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A CROWD OF around a thousand, some of whom queued from before 9am this morning, turned out at Trinity College this afternoon to greet the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Harry and Meghan to you and me) as they continued their Irish visit.
The Trinity event was one of two opportunities for members of the public to to try and meet the British royals during the whistle-stop Irish visit.
The couple worked the rope line for around 20 minutes just before lunchtime, after stopping in to see the Book of Kells and greet some invited guests.
There were spectators from around the globe lined out at Library Square. Not many of them had made the trip with the sole purpose of seeing the royals, however – many of the crowd were tourists who decided to stop by at short notice.
A large number of Trinity staff also turned out to catch a glimpse – office workers said they had taken long lunch breaks and some cleaning staff lingered back after their shifts to sample the spectacle and the media scrum.
The two day visit of recently married royals is taking place “at the request” of the UK government and is, of course, taking place against a backdrop of uncertainty and concern over Brexit.
Their ‘soft diplomacy’ mission began yesterday with a visit to Government Buildings and a reception at the British ambassador’s residence attended by the likes of Ruby Walsh, Brian O’Driscoll and assorted politicians and celebrities.
They started today with a visit to the Áras – just a short trip down the main drag of the Phoenix Park from their accommodation at Farmleigh.
There they posed for photographs before signing the official visitor book.
A ‘no questions’ rule was notionally in place for the media, but Newstalk’s Henry McKean managed to shout over a question about the World Cup – asking Harry if he reckoned football would be coming home.
“Most definitely,” the royal replied.
They also visited Croke Park, where they watched GAA demonstrations and had a chance to talk to players.
At the GAA Museum they were shown several artefacts by the museum’s director, Niamh McCoy, including the Geraldine’s Club minute book from 1909 to 1915, which was kept by the club’s secretary, Michael Collins.
They were also shown a ticket stub from the Bloody Sunday match of 1920, where 14 civilians were killed by British forces.
Tourism boost
There’s a large media contingent following the couple around – with crews from as far afield as Australia documenting the visit.
Fáilte Ireland says the visit will be a boon to the tourist trade, with CEO Paul Kelly describing it as an amazing opportunity to highlight “our rich and diverse tourism industry and excellent visitor experiences to an international audience”.
“In particular, the coverage from this royal visit will provide a boost to the UK market which has been a challenge in light of Brexit. As the national development authority, Fáilte Ireland will continue to work with tourism businesses throughout the country to ensure that they can fully capitalise on the afterglow of the visit.”
The tourism body has been crunching the numbers of past visits of international VIPs.
In 2011, the visits of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and US President Barack Obama generated at least €298 million worth of publicity through some 37,795 separate print and broadcast pieces, and resulted in an uplift in visitor numbers that year, Fáilte Ireland says.
The couple will visit the Famine memorial and EPIC, the Irish Emigration Museum, on Dublin’s Custom House Quay later this afternoon. They’ll be on a plane home this evening.
Right now, they’re at a private lunch at a pub on Camden Street. The street is closed to traffic.
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5am opening? I’m going to be lambasted for this here but I’d actually favour the tightening of our current laws. Having pubs closed earlier this past few months was probably a much better thing for our society in general. There’s a big difference between having a few social pints with the lads until closing time and falling out of a night club at 5am and then trying to get up for work / family events / sporting events….
@Dec: the good thing is that nobody forces anyone to stay out til 5am. This offers a choice for people.
@Dec: all the current laws did was make lads head out 4/5 hours earlier, get drunk and then stumbling around in broad daylight
@Dec: would create a few jobs but would put a lot of extra pressure on A&Es and policing in the country in all fairness Dublin City center was a bit of a kip from 2am onwards when the nightclubs closed prepandemic
@The Guru: ah stop! Do you really believe that?! You’ve obviously never had that discussion with yourself after a feed of pints!
@John Black: and with this law they’d still be stumbling home in broad daylight….
@Dec: howwwww Dec….. If anything the pandemic has shown us is that once the pubs close at 11pm we’ve all gone back to house parties and annoyed neighbours into the early hours of the morning. Go abroad and people leave pubs and nightclubs gradually and you rarely see any trouble as thousands aren’t dispersed onto the streets at the same time
@Michael Oats: I see your point here…. Mine is just an opinion to be fair. I think society loses a lot down to the inability of some individuals to control their drinking habits and I don’t think that opening until 5am is the solution. The off-licencing laws are a whole different debate….. I do take your point however and I can’t answer you re why opening until 5am and longer works in other countries.
