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Closing pubs on Good Friday 'part of our national identity', says Fine Gael senator

“We cannot give in to every aspect of commercialisation,” said Senator Joe O’Reilly.

PUBS ACROSS IRELAND will definitely stay closed this Good Friday, but there have been numerous calls in recent years to change what has been referred to as a “dated practice”.

Successive governments have shown little willingness to change the 1927 law but publicans have said that closing the pubs on the Easter weekend “sends a very negative signal to tourists and visitors” and also harms local businesses.

“In 2017, consumers should have the option to go out for a drink on Good Friday if they so choose,” according to CEO of the Vintners Federation of Ireland Padraig Cribben.

Independent senator Billy Lawless, similarly, recently said that Irish pubs are an “intrinsic part” of our tourism offering and that we’ve outgrown this ban.

In a statement today, however, Fine Gael senator Joe O’Reilly said that it would be “detrimental to our national identity” if the law was changed to allow pubs to open on Good Friday.

O’Reilly said that the long-standing tradition is one that has “firmly become a part of our cultural identity”, and to allow the pubs to open would be giving in to “every aspect of commercialisation”.

While it may have started off as a religious tradition, the issue of the Good Friday pub closure is “non-sectarian” according to O’Reilly. He added that it was something we’re known for, viewed as “being distinctly Irish”.

The Cavan-Monaghan senator also linked discussions about this issue to the wider relationship Ireland has with alcohol. He said:

The closure of pubs and bars on Good Friday, in my opinion, sends a subliminal message regarding our attitude to alcohol in signalling that we do favour a temperance from it, emphasised by its unavailability on one or two days of the year.

Any change to the law would require a “thorough, and independent, conversation” and that the decision couldn’t be made on purely economic grounds, he added.

Last year, TheJournal.ie visited Temple Bar on Good Friday to see that some tourists had only just heard about the pub closure.  One man, from Sweden, said it fitted with his impression of Ireland as a deeply religious country.

TheJournal.ie / YouTube

Read: ‘We’ve outgrown this dated practice’: Bill tabled to open pubs on Good Friday

Read: Publicans say Good Friday alcohol ban has no place in a modern Ireland

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124 Comments
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    Mute thomas patrick
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:24 PM

    Say what you like about the government, but my opinion is that they have done a great job of keeping what is probably an anadequate ICU system from coming under too much pressure.

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    Mute michal heba
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:25 PM

    @thomas patrick: well, they did what the rest of the world did. Copy paste style of a job. No big achievement in that, people of Ireland did great job

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    Mute Peter McGlynn
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:30 PM

    @thomas patrick: given their handling of health portfolio over 8 years they’ve had to be cautious.

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:37 PM

    @michal heba: oh yeah? So why did they have to close car parks and walkways after a few weeks?
    The people of ireland were doing a great job of ignoring social distancing guidelines until they were strictly policed.

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:39 PM

    @Peter McGlynn: agreed…. but in this instance I think the results have been as positive as we could have hoped for as a people. And that’s not to disrespect people who lost loved ones.. but it could have been a lot worse

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    Mute michal heba
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:52 PM

    @thomas patrick: there is always some element of no cooperation… But in general its people and front staff did all the work. Politicians are still free to travel in government fleet etc.

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    Mute Pád
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:00 PM

    @thomas patrick:
    Don’t think the government done that. More likely it was the medical profession.

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    Mute thomas patrick
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:21 PM

    @Pád: yep . The medical profession provided the advice and the government acted. Not like Mr. Orange across the water.
    I’m only trying to inject a little bit of positivity in a place where it’s easy to bash people. Do any of us think we’d do a better job? Or even put ourselves forward for the job in the first place? I dont think so.
    And yes, absolute credit to the heroes on the front line more than anyone else

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    Mute Derek Poutch
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:29 PM

    @thomas patrick: Could of been a lot better too.

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    Mute Toon Army
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:12 PM

    @thomas patrick: On what basis have they done a great job? Only by looking at the media spun faux comparisons of Italy and UK. When you compare with most similar European countries or the likes of New Zealand you see what could have been possible with an effective strategy and some leadership. We fell some way short. We’ve done ok but it’s been in the absence of adequate leadership.

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    Mute Toon Army
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:25 PM

    @thomas patrick: What’s the relevance in comparing us to a continent of 330 million people and a totally different social set up? I don’t see it positive to constantly say we are doing somewhat better than the couple countries that have plundered globally and that have much larger denser populations. Why not look at what’s possible in the majority of Western European / Scandinavian countries or other similar island nations like New Zealand and believe we can do much better.

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    Mute Daniel Dunne
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:50 PM

    @thomas patrick: we are an island, we could have done way better. We could have achieved the same as NZ or Australia. The “Orange One” has a lower death per capita rate than us, and when this blows over you want someone like the “Orange One” to get your economy going full tilt and roaring again – he has a business head and those types will be nearly as important as the front line workers fighting this crisis in the certain recession ahead.

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    Mute Gerald OBrien
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:12 PM

    @Daniel Dunne: Comparing NZ or the Aussies to Ireland is apples and oranges. They have very different flight traffic to a country like Ireland. They could be doing better, but the metric you have there isnt a good one. If you compare us to countries who do have similar traffic were doing pretty well. Equal to Netherlands, better than the UK for example. We’re way behind Germany, but when aren’t they the best at stuff like that in fairness. Credit where credits due.

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    Mute Gerald OBrien
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:18 PM

    @Gerald OBrien: Also if you do the math America 328,000,000(population) / 67,000(deaths) = 4,800. So 1 death every 4,800. Ireland 4,900,000(population) / 1265(deaths) = 3873. Last time I checked 3873 is less than 4,800

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    Mute FecklessBear
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:22 PM

    @Gerald OBrien: Amsterdam and London are major global air travel hubs. How exactly does Ireland have similar flight traffic to the Netherlands and the UK?
    And you can bet Australia and NZ have far more frequent flights from China.
    You’re talking nonsense.

