It's Half Two...Can We Have Some More?
It has been announced this week that the Irish Government plan to pass the Liquor Licensing Bill 2008 within the next 3 weeks. This means that all late bars and venues will have to be shut at 2.30AM Monday to Saturday and 1AM on a Sunday.
It has been announced this week that the Irish Government plan to pass the Liquor Licensing Bill 2008 within the next 3 weeks. This means that all late bars and venues will have to be shut at 2.30AM Monday to Saturday and 1AM on a Sunday.
If it is passed it truly is a major setback to Irish night life. While other European cities like London, Berlin and Barcelona speed ahead with late night opening hours giving them the freedom to be more creative in their nights, Ireland has taken one step backwards.
It is a mystery to many of us why the Government would want a law passed whereby the entire city on your average Friday night pours out onto the street at the same time. Surely this will lead to more public offence incidents?
We also find it completely backward to completely write off a Sunday night with a ridiculous 1AM curfew. Have they taken into account that many people work different shifts to the average 9-5 regime and only have Sunday night as their outlet?
We know it is hard to write an article without all the facts and obviously having an involvement in the clubbing world we are undoubtedly going to be somewhat biased. However, we can only imagine the type, age and calibre of person that is trying to pass this law and the one pictured has zero knowledge of the clubbing community.
For those of you reading this we are sure you are of the opinion that the potential new bill is ridiculous, if so have your say and put your name to the [petition.] (http://www.inia.ie/pages/have-your-say.php)
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Comments
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MarkLam @ 18 Jun 2008 9:44I doubt it will pass since people will just end up complaining to much also i say it will increase the ammount of public offences due to the amount of people coming out of places locked and pissed off they have no where to go.
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conzo @ 18 Jun 2008 10:30
Ultimately it's the police and publicans who have most say in this. It suits publicans to close earlier and have wild bar rushes just before closing time when they make most money, and well the police couldn't care less as they understand club culture about as well as pigeons understand Chinese.
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Jilali @ 20 Jun 2008 16:44
Hi,
Could the bars and club still be open after 2H30 AM without serving alcohol? Could not they serve alcohol free drinks?
Or am I the only who does not need to get drunk to enjoy music and chasing the ladies? -
conzo @ 22 Jun 2008 12:02
If you get a food license (apparently) you can stay open as late as you like but can't serve alcohol. I remember a certain American-Irish bar owner had plans to do that with one of his places cos the police kept taking away his late license. He wanted to see their faces when they arrived at five in the morning to find a couple of hundred punters eating green salad and sipping sparkling water.
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kjnevin @ 25 Jun 2008 20:46
I work shift work ie Wednesday to Saturday nights so my first night off will be a Sunday night and it'll be over at 1!!!
That's absolute BO**OX!!!!! -
the styx @ 25 Jun 2008 22:25
I will sign the petition but it is fruitless in all honesty, the government will do what they want in this case and dont give a fook what the public think or care...the same brainless approach to try and curb drinking and violence after bars have closed.....kick everyone out together, earlier with just as much drink on board...genius
I was under the impression most clubs closed at 230 these days anyway? (pod being one of these i thought)
club scene in dublin is dead in the water anyway im out of here as soon as
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Paul_Chillage @ 26 Jun 2008 12:07
In all fairness the media have a huge part to play in where we are now. If they weren't so f*cking sensationalist about every little incident so they could sell a few more papers things would probably stay they way they are or we'd having longer opening hours. It doesn't help that we have a sh*te health service which can't cope with the increase in population, so you have all these doctors telling the media they're at crisis point in a&e with all the drunks - that's the governments fault!!! Of course there's more drunks there's more people living here now!!!
The future solution is to open a club that doesn't sell anything but water. Surely, you wouldn't need a licence for that????
Anyway, it's quite a complex situation that demands a much longer and more thought out post and I've work to do ;-)
Rant over. -
Deborah Kay @ 30 Jun 2008 17:19
This is not about alcohol consumption, this is about control. There will most certainly be problems as people will just buy extra drinks at the end of the night and skull them which leads me to believe that the government is not looking at the alcohol issue at all, but they are trying to obtain an element of control over us that they don't have now. we need to look to other countries for inspiration, look at berlin for example, the clubs are open all night there and i for one felt safer walking through that city than i do here. people don't seem to get as drunk as they do here because they know that they will be out all night and they pace themselves. something needs to change here and closing earlier will not fix our problems.
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asterus @ 30 Jun 2008 23:50
In Moscow it's normal to go for after-party in 6 AM (special clubs). Which is crazy but fun.
I do not see how it makes a problems for others except crazy people lining nights instead days.
No way, this can't happen! Everyone sign the petition .........