Ireland’s first €10 plus pint as pub owner unrepentant over pricing

TAKE a look at the first pints in Ireland to go over the €10 price mark.

A pint of Rockshore cider during regular hours in a Dublin pub restaurant in the tourist hot zone of Temple Bar now costs €10.45.

During normal hours in the pub, a pint of Rockshore cider costs €9.45 – but you will pay €10.45 if ordering the drink with a meal in the restaurant upstairs.

That hefty figure is being charged to punters in The Merchant’s Arch pub and restaurant on Wellington Quay, near the Ha’penny Bridge.

Its main bar charges €9.10 for a pint of Carlsberg and €8.65 for a pint of Guinness.

But it has a different pricing structure for its restaurant upstairs, which mostly sells pub grub.

A pint of Carlsberg there generally sells for €9.95 and a Guinness for €9.65. But they both shoot up over the €10 mark after 10pm.

The pub’s restaurant is also quoting ‘late hours’ prices of €10.65 for a Kilkenny, €10.50 for Blue Moon, €10.50 for Chieftain and €10.60 for Harp.

“We finish serving food at 9.45pm, but if there are customers still here when it goes past 10pm then they are charged €10.50 for a Guinness and €10.90 for a Carlsberg,” a barman there told us.

The Merchant’s Arch is owned by Kilkenny native Tom Doone, who lives on Dublin’s southside. ​

The pub is housed in the former 18th-century Tailor’s Guild Hall and seven years ago Mr Doone was given permission in the Circuit Court for a €1 million extension to his premises into the back of Temple Bar.

Mr Doone said in court back then that he had turn away dozens of tourists every day due to lack of space.

The permission granted more room at ground and first-floor levels to accommodate an extra 90 diners.

It emerged during the hearing that Doone had bought the then almost derelict premises from a bank in 2006 and spent €1.3 million on a major refurbishment of the building.

The judge was told that the building was a major heritage asset on the Dublin tourism trail and spanned the famous Merchant’s Arch, which maintained an important pedestrian link between Dame Street via Temple Bar and Henry Street on the north side of the River Liffey via the Ha’Penny Bridge.

Mr Doone was asked by the Sunday World if other pubs in the Temple Bar area will soon follow suit and go over the €10 mark.

“I can’t tell the future,” he replied. When we asked about his pub being the first in the country to charge over a tenner for pints, he said: “Are you asking me to justify my prices? I don’t have any comment to be honest.”

Another pricey pub in the same area is the famous Temple Bar hostelry, which is regularly packed with tourists enjoying live music.

A pint of Carlsberg, Heineken, Smithwicks, Bulmers, Orchard Thieves and Hop House 13 all cost there €9.95, while a Guinness or Murphy’s will fetch you back €8.95.

Pints in most city centre pubs are usually priced around the €6 to €7 mark, although a few, including the Clonliffe House in Ballybough, are serving Guinness at €5 a pint.

The Dis and Dat pub in Dame Court in the city centre sells all pints, including lagers, at a fiver from Monday to Wednesday.

UK chain Wetherspoons have a number of locations in the capital and across the country, and its pricing is significantly lower than most pubs.

The chain’s cheapest lager is Foster’s – a pint its Sliver Penny branch in Abbey Street costs €3.95, but in its sister location at the Old Borough in Swords, Foster’s is just €2.95.

The British-owned boozers, whose owner is abrasive Brexit lover Tim Martin, has lately been stocking Conor McGregor’s Black Forged stout in its Irish bars.

Up until recently, its only stout was Beamish. That sells for €4.65 in the Silver Penny in the city centre, and €4.20 in the Old Borough in Swords.

Black Forged retails for €5.30 in the Silver Penny, and €4.90 in the Old Borough.

McGregor himself is charging €6 for his own stout in his Black Forge pub in Crumlin.

He is also selling Guinness on his premises for the same price of €6, while a pint of Heineken there costs €7.

The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) is the trade organisation which represents several hundred pubs in the Dublin area.

“The LVA has no role in retail pricing, that’s a matter for each individual public,” LVA chief executive Donal O’Keeffe said.

When it was put to him that many British tourists complain about the price of booze in Dublin pubs, he said: “The LVA has no role in pricing, its up to publicans to offer value and we operate in a discretionary part of the economy.

“People don’t have to spend money in pubs; they don’t have to go for a drink, so we need to offer good standards and good services to attract customers and the vast majority of publicans do that.”

He is generally positive about the pub trade.

“January is the quietest month of the year and we are now moving forward to a decent 2024,” he notes.

“We had a terrific bounce back after Covid; 2022 was fantastic, 2023 was fine. The issue these days is cost pressure, we have serious inflation in wages, the cost of goods, food and drink, insurance, professional services,” Mr O’Keeffe said.

“Food would be a huge part of our business and the (VAT) rate has gone up to 13-and-a-half.

“So cost pressures are huge, but we would be optimistic that 2024 will be a good year.”

He acknowledged that some pubs have closed “but generally in rural areas, not too many in the cities”.

Mr O’Keeffe added: “We are looking forward to a good solid year in the Dublin licensed trade, there’s a lot of activity in Dublin.

“There’s a strong economy in Dublin; lots of tourism, lots of events, the rugby is back, the GAA will be great, there’s lots of concerts, so a lot happening in the city.”

MERCHANT’S ARCH ROCKSHORE CIDER…€10.45 RESTAURANT PRICE CARLSBERG……………..€9.10 GUINNESS………………..€8.65 TEMPLE BAR HOSTELRY CARLSBERG………………€9.95 HEINEKEN………………….€9.95 SMITHWICKS……………..€9.95 BULMERS…………………..€9.95 ORCHARD THIEVES……€9.95 HOP HOUSE 13……………€9.95 GUINNESS………………….€8.95 MURPHYS…………………..€8.95 CLONLIFFE HOUSE GUINNESS……………………..€5 WETHERSPOONS ABBEY STREET FOSTERS……………………€3.95 OLD BOROUGH FOSTERS……………………€2.95 THE BLACK FORGE INN FORGED IRISH STOUT…….€6 GUINNESS………………………€6 HEINEKEN………………………€7

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