@Alan Peters: there is also the argument that people might drink more slower knowing they don’t have to power the drink into themselves by 2am. Also, would eliminate everyone being turfed onto the street at the same time. Might be less pressure on the a and e’s in the long run. A lot of people don’t last till 5am.
@Dec: correct Dec. Now everyone is able to beat the crap out of one another at the same time after pubs close at 11pm.
@Dec: In other countries the later opening has folk arrive and leave in their own time, no big ground kicked out in one go swamping the taxis and fast food joints. It’ll be crazy for a few weeks until the novelty wears off. Also not every place will decide to do it, i.e extra pay for staff and trying to even get workers to do the late hours.
@Jason Walsh: exactly. Not every pub in the country will stay open until 5 am, and despite what the lad at the top of the thread thinks many of us actually have sufficient self-control to go home at a time appropriate to what we have to do the next day.
@Dec: did you know, Dec, as a grown adult you have the full moral agency to act like one and no1 is forcing you into staying out beyond 12am. All your doing here is outlining your self control issues given the choice to stay out longer and this goes to anyone who liked your comment also.
@Dec:
I both agree and disagree with you. I agree because I was able to be home and in bed by 12 midnight after collecting hubby from the pub during the earlier closing time. It was wonderful compared with picking him up at 1 am +, before Covid.
However, I used also be a taxi driver many years ago and I always thought that turfing everybody out of late bars or nightclubs at 2am was a recipe for disaster. Everyone stuffing themselves with drink and getting into rows and falling around the streets. If closing times were at least staggered, there would be much less of that. People would go home when they wanted or when the money ran out.
It works abroad so why not here?
@Michael Oats: yeah but they weren’t Irish!! When have you ever seen us leave before closing! And jasus the house parties will go on all day after
@Tom: nope…. I think we’d be far not likely to see you at 5am exercising your right to drink a few pints than I! You may pass me on your way home though as I make my way to work! Please keep the singing to a minimum and no fighting!
@Barry Griffin: are people just Id io ts? Get a fill of drink then feel compelled to beat the hell out of each other after closing? I don’t think too many will be able to drink till 5 am then head straight into work? And Just because they do it in other countries, doesn’t mean we need to be lemmings. We are sheep when we stick to lockdown rules, sheep when we take the vaccine, sheep when we wear masks, but not sheep when we follow other countries and leave pubs open most of the night?
About time
@Tom Bombdadil: You wouldn’t be saying that if you worked in the trade.
@Alan Martin: I work in the trade and I welcome this! I worked in Germany where we closed for 1 hrs out of 23.
@Adam O’Sullivan: what did you do for the hour?
@Adam O’Sullivan: what happened the 24th hour? The mystery is killing me.
@This time its personable!: clean
@Alan Martin: everyone has different jobs and work in different trades. All these require different hours of work. I’ve worked shift work in the past, I’ve also worked in IT where one weekend in four we would deploy updates and this would mean we were working right through the night in some cases. If you don’t like the hours maybe try and find a different job.
@Accidental Gentleman: polishing? Sure I suppose didn’t Jesus himself have to get up as there was more work for doing, wasn’t Adam lucky he got the hour at all really.
@Alan Martin: I do, I’m in entertainment
@Ted Logan: thats a race to the bottom. People shouldn’t have to find a new job for being asked to work unsociable hours. They should be paid appropriately. They’re called unsociable hours because they don’t allow you to live normal life rhythms. I certainly don’t expect people to be serving alchohok and dealing with an inebriated general public at 4am for minimum wage. There should be a minmum standard rate of pay for this across the sector and it added to the cost of your drink. The publicans want to be able to serve 24/7 using people on minimum wage and at the same time push up the price of supermarkets alcohol sales. They want to open, fine, pay your staff appropriately. Retain temple bar pubs push their prices up at set times during the night. I bet their staff wages don’t get pushed up at the same time
@This time its personable!: It’s mandatory to close and clean up within that hour. Then BAU.
@Gerard Smith: Nurses, hospital porters, emergency workers, hotel staff on split shifts, IT support, restaurant staff, gardai. There are plenty of jobs at all pay levels that involve unsociable hours. Everyone can’t work 9-5.
