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IF YOU HAVE imbibed in pubs around Ireland, chances are that you have seen the above poster at some point.
The poster lists the price of a pint of stout in “old money” and “new money”, and documents the price increase between 1900 and 1992.
With that in mind, John Geraghty of Publin.ie has decided to calculate the price of a pint of stout from 1900 to the present day in today’s money.
As he explains to DailyEdge.ie:
I’d come across an image listing the price of a pint going back to 1900 a few times in pubs, but the prices there never really had any relevance to me. So, I thought that it would be interesting to see just how much the price of a pint has changed in the last century.
With the help of data from the Central Statistics Office and an inflation calculator, Geraghty has compiled a thorough list of prices from 1922 – 2015.
Here’s a little taster…
As you can see, the average price hasn’t actually risen that much, something which surprised Geraghty.
Surprisingly enough, the change in the price wasn’t actually that huge. You’re talking about around the equivalent of €2.00 in the 1950s, which you can still get in some places on promotional nights this year.
However, he does acknowledge that a better indication of prices might be how they relate to weekly income. “People may have earned less and thus had less purchasing power.”
Still, though. Imagine €1.76 pints.
You can look at the prices of pints from 1928 – 2015 here on Publin.
By Amy O’Connor; Originally published on DailyEdge.ie
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It’s €6 these days in some places
Paid 6.20 last night, felt violated after that
Back in the 80′s the off licence was nearly as dear as the pub, nowadays between the supermarkets and the off licences dirt cheap and with an awful lot more choice.
Somebody in my Taxi last night told me they paid €8 for a bottle of Blue Wicked on Harcourt Street. I nearly crashed the car when I heard the price….
Can you kindly tell me in which establishment you paid €6.20/€6 for a pint so I can make arrangements to never darken their doors?
The church on Mary street
Avoid those pubs. Wetherspoons in Blackrock, DunLaoghaire and soon Camden street, Swords and Blanchardstown charge from €2.50 a pint.
E6.20???? Are you walking funny today?
Slightly…
Well I am sorry but you are a bigger fool paying 6.20 for a pint.
Yes, I should have made the dozen or so others with me leave so I didn’t have have to pay that much.
Pint of coke templebar 6.60€ gave drink up meself women kept taking advantage of me
He obviously didn’t drink in Temple Bar
Normal Irish people sing subject themselves to that zoo
*dont subject
On your list for 1928 you have the pint at 3.17euro………methinks this is not right. They’d have had another uprising at that!
Yeah and the poster said 4.5p in 1992 money, so something is well off. I thought first that the 3 euro was cost of living related, but acc to the article it was not accounted for.
In 1939 there would have been very high inflation because of the threat and reality of world war 2, making goods a lot more expensive.
@Malvio
While it was 4.5p in 1992 money, that was not adjusted for inflation and just done as a straight currency swap calculation.
But the poster shows the price gradually rising from 1900-1992, surely that is inflation?
The €2.50 pint of lager in wetherspoons isn’t the worst pint in the world.
Can’t bate the sup of drink
We could buy four pints for a pound in 1974/5,don’t think this article is correct !
According to the poster above you’re spot on!
It’s adjusted for inflation…
So add 40 years of approx 3% compound interest to your £1
A pint of Guinness was £1.65 sterling in Belfast in 1998 (3 for £4.95). Don’t reckon you could pay less than £3.20 in a local bar now – cheaper in social clubs. Not sure about city centre prices but probably well over £4.
The cost of ordering a pint of Guinness in some Belfast pubs in the 70s ranged anywhere from a good kicking to a bullet in the knee
Hahahahahaha
More epic journalism from the edge, fair play.
It amazes me that people give out about the price of drink and yet will still pay 6 or 6.50 for a pint..now I’m not stingy but I wouldn’t darken the doors of a place that charges those prices…it’s a consumers market,so just move down the road…theres plenty of choices of pubs in Ireland that’s for sure!! Obviously pubs will keep charging as long as people keep buying..supply and demand and all that! There’s no justification for prices like that anyway … Especially in this day and age! Temple Bar in particular is atrocious for prices…it’s criminal… It’s a wonder the consumer watchdog hasn’t launched into them…
I was working in my uncles pub the day the euro came in. Pint of Guinness was €2.98. Some ‘inflation’ since then.
It not just inflation though nor is it strictly publicans raising their profit margins.One of the main reasons is successive governments throwing 5c/10c onto the tax every year or so.It adds up very quickly.Im not a publican nor do I work in a bar.I sat down not so long ago to prove a publicans who told me that the profit his made has been consistent since his grandfather had the bar in the 50′s wrong.I couldn’t believe it.Excluding regs relating to insurance , tv , imro ect it actually turned out he was making slightly less than his grandfather as an overall percentage on every pint pulled.Now Im not saying that some bars aren’t taking the Michael but the ordinary pub has to work alot smarter to make money.Hence the reason so many close and the reason there is only either the super pub or the super chain left soon if we’re not carefull.
It would be good to be in 1951 again
don’t mind the price – just so long as it doesn’t get scarce
In 1900 if the average wage was about £1, you’d get 80 pints for that, which would cost €360 nowadays. No way was the average wage in 1900 equivalent to that Ie. Either the average wage was actually lower than £1 or the price of pint was relatively much cheaper
You can adjust for inflation but wages rarely keep up with inflation so this would be quite inaccurate
Hi Shane,
In my full article that the Journal linked to I cover this and mention that you would need to take average weekly income into account to see what the disparity between purchasing between now and then.
He still doesn’t understand.
The pints in my local are €3.80 or thereabouts. I feel robbed anywhere they’re over €4
I remember paying 81/2p for a “half” in London about 1973. Gas isn’t it!
Refuse to pay more than €1 for a pint now, so it’s strictly a Dutch Gold shandy at home!
Nothing and I mean nothing is as wonderful as a nice cool creamy Guinness on a warm day. Goes down like milk.
Too early for the pub lads?
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Sure isnt the price of 2 pints gonna keep ye all in water for 10 weeks, or aas it 3 pints?????
The price of a print is a ríp of so is The crafet beer
Can we have another poster, please, giving the price of a pint as a percentage of the median wage for each era, please?
have your say