A Different View with Dave O’Connell

It’s impossible to put an exact figure on it, but the consensus by now is that there are actually more Irish bars outside of Ireland than there are pubs in Ireland itself.

Covid played its part in this, signalling the death knell for so many licenced premises here, but in truth the pendulum was already swinging in that direction.

Two years ago, the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland estimated that there were 6,788 still in business here – and that was after one in five Irish pubs had closed their doors since 2005. Since then, Covid further accelerated that reduction.

At the same time the most recent figures produced by the Irish Pubs Global Federation – admittedly for 2015 when the organisation was originally launched – estimated that there were approximately 6,500 Irish pubs doing business outside of Ireland.

And there’s no reason to think that number hasn’t grown since.

There’s a BBC Radio 4 programme called More or Less – where experts attempt to answer listeners’ burning questions – which calculated that there is at least one Irish bar in more than 160 of the world’s 195 countries.

Which all begs the question; what actually makes a pub an Irish pub; is it having Guinness on tap or at least in cans, a few tricolours on the wall, shamrocks on the pint, trad tunes all day?

Is it wood-panelled walls, loads of old antique signs for cigarettes and long-vanished whisky – or is it the warmth of the reception that comes from having at least one Irish member of staff behind the counter?

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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