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Mariusz Brzyk assistant manager of Paddy Cullens pub in Dublin lays out social distancing mats Niall Carson/PA Images

Over 100 days on from shutting their doors, just under half of Ireland's pubs are geared up for re-opening

In Dublin, vintners estimate around 50-60% of pubs will re-open from Monday. For the rest of that country, that number is closer to 40%.

ON MONDAY, HUNDREDS of pubs across the country will be able to open their doors again a full 106 days after they shut back in March.

Phase Three will see pubs join the likes of restaurants, hairdressers and hotels in reopening.

In the case of pubs, however, it’ll only be those which operate on a restaurant basis serving a “substantial meal” that are permitted to re-open. The pubs that don’t will have to wait until Phase 4 on 20 July – all going to plan – before they can return. 

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Licenced Vintners Association CEO Donall O’Keeffe said that while it’s not possible to be certain of figures it was their “educated guess” that between 50-60% of Dublin’s pub trade would re-open on Monday. 

“There’s a lot of restrictions, it’s a new style of business,” he said. “But we’re glad we’re re-opening.”

As for the Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) – which represents pubs outside Dublin – it is similarly unable to have exact figures but its chief executive Padraig Cribben told TheJournal.ie it estimates around 40% or thereabouts of pubs will reopen. 

2792012-guinness-celebrates-arthurs-day Rollingnews.ie Rollingnews.ie

Cribben said it was unlikely that many pubs that previously did not serve food would now do so just to open three weeks earlier. 

“Some have looked at it but it would be a very small number as the investment would be substantial for a relatively short time frame,” he said. 

According to a report from AIB in 2018, there were just over 7,200 licensed premises in Ireland with just 772 of these in Dublin. If we were to take the indicative figures from both vintners associations, it could mean in or around 3,000 pubs will be opening their doors on Monday. 

How did we get here?

A lot has changed in the last few months.

Just a few days after the Taoiseach’s landmark speech closing schools on 12 March, the sight of pubs full of patrons that weekend drew consternation and condemnation

On Sunday 15 March, following meetings of the vintners and health officials, publicans shut their doors and haven’t opened them again in the same way since. 

The first time the government announced that pubs would be permitted to re-open was as part of the five-phase roadmap unveiled on 1 May

As part of that initial plan, it wasn’t until the beginning of Phase Five on 10 August before the “reopening of pubs, bars, nightclubs and casinos where social distancing can be maintained” would be permitted.

Publicans had initially been dismayed at having to wait so long to re-open, with representative groups particularly angered by these same guidelines allowing restaurants to re-open six weeks earlier on 29 June. 

Throughout May, however, there were positive signs that the mass restrictions put in place on the Irish public was having an effect.

The number of daily new cases and deaths dropped considerably to a point where chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan could say in mid-May that we had “effectively extinguished the virus from the community”

As we now know, the government decided we’d reached a stage where the plan to re-open the country could be accelerated.

tourism-cov-19-384 An empty Temple Bar in March. Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie Sam Boal / Rollingnews.ie / Rollingnews.ie

Under this plan, pubs will be permitted to open from Monday 29 June but only if they can serve “substantial meals” that cost at least €9 under guidance issued from Fáilte Ireland.

The pubs that don’t serve food aren’t permitted to open during Phase Three which gets under way in a few days’ time. 

For those that do, they’ll need to enforce physical distancing – but not rigidly at two metres under certain circumstances. They’ll have to arrange tables and booths to adhere to this distancing. Extra signage should be placed throughout the venue, with floor markings and wall signs. 

Frequent cleaning of toilet facilities and often touched surfaces is also required under the guidelines.

In the three weeks between Phases Three and Four, customers will only be able to spend a maximum of 105 minutes at any one premises. 

‘A new phase for us all’

Publican Charlie Chawke, whose pubs include the Bank Bar on College Green and Searsons on Baggot Street in Dublin, told TheJournal.ie that it’s been a “big job” to put the preparations in place that will allow pubs to open safely and within the guidelines. 

“We’re opening the nine pubs (seven in Dublin and two in Limerick) on the 29th,” he said. “We’ve a lot of work done already but we’ll be finishing that off in the next few days.”

searsons Chawke's Searsons on Dublin's Baggot Street Google Street View Google Street View

Chawke said the pubs had already received bookings ahead of the re-opening date but it was important to also try to facilitate walk-ins from members of the public who haven’t booked ahead.

He said: “We can’t keep spaces for people who haven’t booked. But every two hours there’ll be people coming and going. 

It’s a new phase for us all. We’re going into it with eyes open, and we’ll do what we have to do to keep our customers safe. Staff are chomping at the bit to get back. And I think there’s definitely an appetite there for people to come to pubs again. People will go to places they can rely on. Hopefully we’re one of those. 

The Fáilte Ireland guidelines for the pubs reopening only applies to the three weeks in between Phase Three and Phase Four.

There is of yet no set guidelines for how other pubs that don’t serve food should re-open on 20 July. 

The LVA’s O’Keeffe said: “Any Dublin pub that wanted to be in food has been in food for a long time. They’re either constrained by a lack of kitchen facilities or they have a style of bar where food just wouldn’t suit. 

We’ve called for early publication of the guidelines for 20 July to avoid the kind of additional concern that was caused with the way the guidelines for 29 June were released. I presume that shortly after 29 June, we should begin to see those plans for the rest of the pubs on 20 July. 
Cribben, of the VFI, added: “We had hoped to have them by now but, based on our experience of waiting on those for 29 June we are unsure when they will be available.”