@Alan Martin: .. or live beside a pub!
we are already mad on the drink. it will be a disaster. paddies can’t drink responsibly.
@Stephen Murphy: But not everyone is called Patrick or Patricia…
@William Tallon: well he’s not saying that everyone is called Patrick and Patricia, he’s simply saying that everyone called Patrick and Patricia can’t handle their drink. They’re fiends for spuds as well.
@O Swetenham: they can handle it, alcohol and drunks is just embedded in Irelands culture
Aye, we’re all drunks who travel to work on top of a pig to be sure to be sure.
@Stephen Murphy: ah I wouldn’t be too fond of drinking, but when I go at it…. there’d be no f***ing stopping me. I’d take the shirt off any man’s back. B*****ds.
@Stephen Murphy: I love the way everyone says “we…” when they actually mean “I..”
Law changing with price regulation of low prices for alcohol, but looking after pubs, nightclubs for later hours, government absolute joke, its us the normal working class people that get stung
@mark o donovan: it doesn’t say anything about lowering the price of alcohol it say lowering the price of the license to serve alcohol
@Anthony Norris: I presume Mark is referring to the regulation of low cost off licence alcohol, where the price per unit is being raised because of lobbying by publicans using the pretence of reducing alcohol consumption.
The real aim being to make it more expensive to drink at home & drive people back to the pubs & we are allowing the politicians get away with this nonsense.
They want to bring us in line with the continent? On the continent they go out to the pub at around 11pm, and sip on a drink or two before going home. In some countries they can also have a snooze in the afternoon. We go out around 9pm for a feed of pints, lose track of time and the only reason we get home at a reasonable hour is because the pubs stop serving. If they extend it to 5am we’ll still lose track of time and will get home around 5am or whenever we run our of money. Wait til you see the sick days increase, and work attendance and productivity rates drop.
@Ian McDonald: Sure it’ll be grand for the people working from home. They practically do nothing at home anyway, which is why the government want them back to work.
@Ian McDonald: You’ve obviously never been to Northern or Eastern Europe if you think that’s how everyone on the continent drinks. By allowing bars and clubs to open until 5am (as they do in many heavy drinking European countries) people be won’t restricted to rigid times trying to ‘get their quota’ in and there won’t be any mass exodus at 2am as they’ll drift home over the course of many hours.
@Ian McDonald: it’s mad I swear it would be your own personal choice if you wanted to get slaughtered on a work night?
Longer opening hours for the off license then too. For those that don’t want to pay the rip off pub prices.
@Ciaran Maher: not necessarily. Can pop into the off license before closing and start drinking at anytime.
how does anyone think this is a good idea? I cant buy a bottle of wine when i finish work after 10pm yet you want bars open till 5am? I work in a bar and can tell you the difference between people at 11pm and 2am is huge. 90% of the violence in the town i live is at 2.40am when the main club shuts. Is 3 hours extra drinking going to help anyone at all? use your sense ffs. not only that, the industry is in turmoil. there is a complete lack of staff, the only people who can work bar hours currently are people like me (the hours suit as my partner works 9-5) and students. The money is terrible, the hours are already horrific, there is no sick pay, and little workers rights. this will be the nail in the coffin, not just for the industry but for society.
@Stephen Nix: I’d imagine a lot of bar staff wouldn’t fancy working till 5 am either.
@Sam Harms: 100% but if its serving till 5am it will be 6am or later when you get out. that will be fun. I remember when they opened Sundays and it was double time. legally they have to pay you extra on a Sunday. we now get 1c extra on a Sunday. these night shifts will be the same. minimum wage for desperate people and no contracts or sick pay. the poorest in society will suffer either through the working hours or the increased alcohol consumption.
@Stephen Nix: The idea is that everyone doesn’t leave at the same time. They’ll drift off over the course of 2 – 3 hours. Very few people would still be knocking around by 5am.
And as a barman you should know that if someone has had too much, they shouldn’t be served. Maybe by continuing to serve obviously pissed people, barstaff are part of the issue?
@Mark Wallace: ok you addressed the issue of potential violence. what about the socio economic factors? alcohol consumption has a huge impact on mental health as does working unsociable hours. this creates both.
@Stephen Nix: how many taxis will be interested in bringing home these drunks at 4am.
@Ian James Burgess: Loads of them. Most taxi drivers will work away until around 6am. The reason you can’t find one when you leave a late bar or club is that everyones out on the streets at the same time looking to get one of a limited numbers of taxis. Staggering the time people go home means a better availability of taxis for everyone.
