’s actually one of the less odious aspects.

  2. Stephen F

    Live one day with an alcoholic family member and maybe people would start supporting those two days a year that they can’t disappear to a pub for the day.

    1. Bobby

      People drink to excess on Thursday and Friday due to the ban, so if you wanted to stop people drinking so much you’d support repealing the ban.

  3. mildred st. meadowlark

    Look at what happens on Xmas Eve. The shops close for one day and people act as though they won’t survive without milk, toilet paper, whatever. It is pure silliness. Same carry on with good Friday.

  4. jeremy kyle

    Look, if publicans want to open I think they should have the choice – as should people who finish work on a Friday evening and fancy a pint. I always hear the same “oh god, can you not go one day” as if it’s constant boozing for the other 363 days of the year.

    It’s not going to curtail alcoholism because it’s not going to stop people drinking on Good Friday, it’s just a pointless pain in the arse.

      1. LW

        It’s a pain in the arse that the options for socialising are severely curtailed on the first weekend of the year when everyone comes home from abroad, certainly.

          1. newsjustin

            And we’re only getting those public holidays at Easter because it’s Easter.

            Be careful what you wish for.

          2. LW

            They’re coming home on English holidays, where they get the holidays without the penance of no pubs

          3. newsjustin

            Holidays that are only holidays because it’s Easter.

            If you’re not careful, the bishops will take back those holidays.

          4. LW

            Haha the Bishops have grown in strength if they’re gonna take them off not just Ireland but the UK

          5. newsjustin

            Sure look at the second comment on this whole – Robert’s. The hierarchy has us by the throats apparently.

    1. Disasta

      Love a good house party.
      Unfortunately my mates prefer to p!ss their money away in far less entertaining pubs.
      Been the same since we were 18.
      Love a good house party.
      Yours, mine, someone I don’t know.
      Fantastic.

    2. DaithiG

      A good game of cards and a lash of cans at one of the lads house was always the solution for Good Friday.

    1. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

      I guess if it was the anniversary of your only son’s brutal torture and death you might be a little sniffy about people having a party.

      But then you should remember he isn’t real and have a pint.

  5. Robert

    Just speaking from experience, in South Africa you can’t get a legit drink on a Sunday anywhere!

    You go to the continent there’s restrictions on Sunday, and even Saturday selling sometimes. Even in the UK the weekend market isn’t completely unfettered.

    Come on now it’s just one of two days in the year where you can’t go to the pub. Grow up!

      1. Robert

        I happen to like it! Many people happen to like it. I can’t for the life of me understand why those of us who do should be at the mercy of those of us who don’t? Oh sure if it was something important I could probably take pains to construct a more rigorous argument but it’s not. It’s the pub, and I get to go there as much as I like the rest of the year. I can’t relate to the concept that not being able to go on a particular day is any kind of a hardship.

        So lets recap on the key arguments:
        – some people want to be able to go to the pub every day of the year
        – some publicans seem to think it’s an extra days business they’re losing out on

        Neither of these is very convincing IMO.

        1. LW

          Haha well currently, the rest of us are “at the mercy” of the other way around. But it’s important to note that I don’t think anyone is proposing enforced attendance at the pub on Good Friday, you would still be free not to go.

          I don’t know how you’re not convinced that publicans are losing out on an extra day’s business, that’s exactly what is happening.

          The fact that you “happen to like” that people aren’t free to purchase alcohol on a particular day seems somewhat less than convincing to me

        2. Kieran NYC

          If you happen to like not drinking on Good Friday, no one will force you to once the ban ends. Just like no one is forcing you to get gay married, or would force anyone you know to have an abortion if that freedom finally came in.

          It’s about freedom of choice. Just because you have a personal preference for something, doesn’t mean it should be enforced on anyone else.

    1. Medium Sized C

      On one hand you are right, we have some really liberal drinking laws.
      On the other, its feckin national no pints after work day.

      The number of days that good Friday is not a logical argument for maintaining the good friday closing law.
      It isn’t even an argument. It’s somewhere on a continuum between just being a bit of a tosser and forcing your own made up religious beliefs on somebody.

      I mean I’m not actually all that bothered, but if I’m scoring between

      “People in a country with constitutional freedom of religious practice should be free to purchase alcohol a Christian day of observance, because they may not be of that faith and to deny them that is to deny them their religious freedom.”

      Trumps the hell out of

      “Its only a couple of days and sure its worse elsewhere.”

      Jesus probably wasn’t bothered about the licencing laws anyway, he was too busy rising from the dead and all that.

    2. Bobby

      I’m thinking youre the one who needs to grow up. Bizarrely childish and contrary view, you have.

      1. DaithiG

        Ya, it’s almost as contrary as having to have your children baptised into a cult you disagree with just to give them a decent education.

        Pffft!

    3. Dubh Linn

      “Even in the UK the weekend market isn’t completely unfettered” ….

      What b-ox you speak,
      When you refer to the drink

  6. newsjustin

    “Considering that Holy Thursday is one of the busiest days for off-licences and butchers,….”

    What do butchers have to do with pubs being closed on Good Friday?

    1. Mikeyfex

      Between that, claiming there’s a law being broken, calling for ‘discussion’ under a clearly biased hashtag, poor sound, and a poor interviewing style: could do better.

        1. Mikeyfex

          For clarity, I disagree with what you’re saying here but it also think the article is poor.

  7. On The Buses

    I think N.C Lawlor should be free to choose whether or not you used his music as the soundtrack to your video.

  8. Medium Sized C

    Ah sure feck this, lets just argue about Libertarianism as a political philosophy instead

      1. JD

        Not really Milton Friedman. Milton comes from Chicago School of Economics. These guys are more like the Mises, Hayek, Rothbard (Austrian School) kind of Libertarian.

        1. rory

          It is disingenuous to suggest that Friedman and the Austrian School of thought are not connected, just because he was based in Chicago. Friedman was a member of the Mont Pelerin society led by Hayek.

          1. JD

            Chicago School of Economics and Austrian School of Economics has nothing to do with the location of the economists. Many Austrians are American for example Murray Rothbard, Ron Paul, and Peter Schiff. If they were connected they wouldn’t have different names and different philosophies. It’s not disingenuous, you’re just ignorant.

        1. rory

          It is also disingenuous to suggest that Neoliberalism isn’t mainstream. Thatcher was a big fan of Hayek, for example.

    1. Anne

      Or you and Ronan could have yer own house party and we could get rid of the ban.. it’s a win win all round.

  9. some old queen

    “In your opinion what sort of government would you prefer to have. One that was more liberation and less control or one that was conservative and had more of a role in people’s lives? “

    Is it not the conservatives who argue against state control? Doing a video in Stephen’s Green against a stupid outdated ban is fine lads but… be careful what you wish for.

    Trump?

    1. JD

      Both conservatives and liberals have a track record of giving more control to the government. The difference is conservatives want more control over social issues and liberals want more control over the economy.

      Libertarianism is opposite-Trump.

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