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34 Comments
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    Mute Christine Paulette Roche
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    Jul 17th 2018, 5:17 PM

    Shocking statistics, it’ll only get worse i fear,law and order has completely broken down, Country is in need of proper leadership,it’s rotten from the inside out.

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    Mute Flip off
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    Jul 17th 2018, 6:18 PM

    @Christine Paulette Roche: ha ha ha. Overall crime is on a steady decline for decades. It’s just that we are drowning in media sensationalism. Most people don’t have the cognitive ability to see that.

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    Mute hasnooneasked
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    Jul 17th 2018, 6:38 PM

    @Christine Paulette Roche: Oh get a life you Drama Queen

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    Mute Christine Paulette Roche
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    Jul 17th 2018, 9:32 PM

    @Sweet George: ya think? Tell that to majority of women raped and Assaulted by non_nationals, obviously you and I’ll haven’t been affected yet, only a matter of time, don’t tell me what my eyes see on a daily basis.

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    Mute Christine Paulette Roche
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    Jul 17th 2018, 9:38 PM

    @Sweet George: head in sand,keep digging that hole bigger & bigger,you come across as a denier of facts, enough said don’t waste my time with this pathetic response.

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    Mute Christine Paulette Roche
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    Jul 17th 2018, 9:42 PM

    @Flip off: obviously not listening to every day news? Earplugs must be great in your gaff?

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    Mute Christine Paulette Roche
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    Jul 18th 2018, 2:12 AM

    @Sweet George: nope just as sweet as you dear George!

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    Mute Christine Paulette Roche
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    Jul 18th 2018, 2:17 AM

    @hasnooneasked: yep rape/murder/Assault are very dramatic and traumatic for victims, don’t you think?? What a disgusting response you utter moron.

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    Mute hasnooneasked
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    Jul 18th 2018, 1:06 PM

    @Christine Paulette Roche: the only moron I see is you with your typical histrionics about law and order breakdown. You really are a sad pathetic individual who probably believes everything they read in the papers or online.

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    Mute Deirdre Milner
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    Jul 18th 2018, 2:33 PM

    @Christine Paulette Roche: ‘Tell that to majority of women raped and Assaulted by non_nationals,’ ??? Yet another racist on the comments section of the journal….who’d have thought….?

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    Mute high ho silver
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    Jul 17th 2018, 6:02 PM

    A friend of mine was a witness a few months ago in that court , on the first day their wasn’t enough Jurys on the second and third day their wasn’t enough judges ,it got put back till October the legal system making a killing out of the court it’s a joke

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    Mute Cranky
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    Jul 17th 2018, 6:54 PM

    They invested in new court houses, higher salaries for judges and Barristers while no extra prisons were built. The cork prison was basically rebuilt but with less cells. We need more prisons and double the number of Gardai in order to have people to feel safe in their homes and in their work. The legal guys are protecting their repeat customers and keeping them out of jail to carry on committing crimes. The minister of justice should resign. The judges families are mostly in the legal trade so it is corrupt.

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    Mute Pat Mullin
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    Jul 17th 2018, 7:36 PM

    @Cranky:

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    Mute John Mc Donagh
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    Jul 17th 2018, 8:44 PM

    @Cranky: Absolutely correct, the system and of course the unfortunate taxpayers are being ripped off by people in wigs and gowns and none of our politicians appear to give one damn>

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    Mute Sean Fox
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    Jul 17th 2018, 8:27 PM

    I think the most alarming statistic in this report is that only 4% of people found guilty of manslaughter are sentenced to 10 years or more.
    Put another way 1 in 25 receive this sentence, which is really only about 5 years when “early release” and “good behavior” are taken into account.
    Is human life really worth that little ?

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    Mute Pat Mullin
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    Jul 17th 2018, 7:32 PM

    Despite what our “liberals” say, civilised society has collapsed in Ireland. It is a cesspool of immorality, violence, hypocrisy born out of the collapse of moral standards which looks it will only get worse.

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    Mute Liam Ward
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    Jul 17th 2018, 5:17 PM

    I remember been in front of a judge once in my life while the process was interesting the case was very boring and lasted only 2 days I remember been brought to the abbey hotel on abbey street for our lunch anyway to make a long story short the judge giving us 7 years along with 11 others on the jury and haven’t been called since.

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    Mute Ken Hayden
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    Jul 17th 2018, 5:28 PM

    @Liam Ward: I’m a little confused here , were you being sentenced or were you on the jury ?

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    Mute Paul Hughes
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    Jul 17th 2018, 6:02 PM

    @Liam Ward: what’d you get for lunch?

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    Mute Dublin days
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    Jul 17th 2018, 6:12 PM

    @Liam Ward: you should write a book about it

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    Mute Yzo Sirrius
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    Jul 17th 2018, 6:23 PM

    @Liam Ward: cool story, bro!

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    Mute Ger
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    Jul 18th 2018, 4:37 AM

    @Dublin days: he should get someone else to write it for him though. His grammar and sentence structure is woeful.

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    Mute Liam Ward
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    Jul 17th 2018, 5:39 PM

    Jury service ken

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    Mute Ken Hayden
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    Jul 17th 2018, 5:49 PM

    @Liam Ward: Phew !

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    Mute Disabled Junkie
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    Jul 17th 2018, 7:38 PM

    I think that the 23,000 drug cases needn’t be there draining away the courts resources. Things would run a lot smoother if the courts only had to worry about things like violent crimes, theft & fraud etc….

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    Mute John
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    Jul 17th 2018, 5:11 PM

    And they’re all getting suspended sentences

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    Mute William Rowlands
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    Jul 18th 2018, 8:41 PM

    Please explain what a gagin order is

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