@Stephen Nix: The poorest in society won’t be in a bar or nightclub at 5am. They’ll have been to the off licence for the cheapest alcohol they can find and will be drinking it at home. These new proposed hours won’t affect them.
@Mark Wallace: what about the point Stephen made? Are publicans going to pay the staff a night shift rate for working throughout the night or just leave them on the the minimum wage which would be slave labour, bar staff already work harder than what they’re paid
5am closing? Will they actually find people who want to work until 7am?
@Todd Hebert: you mean paid until 5am, finished at 7am after clean up
@Jim Buckley Barrett: yeah, very likely.
So the off licence will still close at 10pm while pubs remain open till 5am?
Do.away with the 12.30.Sunday opening time.
Massive rise in Alcohol problems will definitely rise as well as violence because Irish people can’t handle their drink!
@Brian Kelly: so it would probably mean a more staggered closing of venues instead of the case now where everyone is forced out onto the streets at the same time. It could actually reduce violent incidents.
@Ted Logan: will Dublin bus be expected to run a night link service at a loss for those who choose to spend the whole night out drinking?
@Alan Peters: honestly in a developed capital city we should have a late night bus service anyways
@John Black: aldo in a developed capital city we should not have a 3rd world health system!
@Alan Peters: Our health service is well funded it’s just the funding is miss managed and has too much waste.
Open the pubs…later.
Why close at all with that attitude. Absolutely no regard for employees, private citizens or anti social consequences. I’m all for them getting back on their feet but have a bit of cop on.
Personally, I’m in favour of relaxing opening hours, having reached an age where I have neither the ability nor the interest to stay out drinking all night.
However, having seen the obsession during lockdown with takeaway pints, it’s hard to believe that Ireland really needs easier access to alcohol.
It’s the old problem: how to make drinking easier for nice people, and harder for not-so-nice people, simultaneously, and at the same time
It’s going to get very expensive to go out, you’ll need at least two bags of hoover to see you through till 5am!
Those pints look shocking
@Deaglán MacThóirdealbaigh: Absolute muck
Finally
Our cannabis prohibition laws are equally archaic and are causing immeasurable harm yet we have a government who prioritises making a far more dangerous drug, far more accessible. There’s not a single shred of logic or intelligence in that position but we trundle on regardless. I’m in favour of the proposed changes as I believe in personal responsibility but the hypocrisy is galling.
Same needs to apply to off sales! No restrictions, personal responsibility. #nannystate
Jaysus.. I’ll never get home!!
Our supermarket opens at 8am but regulations say you can’t buy booze until 10.30am.
Last Saturday, a woman was screaming down the place for a bottle of red wine. A little child told her to act her age!
I’m 36 and have essentially been ‘out’ for most of the last 18 years.
12 of them in the trade.
Even when pubs and clubs closed at 12 or 2.
I was still semi likely to be the person on your morning commute that you wondered. ‘Is that a person?’
I’ve also held a job in Naas while living in Dublin and had to get 2 busses, a luas and a lift from one of my colleagues to get there.
I’m sure 5am is great in some ways but I’d hate to meet myself with a hangover while I was absolutely dying in front of me on public transport.
Chances of me being dead in RiRa at some stage would also likely have escalated dramatically.
Anyway I’m on the fence till we have stats.
It was in our culture that we are not allowed go home until the pubs close. Maybe that needs to change for this to work.
The boom is back
So will the early houses now be like late houses? Or very early houses. or will they still be early houses.
We need to have a responsible attitude to alcohol consumption here. The proposals are good. At present some publicans are casual in closing as law applies. I believe when individuals can lawfully get drink they’ll leave in their own time within trading hours. In the past Good Fri was a closed day with some drinkers anxious to get into bars, that’s gone now with new opening law. I think new proposals will work. Hopefully the law will be adhered to. The guards have crime to deal with.
If Minister McEntee is on maternity leave then why was she at Fine Gaels think in last weekend – if she can go that then why not the office
No good comes put of drinking until 5am – people – walking like zombies and thinking like zombie.
Take me drunk I am home
Give the bars a 12hour a day licence.
They decide there opening hours
During the lockdown I saved a small fortune and spend the savings on the house the day of the pub is well and truly gone, greedy publicans robbing people
have your say