At Tigh Ui Laoghaire pub.

In Bealnamorrive, Coachford, Co Cork.

On Tuesday night.

Jason McCarthy writes:

“Not one customer, not sure if Shane Ross understands what he has done to rural Ireland. Shame on him.”

Thanks Diarmuid McCarthy

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50 thoughts on “Shaneless

  1. ReproButina

    Terrible state of affairs that a lad can’t have a feed of pints before driving home, sure it’s no worse than a big dinner and the fairies have the roads in ruin anyway.

    1. Otis Blue

      Wouldn’t ya think?

      The place is called Bealnamorrive (the mouth of the dead) and if that doesn’t confer a right, then what does?

  2. Col

    Could it be the high prices? Changing demographics? Changing attitudes of young people (more into health & fitness)? Increased employment (who goes to the pub on a Tuesday)?

    1. phil

      Its the prices that kept me out of the pubs at first , after a while I got used to not going and never went back…

    2. Nigel

      Saw something recently to the effect that we are, in fact, drinking less as a nation, which is a good thing, surely.

      1. Rob_G

        We are indeed, down significantly from the Celtic Tiger years.

        Whereas before a small village could maybe support 3 or 4 pubs, with people drinking less, the demand is no longer there. Which is, of course, very sad on a personal level for these publicans, but probably good for society.

        1. Nigel

          Unfortunately in the short term this does exacerbate rural isolation for an older generation who rely on pubs for socialising. Lots of community initiatives needed for them and for a younger generation who might prefer drugs to drink.

          1. Rob_G

            There’s Men’s Sheds for the older fellows (and maybe some younger fellows too). No-one is stopping anyone going to the pub and drinking a few Diet Cokes.

            Part of it is that the pub used to be literally the only thing to do after work in Ireland. Watch RTE 1 or later on, RTE2, or go to the pub. Now there is Netflix, online gaming, many, many more restaurants… The increased choice means, never mind the fact that we consume less alcohol, means that it would be impossible to support anywhere close to the same number of pubs.

          2. Nigel

            This is true. And say what you will about social media, a lot more people are a lot more connected than they used to be.

  3. Daisy Chainsaw

    Have these people who want to drink and drive ever been told that some of the drink served in pubsactually doesn’t have alcohol in it? If it’s really only about getting alcohol in your system, then that’s fairly pathetic, but if it’s about socialising, try a “minnerl” or even (gasp!) alcohol free beer.

  4. Spaghetti Hoop

    I think rural bus provision should have been Lord Ross’s next move, replace the negative with a positive. Visiting the pub can be just as much about conversation, friendships, table-quizzes, benefit nights, live music, community involvement, combating loneliness and depression as it is about the few scoops. If I had elderly relos in the country I would like them to have this option – without having to take the car out, take a drink (even ONE!) and risk lives.

  5. Dhaughton99

    It’s a Tuesday. You make enough money over the weekend to tide you over.

    Have a bingo night or free chuggets and cokes.

    Or close and have the night off to watch Amy Huberman on the telly.

    1. Clampers Outside !

      I managed three episodes… and I’m not bothered with enduring anymore. Sharon Horgan’s Women on the Verge was more promising… but again…. I’ve given up on that too… :(

      1. Dhaughton99

        I was being sarcastic. Nobody in their right mind would sit down willingly to watch it. I assume you were drunk or shooting heroin through your eye ball at the time.

      2. Janet, I ate my avatar

        I’m not loving that either Clamps, watched one and thought no thanks, can’t identify I guess

    2. McVitty

      So you would prescribe how you like to spend a Tues on a nation of people.

      How “nice” and liberal of you…sheesh.

      1. Cian

        Taxes aren’t huge (at the bar) see my comment below.

        But there is also more processing in non-alcohol beer (they need to take the alcohol out[1]) and they (probably) don’t have the economies of scale. So it costs more to produce.

        The real question should be why is a pint of coke/7-up more expensive than a pint?

        [1] or brew it using different (read more expensive) yeasts that don’t produce as much alcohol.

    1. Cian

      Not really. You pay about 55c in excise duty on a pint (this then has VAT applied – another 13c). A total of 68c goes on excise + excise-related VAT.

      If you buy a pint for €5.00 then 55c is duty; 94c is VAT (81c+13c) and the balance €3.51 goes to the bar. (30% taxes)
      If you buy a pint for €6.00 then 55c is duty; 113c is VAT (100c+13c) and the balance €4.32 goes to the bar. (28% taxes)
      If you buy a can for €1.00 then 48c is duty; 19c is VAT (8c+11c) and the balance €0.33 goes to the supermarket. [500ml] (67% taxes)

  6. Daithi

    Shame on the gubberment for not rounding up the ould lads of Bealnamorrive and dragging them to the pub on a Tuesday.

  7. Tucker Done

    Surely this go-getter publican could pivot into the food sector. Joking aside, not that I’m funny, but what if they served a no-option dinner menu each night at cost price to entice some people out of their homes. Wouldn’t be long before the old drink addiction would sell a few pints.

