What is a Pub?

No, this isn't some existential post about what makes a somewhere feel like a pub in someones mind (just go read The Moon Under Water for that); its what is the legal definition. Currently, the LVA are trying to claim that somewhere that looks like a pub and acts like a pub is "not a pub". They've said this about fifty times so far today on Twitter, trying to create some division between licence classes in peoples minds.

On this blog, I accept the following licence types as pubs:

• Aerodrome Licence
• National Concert Hall Licence
• National Conference Centre Licence
• National Cultural Institutions Licence
• National Sporting Arena Licence
• Passenger Vessel Licence (for vessels which ply their trade entirely in Dublin)
• Publican's Licence (6-Day)
• Publican's Licence (7-Day Ordinary)
• Publican's Licence (ordinary) - Theatre
• Publican's Licence (ordinary) Horse Racecourse
• Publican's Licence (Ordinary) Hotel - (Public Bar)
• Publican's Ordinary Railway Refreshment Rooms Licence

The reason for this is that all are allowed serve you alcohol without the requirement to purchase food (in normal times, clearly) and while some are clearly impossible without a ticket; there were plenty of ticket-only pubs in the boom.

I would also accept the Early Closing variants of the 6- and 7-day licences and the Omnibus Station Licence if these ever appeared in Dublin again.

Its very, very easy to argue that the first 6 categories shouldn't count; and I wouldn't even bother arguing about it; nor would I bother arguing in favour of the single racecourse licence - seeing as Leopardstown actually has conventional licences anyway.

However, the LVA are now repeatedly claiming that a pub that holds a Theatre licence is "not a pub", and has even doubled down with a claim that they don't represent hotel bars; which I find exceptionally spurious.

We don’t represent them.That venue is not a pub and does not hold a pub licence. We don’t represent them just as we don’t represent other places serving alcohol like hotel bars, restaurants, theatres, shebeens etc

— LVA (@LVADublinPubs) August 16, 2020

The LVA has a committee member who represents a hotel chain; with no non-hotel licences that I am aware of it. The Irish Pub Awards, which they co-organise, gave its 2017 Dublin region Best Music Pub award to S3207 Darkey Kellys (hrm, that's probably the shortest positive write-up I've ever written).

If you exclude theatres from your idea of "a pub" in Dublin, you lose not only Berlin but also 1001735 RIOT, the Wild Duck in Temple Bar, 1005429 Barts on South William Street and a number of other places that are clearly Not Theatres Or Restaurants, which is what the LVA are trying to batter down on Berlin being.

If you exclude hotels, as I don't think they actually do except when further digging down on an argument, the list of places that basically everyone else thinks of as pubs rockets. Would you exclude the Library Bar from Dublin's pubs? Its on the licence of the Central Hotel, S3099. 

PMacs Drury Street is on a hotel licence. The Gasworks is on a hotel licence. The now closed Alfie Byrnes was on a hotel licence. All the various bits of the Mercantile complex are on a hotel licence. There's over 120 hotel licences in Dublin and about a quarter of them have bars that would be considered pubs by basically everyone

The LVA could very easily have just condemned the scenes in Berlin and pointed out that other operators are not doing it - instead they've spent an entire day trying to insist it isn't a pub as if this somehow changes the situation instead; which I simply cannot understand. Throwing the hotel bar sector under the bus is particularly strange too.