{"id":209853,"date":"2025-12-01T15:58:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T15:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/209853\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T15:58:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T15:58:12","slug":"every-dubliner-should-drive-through-rural-towns-to-see-the-pub-has-been-knocked-off-its-perch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/209853\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Every Dubliner should drive through rural towns to see… The pub has been knocked off its perch’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like triple-distilled whiskey, Irish pubs appear to have timeless appeal. They are staple setting in films, books and plays, draw tourists to Ireland, replicate themselves around the world and induce social media quests for the perfect snug and the perfect pint.<\/p>\n

Scholars have now bestowed academic imprimatur on this cultural treasure status by examining \u2014 and celebrating \u2014 pubs through the lens of history, sociology, architecture, psychology, design, art and literature.<\/p>\n

Two new books, The Irish Pub: Invention and Reinvention, and The Dublin Pub: A Social and Cultural History, brim with footnotes, data and lore as they analyse what makes a \u201cperfect pub\u201d and the mysterious alchemy that produces \u201ccraic\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, in each case the authors come to a sobering conclusion: Irish pubs are in trouble. They are vanishing from rural Ireland and many are struggling to survive in the capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like a moment of transition,\u201d said Donal Fallon, author of The Dublin Pub.\u00a0 \u201cEvery Dubliner should drive through rural towns to see what\u2019s happening. The pub has been knocked off its perch.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some villages have lost all their pubs, and new housing developments often omit pubs, said Perry Share, a co-editor of The Irish Pub, a collection of essays by 20 writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanners are not insisting that pubs be put in. That could create problems in future in terms of loneliness and community cohesion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2005, Ireland has lost a quarter of its pubs, more than 2,100, averaging 112 closures a year. Cited reasons include high taxes on alcohol, drink-driving laws, rising property prices and a fall in alcohol consumption.<\/p>\n

\"CorkCork City’s Cotton Ball pub is up for sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is a global phenomenon \u2014 traditional bars are shuttering across Britain and much of Europe and Asia \u2014 but for Ireland the stakes are particularly high, said Mr Share, who heads the school of social science and humanities at Atlantic Technological University.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur society is becoming segmented into different interest groups so it\u2019s important to have these places to interact across class and gender lines,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the pub it\u2019s OK to express emotion in a certain way and to grab someone and hug them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just over half of the population live within 300 metres of Ireland\u2019s remaining 7,000 pubs, and, Mr Share said, pubs remained central to expressions of Irish culture, such as in novels by authors including Sally Rooney and Paul Murray, TV shows such as Trespasses, and Hollywood depictions of Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if declining, the pub is still part of the fabric of everyday life. If it does disappear it\u2019s a real loss. People talk of alternatives, like coffee shops, but no one says they had great craic in the coffee shop,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The volume Mr Share co-edited with Moonyoung Hong, a professor of English at the University of Hong Kong, ranges over the evolution of taverns in the era of Jonathan Swift, the emergence of gay pubs in the 20th century, and the export of Irish-themed pubs from Nepal to Peru.<\/p>\n

An essay by Kevin Martin \u2014 the author of a previous volume on pubs titled Have Ye No Homes to Go To? \u2014 identifies 10 elements for an ideal pub, including \u201ca great pint of Guinness at a decent price\u201d and \u201cconvivial company when required, and peace when not\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Ramble Inn, in the village of Halfway, Cork, closed last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Social media influencers chronicle searches for \u201cthe best\u201d Irish pub on Instagram and other platforms but Mr Fallon, a social historian, said that missed the point: \u201cThis veneration of a handful of places, this ranking system, is often driven by aesthetics rather than any appreciation of what the pub is. Something doesn\u2019t have to be the best to be important. It has to be part of its community. If you\u2019ve had the worst day in your life the nearest pub is probably the best pub.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Fallon\u2019s book uncovers colourful tales involving figures such as the American photographer Lee Miller, who photographed the Palace bar while on assignment in Dublin for Vogue in the 1940s, but also explores and toasts unsung, nondescript suburban pubs.<\/p>\n

Mr Fallon notes the word pub stems from public house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is real warmth in that term. It implies a shared space and a living space. It captures the collective sense of what a pub is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like triple-distilled whiskey, Irish pubs appear to have timeless appeal. They are staple setting in films, books and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[5051,9,10,18,13,14,6,19,2902,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-209853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-alcohol","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-insight","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115645141241521337","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}