Galway bars: ‘Extending hours is not going to help, just put more pressure on us’

Night after night for years at weekends in Galway city the scene repeated itself – nightclubs closed and crowds converged around Supermac’s in Eyre Square.

Only one nightclub, however, has reopened in the city since nightlife resumed after the Covid-19 pandemic, with most students and younger people now choosing instead to congregate in the city’s many late bars.

Proposed new licensing laws expected to come into operation next year, which will allow pubs remain open until 12.30am and nightclubs until 6am seven days a week, have received a mixed response in the university city.

Johnny Duggan, owner of Taylor’s Bar in Galway’s West End, says the new laws will likely be helpful in dispersing crowds over a longer period of the night, rather than having everyone looking for a taxi at the same time.

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“If, for example there was three nightclubs open on a Friday and Saturday in Galway next year, and one of them is closing at three, and one’s closing at four, and the other closes at six, and the late bars are closing at half two and the bars are closing sometime between 11.30 and 12.30, you’re staggering out the crowd for taxis, for safety,” he said.

[ The Irish Times view: last orders for an outdated regime ]

“We’ve been having thousands of people arriving in Eyre Square looking for taxis at the same time all the time.

“We’re glad to see the times are being extended for pubs – maybe late bars, we don’t know the details of that yet, and for nightclubs – that people can enjoy a later night in a controlled environment,” said Duggan, who is the Galway representative for the Vintners’ Federation of Ireland.

‘More pressure’

DNA, the only nightclub currently open in the city, owned by Skeffington Arms Limited and situated on Eyre Square, didn’t reply to a request for comment on the planned reforms.

Rory Collins, who owned Carbon nightclub on Eglinton Street before it shut in 2019, said the new laws would “go against” him if he were still in the industry because “now I [would] feel compelled to have to stay open later to deal with the competition that might do the same thing.

“I can categorically tell you that 90 per cent of our drink sales were done by half one in the morning, so the last hour we were serving very, very little alcohol. So extending those hours now – that’s not going to help, it would just put more pressure on us,” he added.

He’s not the only one with reservations.

Niall McNelis, chairperson of the board for Claddagh Watch, which patrols the waterways in the city centre, said volunteers expressed concerns when the proposed changes were announced.

“A lot of our volunteers, straight away, said ‘we’re doing patrols along the waterways at night time, and now they’re talking about extending the bars until six o’clock. What is it going to be like at weekends?’ With that, I think, there’s a lot of ifs, whats and could-bes,” he said.

“We have a city surrounded by 5km of waterways which are badly lit… We need to make sure that it’s a safe environment for people to get home as well, and that’s my biggest concern. That, along with making sure that the staff are looked after.”

McNelis, who is also a Labour city councillor, added, “In general, I think we should be looking at welcoming the news, but I think also we have to raise the concerns that we would see. It’s better to raise them now than actually when it’s up and running, than saying ‘oh, we never thought about that’. So let’s not rush into it so quickly.”

The history of Ireland’s old fashioned licensing laws

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Have you ever wondered why pubs and nightclubs in Ireland have a very strict closing time, whereas the rest of Europe has a more relaxed approach to how their public houses operate. It comes down to our centuries-old licensing laws, which Justice Minister Helen McEntee last week promised, would finally be reformed. In this episode, historian Diarmaid Ferriter talks to Conor Pope about the antiquated laws and why Ireland’s attitude to drinking and socialising as far back as the 19th century, still has an effect today.

Street cleaning

He also feels questions need to be answered “about where this night-time economy is going, how it’s going to be run” and “what kind of resources are going to be put in place for it, like everything from street cleaning to policing and the A&E department – all of that needs to be looked at as well”.

“We have big fast-food takeaways in Eyre Square. That’s like the mothership when everything closes down, and everybody just goes back to it and piles around… Will we have restrictions on what time those places will have been able to open and close? And that will lead to litter management as well in the city centre, so there’s loads of issues,” McNelis said.

[ Ireland’s night-time economy is in genuine peril - why were licensing reforms so long coming? ]

Gary Monroe, owner of Monroe’s Tavern on Dominick Street Upper, said he felt Galway’s population, unlike Dublin’s, wasn’t big enough to sustain later openings.

He also said staffing would be an issue: “The trade from lockdown still hasn’t recovered on the labour front – we’ve lost a lot of skilled personnel or even ones that are able to do longer hours.

“I’ve been running the bar since 1996 with my brother Rob. My mum and dad opened it in 1964, I grew up in it, but I’ve seen a lot of trends changing, I’ve seen a lot of habits changing even in the last six to eight years, so I’m fairly tuned in on it,” he added.

Alcohol-related morbidity

“I don’t know if the appetite is there for it, even for 5am, that’s just my genuine feeling. I wouldn’t agree with it personally. Whether you do it at the weekend – you say, right, Thursday, Friday, Saturday – you’re not going to gather people out on a Sunday to Wednesday. I can’t see it happening.”

Monroe said, however, the licensing laws did need to be looked at, and that “it will be interesting to see what way it unfolds”.

Dr Áine McNamara, Health Service Executive area director of public health for the west and northwest, said Ireland had one of the highest levels of alcohol consumption in the OECD, and ongoing levels of alcohol-related morbidity and early mortality.

“We are concerned that the proposed extension to licensing hours would lead to an increase in the harmful direct and indirect health effects of alcohol use in Galway and in Ireland nationally,” she said.

McNamara explained research shows extending licensing hours increases alcohol-related harm: “The WHO [World Health Organisation] previously found there is consistent evidence that limiting the times alcohol is available for sale can reduce alcohol-related harm. As such, this proposal would appear to contradict the goals of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018, which aims to reduce alcohol consumption in Ireland.

“In addition to the negative impact on individuals, there is concern that this would also increase existing strains on public services in Galway, including the health service. For example, alcohol is already estimated to be a factor in one in 20 cases attending emergency departments in Ireland, and more than a quarter of injury attendances,” she said.