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    Mute Paul O Neill
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:43 PM

    @Gerald OBrien: your correct in saying we can’t compare to Aus & NZ as it’s been summer over there whilst it’s been winter in this part of the world, also Dublin airport is a major hub with 33 million passing through last year, add to that the school tours to Northern Italy, Cheltenham has effected us and also the Liverpool matches tying us in with the UK more than the rest so we equally can’t be compared to Scandinavia

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    Mute Jun Stone
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    May 3rd 2020, 7:16 AM

    @thomas patrick: I agree, I think they did a brilliant job!

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    Mute Toon Army
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    May 3rd 2020, 8:53 AM

    @Gerald OBrien: lol. Similar traffic to London?

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    Mute Mairead Jenkins
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:24 PM

    That’s really good news. Now they need to get the health service back up and running generally, and start treating people in some of the 100s of empty beds.

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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:32 PM

    @Mairead Jenkins: no one is stopping any one from attending the hospital where needed. It would seem in the past that a lot of people attending A&E, don’t need to.

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    Mute Mairead Jenkins
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:57 PM

    @Jim Buckley Barrett: I agree with you re A and E. What I meant was the horrendous waiting lists. Good chance to start tackling them with so much spare capacity plus very high availability of beds in all the private hospitals.

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    Mute Andy Harding
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:23 PM

    Thank god it on the way down I’m beginning to feel like Anna Frank at this stage .

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    Mute Charles Alexander
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:49 PM

    @Andy Harding: seriously???

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    Mute Alan McDonald
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:43 PM

    @Andy Harding: Did she also spell your name wrong?

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    Mute Geraldine Glynn
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:27 PM

    Wonderful news. Couldnt be more welcome and needed.
    Full marks and our gratitude to the government and advisors for the tireless efforts.

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    Mute Derek Poutch
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:31 PM

    @Geraldine Glynn: Are you David,s wife, sister or mother even.

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    Mute Geraldine Glynn
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:18 PM

    @Derek Poutch: None of your business. My private life is not open to you or anyone else to question.

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    Mute FecklessBear
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:25 PM

    @Derek Poutch: defo lol..

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    Mute Karllye kripton
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:35 PM

    Thank you for some good news

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    Mute Jim O Brien Tech
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:27 PM

    Number of test said be be 100K last week didn’t happen no answers… 169K tested in total..

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    Mute Dell
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    May 2nd 2020, 5:37 PM

    @Jim O Brien Tech: I think every country is having issues around testing and the availability of staff and resources to do so, but at over 34000 tests per million population, we have actually tested a lot more than most countries.

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    Mute Jim O Brien Tech
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:45 PM

    @Dell: Noted however harris has promised more than once he would get to a level of testing when he has not so why keep telling people different when it is not possible

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    Mute Dell
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:50 PM

    @Jim O Brien Tech: he can’t see into the future

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    Mute Dell
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:55 PM

    @Jim O Brien Tech: also he can only go on the information he is being given by the people in the hse or the labs

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    Mute albhbc
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    May 3rd 2020, 6:35 AM

    @Dell: higher death rate also.

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    Mute Dean
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    May 2nd 2020, 8:08 PM

    That’s good. Hoping nurses get the pay rise they were promised last year.

    A clap for frontline workers, but an instant pay rise for TDs.

    Imagine if nurses held their ground on negotiations during this pandemic, because they’re in demand. That’s capitalism, right? But nurses are not as immoral as businesses or FG’s neoliberal policies.

    18
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    Mute Steve O'Reilly
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    May 3rd 2020, 3:32 AM

    @Dean: the unfortunate thing Dean is that this government is currently throwing billions of euros at the economy and health system to keep everything afloat. This will have to be paid back. I can’t see any pay rises for anyone in that industry unfortunately. And I’m not looking forward to our next budget.

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    Mute Peter Denham
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    May 2nd 2020, 6:39 PM

    This might be, depressingly, what was needed to show this spoofer that the health system is a mess.

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    Mute David Hughes
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    May 2nd 2020, 9:42 PM

    This is interesting. Does anyone know how many people have died while in ICU? One would assume that if diagnosed with Covid-19 which then became serious resulting in hospitalisation and subsequent transfer to ICU, that most of our 1,200+ deaths should have occurred by that sequence/route. This does not appear to have been the case. It appears that the vast majority of our Covid deaths never made it to ICU and possibly never even made it to hospital. Or I am I missing something somewhere…..

    11
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    Mute Hundredth Idiot
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    May 2nd 2020, 9:55 PM

    @David Hughes: frail people aren’t put on ventilators in ICU because the outcomes aren’t good for them, i.e. it’s an intervention that doesn’t work. Nothing to do with capacity, it’s the same in normal times. So there’s lots of deaths outside of ICU.

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    Mute David Hughes
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    May 2nd 2020, 11:58 PM

    @Hundredth Idiot: Thank you. So those that are deemed to be too frail are not given the chance of life as their possible outcomes are not good – in order to make room for the potential intake of Covid 19 cases? The ICU numbers that have died seem very low in comparison with the national figure

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    Mute Hundredth Idiot
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    May 3rd 2020, 2:56 AM

    @David Hughes: No, you’re fundamentally misunderstanding. There is no capacity issue, there is no “not being given the chance of life”. ICU isn’t the most appropriate place for many frail patients. It’s a clinical decision. Google “clinical frailty scale” and COVID-19.

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    Mute John John
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    May 2nd 2020, 10:17 PM

    And zero covid19 in the 2 Galway hospitals ICU

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