Northern Ireland shares much of the core of our antiquated liquor licencing laws, as they were defined for the island of Ireland in 1902. One element of this, that our equivalent of has been removed, is a sufficiency test for any "new" licences - which, like here, are created on surrender.
Lidl were denied the option to open a new off-licence in Dundonald due to there being sufficient off-licences nearby; but some pubs nearby had closed. This allowed them to open a full pub; and full pubs in both jurisdictions can sell off-sales. So The Middle Ale was born, and we get news articles about this being the first supermarket pub. Often claiming "in the world".
It isn't even the first supermarket pub on the island of Ireland.
You can try cut the definition of a "supermarket pub" lots of ways, but I can assure you that Ireland has had basically all of them; with Dublin covering most bases.
Even after deliberately excluding the extremely common (but not in Dublin) pubs-with-shops where the shop is now quite big, and weird cases like a co-op supermarket with an actual but rarely open bar (Inishkeel co-op Glenties); we have lots of examples.
These include the direct equivalent of Lidl Dundonald - a supermarket chain opening a pub to run as an off-licence; but also a supermarket chain operating multiple pubs while awaiting redevelopment, a supermarket chain running supermarkets *in* pubs; and some edge cases including Lidl themselves holding planning and a licence in Dublin.
Roches Stores
Over fifty years prior to The Middle Ale; Roches Stores did exactly the same thing, albeit not for quite the same reasons. Wanting an off-licence; they purchased the licence from the Princes Bar on Princes Street. However, this was initially moved to a unit at 23 Upper Liffey Street, fitted out with a bar but primarily operating as an off-licence.
Evening Herald, 6th August 1975
During the limited time it operated, it was reported that only about a fifth of their sales volume was at the bar. However, this gives us an example of a supermarket operating an almost Potemkin pub as a method to have off-sales.
Irish Independent, 26th November 1976
Despite denials that the intention was to move the off-licence in to the Henry Street store, this happened during expansion of the store in the late 1970s.
Younger readers may not remember Roches having conventional supermarkets, as they had dropped this by the time they sold the stores to Debenhams; but they operated their own for some decades before franchising them out to Supervalu.
H Williams
In something even more challenging for younger readers, the next case of a supermarket chain operating bog standard pubs involves a chain that nobody under 40 can actually remember going to.
H Williams, a large chain which went bust in 1987, and one which retail architecture aficionados can still sometimes detect the influence on in terms of store design for the often Tesco or Supervalu stores that now occupy their units, had multiple pubs in Dun Laoghaire for at least nine years.
The best recorded of these is the pub at 108 Upper Georges Street, Dun Laoghaire, which they bought in 1964 - a pub very famous for having been host to a 14 year strike from 1939 to 1953. This pub continued to operate - as "Hibernia", named after the Dun Laoghaire<>Holyhead ferry MV Hibernia I assume, until May 31st, 1973.
Also closing on May 31st were the Albatross (probably named after the LV Albatross light ship) at 113 Upper Georges Street, which H Williams had owned since at least 1965 (Thoms Directory) and the Glenburnie (no idea about the name origin) at number 106, first explicitly listed as H Williams owned in the 1972 Thoms. They are also recorded as the owners of 114 in 1969 Thoms, but this is a retail/office unit not a pub.
This coincident closure was for demolition for the development of Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre. This makes it look like H Williams had been assembling properties here for this redevelopment; but I cannot find anything confirming that they were even involved in the proposal. They certainly did not develop it themselves - that responsibility falling to the still extant MEPC, with H Williams even pulling out of an agreement to operate the anchor supermarket at the last minute.
This supermarket eventually opened as a Quinnsworth, and Quinnworths HQ would end up in the upper floors of the building - Tesco Ireland remains there today.
The replacement shopping centre had at least two, possibly three separate licenced premises - latterly S1329 Farrells (closed 2017), Platinum formerly Paparazzi nightclub (closed 2000s) and S2206 Buck Henrys (closed 2000s).
Farrells, at least, used a licence from one of these three pubs - confirmed by a 1977 licencing application referencing a 1973 court order preserving a licence or licences from the demolished pubs. A second bar, Dunelles, was open from 1977 also and I suspect this is what eventually became Platinium. Buck Henrys unit was initially licenced in 1983, rather late to have preserved a 1973 licence
Dunnes Stores
In the more modern era, we have Dunnes Stores operating a supermarket in a pub. Twice!
The former S0398 Playwright in Blackrock, after a period of being a TGI Fridays and a longer period of sitting empty, has been converted to a Dunnes Stores supermarket, and this still retains its pub licence. I actually ticked this off when it was TGI Fridays, so I do not feel any urge to try drink something from the off-licence on site; but they could allow this if they wanted to.
They also briefly had a branch in the former S0396 Magic Carpet in Cornelscourt, operating again under a pub licence, but have closed this down.
Other examples / edge cases
Outside of Dublin, Findlaters held pub licences on at least a few of their supermarkets, a business they came to late and which they eventually exited (all detailed in the excellent book on the family, available free to read online); but I would consider these to have been traditional grocer-pubs that developed in to supermarkets with pubs; rather than a supermarket explicitly operating a pub.
Dunnes Stores found themselves the holder of the licence for the former S2278 Baron Johns in Crumlin for some years, but never actually operated it.
Lidl have been trying to sell a site with planning and a licence for a pub outside their Belgard Road store - which replaced S1709 Belgard Inn - for some years now.
