Hard on the heels of St Patrick’s Day comes Good Friday. The population of Ireland can draw a line under leprechaun hats, blow-up crocodiles, green rivers, drunken debauchery, peeing in people’s letter boxes and the rest. On the day Jesus died to save us all the pubs are shut and everyone goes to Mass, says a round of the Rosary and abstains from all vices.
You really think so? The panic starts at a low level several days before. On online forums (fora?) the whispered conversations – ‘What places will be open?’ ‘Are the pubs in Northern Ireland open?’ ‘What time do the off-licences close on Thursday?’ ‘Do the clubs open at 00.01 on Saturday?’
The determined drinker will of course find ways and means. Should you rock up in Dublin on Good Friday – as I’ve done several times – you will NOT get seated in your hotel restaurant. The punters cramming the place aren’t too bothered about what’s on their plate as the fact that the bar is open to resident diners. You can however resort to the bar-fridge in your room, a gloomy alternative to the first foamy pint of Guinness you’d been anticipating.
Travellers can get a pint at the airport and one or two main stations. Some private clubs have exemptions. A couple of years ago Thomond Park in Limerick successfully lobbied for their bars to be allowed open on Good Friday for a big rugby match.
I heard one story – possibly apocryphal – about a barge on the Grand Canal that offered lunch at a fancy price and, the minute it cast off to meander up and down the canal, it was exempt from the ‘mainland’ liquor ban.
But it’s the off-licences that benefit most. From Thursday afternoon punters, wide-eyed with apprehension, form queues and buy mountains of booze. It’s as if Prohibition was descending from midnight. The result is that Good Friday, instead of a day of abstinence, becomes one of the heaviest drinking days of the year. There is really no logical reason to maintain the pretence. Just get the regulation out of the law books, the diminished Catholic Church notwithstanding, and let licensed premises trade normally.
And before I’m accused of having a pop at the Irish I hold a passport with a harp on it. Neither am I immune from the lure of a pint or a nice glass of wine or drop of malt. In fact I think I’ll pop out later for one 🙂
Back On The Rock 
What a picture you paint of the Island of Saints and Scholars!!!!! That Smiley at the end made me chuckle.
Did I ever tell you that I have a real ‘thing’ about Jersey, having holidayed there ten or more times. I may be trying to lure you back to Co. Waterford but you are giving me a real craving for a week or so in Jersey ~ those little coves up the North are my kind of places and I need some more Jersey Lavender!
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Thank you Jean. I love Ireland and Cork is my spiritual home. But I did see the less attractive aspects of the country in my time there.
But yes, Jersey is not the worst place to be and a couple of my novels have the Island woven into them. I think the Lavender Farm will be open once spring arrives – I’d be happy to send you a couple of bits and pieces.
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Thanks Roy, I may well take you up on that kind offer.
Oh, I’m not saying that Ireland is without ‘sin.’ Show me a place that is!
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Ha ha, it’s human nature, isn’t it? Like dieting or giving up chocolate for lent: as soon as you’ve made the pledge, it’s the one thing you crave the most!
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Yes that’s so true Jenny. Open the pubs and bet your life a lot of people wouldn’t bother going in. Sweets & chocolate used to be my ‘thing’ for Lent and the forbidden items were saved up in a tin until, for some reason, midday on Easter Saturday ❓
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Well said! I went to buy alcohol on Thursday for our Friday party and the store was so packed I couldn’t get in the door! So there you go, even in Australia they act like it’s the end of the world not having a drink for one day 😉
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QED Dianne – it’s all that Irish blood in the population 😉
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LOL – SO right, Roy 😉
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Peeing into a letter box, why didn’t I ever think of that?!! Re things closing down over Easter, in Canada, which isn’t known for being overly religious, especially publicly, things are shut pretty tightly on Good Friday and Easter Sunday (although if eateries and pubs are open on Good Friday, there owuldn’t be an alcohol ban). I remember once years ago taking our kids to Maine for the long Easter weekend, just for a change, expecting stores to be shut tight like at home, especially considering how religious the U.S., if we believe its public voice. No problem. Clearly, consumerism is a far bigger religion that Easter. When I asked someone if the stores would be closed on Friday, she looked at me in amazement and then said. “Oh, you must be from Canada. They’re much more religious there.” Not at all, but obviously we don’t know how to worship the dollar as well. When I was doing graduate work in the UK at York and the uni facilities closed down for 4 days over Easter, including the cafeteria, I was concerned that it would be hard to find anything open in York and thought maybe I’d be eating from convenience store fare. Nope. Wrong again. There may be more hols in the UK with religious names, but that turns out to be a historical artifact! Great post, Roy.
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Thanks Jane. Interesting to hear how things are elsewhere. I don’t really care one way or the other. However, if there is large-scale exploitation of loopholes then it’s clear that these old, religion-based laws are out of time. And in particular if the effects are in fact the opposite of those desired.
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This made me laugh. Human nature can be funny that way. Up until a little while ago, liquor stores were all closed here on Sundays and my mom (of all people) would always say that would be the one day of the week when she’d crave a beer. Good luck with your Good Friday! 🙂
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Thanks Sheila. Reading the comments this might be the remnants some sort of ancient defense reflex. Like the the squirrel, sensing winter, storing up its nuts. But non-humans only consume what they need not what they can afford and carry 🙂
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Very amusing, and I don’t doubt a word of it (not even the peeing in the mailbox, bit, though I wish I did). For me, as essentially a non-drinker, though, such obsession with one’s pint is not really something I can relate to.
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That’s it Janna, obsession. I’m beginning to sound like some mad priest ranting about the evils of drink. People will be getting the wrong impression of a lovely place 😦
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Got a good laugh out of that one, Roy. Think you nailed it on the head, that one (the head of the Guinness, that is).
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Thanks Deb. My next Irish post will concentrate on one of its many virtues 🙂
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Looking forward to it!
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Boy, we don’t take it that seriously in my part of the world. Good Friday is mostly our “last call” for fish frys. And most of the good Catholic churches serve beer with that as well. Nothing like drinking in a church!
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To be fair Juliann the church is loosing its icy grip of disapproval but readjustment will take time.
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Ha, Roy! You’re a hoot!
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High praise, compared to what I am called sometimes 😉
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