No Pubs in Dublin - Then and Now

We're now only days away from Dublin having pubs again - well, pubs you can sit down in. Many pubs have been doing takeout/delivery services, or have refocused themselves on their food offering, again for takeout/delivery. Some have resumed or increased their off-sales. I'd guess that maybe 20% of Dublin's pubs were trading in some form or other in recent weeks, with probably a higher % in suburban areas than the city centre.

However, these past three and a half months are not the first time Dublin's pubs have been closed for sit-down customers; ignoring the obvious Christmas Day and former Good Friday (1927-2018) or St Patricks Day (1927-1960).

Only one of these was anywhere near as extensive as the soon to end closure; some did not close every pub, and none were imposed by the State, but there's at least some historical interest in the stories.

National Days of Mourning 

The most recent general closure I've been able to find details of (and one of only two I remember), was the Irish National Day of Mourning on the 14th of September, 2001; with most media reports stating pubs were closed all day

A prior National Day of Mourning, for Bloody Sunday in 1972, only had a morning closure, again according to media reports.

Barman Strikes

While MANDATE still exists to represent bar staff, since its creation via a merger of the original Irish National Union of Vintners', Grocers' and Allied Trades Assistants union and others in 1994; the potential of a barmans strike to have a significant impact has waned significantly in recent years with more non-unionised premises and fewer unionised staff.. 

Threatened strikes in 2002 and 1998 didn't end up with actual industrial action; with a four day strike during the 1994 World Cup being the most recent to occur. This affected about 70% of pubs in Dublin; with many closed and others operating with just the owner/family or whatever non-unionised staff they managed to find - during the run up to the 1998 strike threat, a claim was made that only 30% of pubs closed.

A detailed personal account from a then loungeboy suggests that not many locals turned out to the few pubs that were operating; but they did get some trade from those unable to drink elsewhere.

Previous city-wide strikes, which would have affected an even higher percentage of city pubs the further back in time they occurred, include a five week strike in 1955, that initially closed about 2/3rds of pubs; a strike in December 1924; and a ten week strike from January to March 1920 which was reported to have closed the majority of pubs.

Strike notices were common until the 1990s - with a pattern of them being roughly every four years - but generally seem to have been resolved by last minute deals.

JFK Funeral

The funeral of US President John F Kennedy on the 25th of November, 1963 resulted in a city-wide closure of pubs. As far as I can tell, this was for the day of the 25th and the morning of the 26th; with LVA members requested not to open until 12:30pm; however the tense of the articles announcing this could be interpreted as different timespans.

Popes Funerals

Two Popes funerals are reported to have had city-wide closures; albeit not full day. That of Pius XII on October 17th, 1958 had a closure until "the afternoon" - unspecified exactly when; and that of Pope John XXIII on June 6th, 1963 was met with a 3 hour pub closure, from 5pm to 8pm.  JFK getting a longer closure than the Pope a few months earlier indicates a shift in priorities for Ireland!

This tradition seems to have died out by the time of the two funerals in 1978, with nothing turning up in newspaper archives.

Updates (variously):

The Evening Press archives have gone online since I originally wrote this article, and have turned up another citywide closure - again for a few hours, again Papal related. Pubs did not open until 7:30 on the day of the Papal mass in the Phoenix Park in 1979.

Another city-wide closure occurred on the afternoon of January 22nd 1980, so barman could take part in the PAYE protests taking place that day. The notice for this also mentions that supermarkets were closing, by agreement of the operators, but it doesn't say whether pub owners were quite so supportive!

 

War 

 

Something I didn't find at the start of this was whether they had been any restrictions during the Rising, War of Independence or Civil War. A post on the Old Dublin Pubs Facebook page showed a closure order for all pubs for Saturday 6th May 1916 - two weeks after the Rising; and a restriction on opening hours after that. There was a curfew in place anyway, meaning nobody could be out after 5/5:30pm.

 

I had previous verified that World War I did not bring in full-scale closures, but earlier closing hours were in place. There was a proposal to nationalise Irish brewing, but not pubs.

A newspaper trawl has not turned up much else, though - I suspect some of these orders were never reported, newspaper production was regularly interrupted during this period also. At various times, in areas that aren't Dublin, the locally controlling side in the Civil War would occasionally order pubs to close - but I have never found this for anywhere in Dublin.

 

There was an order to close pubs on the day of the 1921 General Election, the 21st of May; but this might only have applied to the Stormont poll on that day.