  8. Rob

    If rural people are as isolated as they make out, then the visit to the pub should be fine to meet people. Why do they need to have a drink? The fact is that they are probably just reliant on alcohol without acknowledging that they may have a problem with alcohol.
    Here’s an idea, how about the HSE launch a campaign to highlight what low level alcohol dependence looks like. Possibly fund this from an alcohol advertising levy.

    1. Spaghetti Hoop

      Jeez, it’s like the Betty Ford Clinic ’round here. People enjoy a drink. Don’t think oul Farmer John-Joe is going to listen to a HSE broadcast on ‘low-level alcohol dependence’. He just wants his few pints in the local on an evening.

      1. Rob_G

        I think this gets to the heart of it.

        Back in the day, people in rural areas* used to drink 3 or 4 pints and drive home afterwards. Now they can’t any more, and they are a bit sore about it. But it isn’t really politic for rural vintners and TDs to say publicly “why can’t my clients/constituents get sloshed and take the car home any more?”, so that is why we hear instead about ‘rural isolation’ and the importance of the pub to the social fabric of rural Ireland.

        *urban areas too, of course but the changes have’t impacted them so much

        1. McVitty

          Outside of boy racers, people generally don’t drive as fast in rural Ireland…

          You know a nice warm pub on a wet night can be a nice thing – music, conversation. A couple of drinks are not always the road to drunken recklessness. I would say we need to encourage personal responsibility to leave the pub after the 4th pint.

          Liberal thinking used to promote responsibility and assume people could be responsible – we’re seeing that turned on its head at the moment (replaced by vindictiveness and quick judgment). Now, it’s only libertarians that have faith in people.

  9. Riz

    Not buying this shtick that rural Ireland’s social life revolves around the pub. And if it does then it shouldn’t.

    1. McVitty

      I suppose someone from rural Ireland is better qualified to make that statement but, you tell em!

      Anything else you would change? Mandatory euthanasia for the long term unemployed perhaps?

      Liberal mindset be changing – less liberal, more judgmental in a rising tide of indifference and ignorance.

  10. andy

    Did anyone else look this place up on google maps?

    It’s literally a school / church and a pub. Why they hell would anyone bother going there. Sure don’t most people have their own TVs these days?

  11. :-Joe

    Jesus wept…

    The reason your pub is empty is because we’ve all become atomised cyborg organisms without realising it.

    Sci-Fi films such as Terminator and the Matrix were not futuristic, they were documentaries by the time they got made from the original ideas and books they were based on warnings many years before .

    You need to figure out what is the one thing that millenials(I hate that term) cannot resist going to your premisis for over anything else. Otherwise wait for a few years until someone else creates the trend that will restore some community based alternative to the pub back into society.

    Cinema has always been an auld reliable for me personally… especially if it has a bar or they don’t mind me smuggling in a bottle of wine… but no noisy snacks… never!!!

    :-J

  12. :-Joe

    & can people wake up to the fact that Shane Ross as an unelected independant was perfectly fine calling bullpoo left right and centre in the government but once he got elected the establishment is punishing him for it by hanging him out to dry at every opportunity….

    Correct me if I’m wrong, I’ve no stake in his gameplan…. merely just bored with the same charades repeated in every election cycle.. and all the idiots complaining the most who believe it’s important.

    Seriously, compared to our unelected quasi-dictator and the binary choice establishment, W.i T.F has shane ross done that is worthy of so much negative attention?…

    You know who you are… You’re all daft as f….

    :-J

  13. Jusiph

    Pubs / taverns and the like are a social hub in small towns across the world and it is sad to see that changing in Ireland, whatever the reasons are. I don’t think it warrants reflection on our drinking culture but I guess it’s inevitable that it does (I drink more days not, but also take regular exercise and consider myself reasonably healthy overall). If it’s healthier we’re getting, then it comes at the expense of a beautiful facet of Irish society, which is the warmth, both physically and metaphorically, of the irish pub atmosphere. Something that “Irish” bars in almost every major city in the world go to great lengths to try and recreate.

    I live in Asia and one of the aspects of Irish life I miss the most is not being able to wander down to the pub for a pint and a chat. Ok – to be clear – yes I can walk into a nearby bar and have a pint and chat to someone, but it won’t be the same experience, obviously. It’s the ease of being somewhere familiar and the comfort of being able to strike up a casual chat about nothing in particular.

    What will this be replaced with? It’s unrealistic to propose alternatives that don’t have alcohol involved, because we are not a nation that socialises without it, generally speaking. In a lot of places, young people hang out in droves in cafes, but I don’t see Starbucks replacing Tigh Ui Laoghaire anytime soon, so the alternative, at this time, is staying at home and doing something in isolation and quietly observing the slow death of an iconic part of Irish life. I hope it’s reversable and that we can find a way to sustain our local pubs without drink-driving antics, concerns about low-level dependency and our health. Long live Tigh Ui Laoghaire.

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