Like triple-distilled whisky, Irish pubs seem to have a timeless appeal. It’s a popular spot in films, books and plays, attracts tourists to Ireland, is replicated around the world and encourages people to search online for the perfect pub and the perfect pint.
Scholars have now given academic cachet to this cultural treasure by examining pubs – and celebrating them – from the perspectives of history, sociology, architecture, psychology, design, art and literature.
Two new books, The Irish Pub: Invention and Reinvention (The Irish Pub: Invention and Reinvention) and The Dublin Pub: A Social and Cultural History (Dublin Pub: A Social and Cultural History), full of footnotes, facts and traditions, analyzing what makes a pub ‘perfect’ and the mysterious alchemy that produces ‘crazy(Irish slang for having a good time).
However, in both cases, the authors reach a sobering conclusion: Irish pubs are in danger. They are disappearing from rural Ireland and many are struggling to survive in the capital.
“It feels like a transitional period,” says Donal Fallon, author of The Dublin Pub. “Every Dubliner has to drive through the country towns to see what’s going on. The pub has lost its importance.”
“Some cities have lost all their bars, and they’re often overlooked by new development,” says Perry Shear, the magazine’s associate editor. Irish puba collection of essays by 20 writers. “Planners are not insisting on including pubs. This could create problems in the future in terms of unity and community cohesion.”
Since 2005, Ireland has lost a quarter of its pubs – more than 2,100 – an average of 112 closures a year. Reasons cited include higher alcohol taxes, drunk driving laws, rising property prices, and lower alcohol consumption.
This is a global phenomenon – traditional pubs are closing across Britain, most of Europe and Asia – but for Ireland the risks are particularly high, according to Shear, director of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Atlantic University of Technology.
“Our society is divided into different interest groups, so it is important that we have these places to interact beyond class and gender barriers,” he said. “At a bar, it’s okay to express your feelings a certain way and hug someone.”
Just over half the population lives within 300 meters of Ireland’s remaining 7,000 pubs, and according to Share, pubs remain central to the expression of Irish culture, as reflected in novels by authors such as Sally Rooney and Paul Murray, television series such as Trespasses and representations of Ireland in Hollywood.
“Despite its decline, the pub is still part of the fabric of daily life,” he says. “If it disappears, it will be a real loss. People talk about alternatives, such as cafés, but no one says they had a good time in a café.”
The volume, which I co-edited with Moon Young Hong, a professor of English at the University of Hong Kong, covers the development of pubs in the time of Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, the emergence of gay pubs in the twentieth century and the export of Irish-themed pubs from Nepal to Peru.
Article by Kevin Martin, author of a previous volume on pubs entitled “Don’t you have homes to go to? (Don’t have a home?), identifies ten elements of the ideal pub, including “a pint of Guinness at a reasonable price” and “pleasant company when needed and quiet when not”.
Social media influencers recount searching for the “best” Irish pub on Instagram and other platforms, but Fallon, a social historian, says this is beside the point: “Often this reverence for a few places, this rating system, is driven by aesthetics rather than an appreciation for what a pub is. Something doesn’t have to be the best to be important. You have to be part of its community. If you’ve had the worst day of your life, the closest pub is probably the best one.”
Fallon’s book reveals colorful stories featuring the likes of American photographer Lee Miller, who photographed the Palace Bar while working in Dublin for Vogue magazine in the 1940s, but also explores and toasts obscure and little-known suburban pubs.
Fallon recalls that the word “pub” comes from “public house.” “There’s a real warmth to the term. It implies a communal space and a living space. It captures the communal sense of what a pub is.”