Pubs are a cornerstone of the tourism industry in Tipperary and across Ireland

Most people will be surprised to learn that one of the biggest tourist attractions in Ireland is the local pub, with almost every tourist calling into at least one during their visit.

The Irish pub has been replicated worldwide with great success, but those big city, commercially driven copycat establishments cannot compare to the real thing – the family run business that fills so many roles in small town and rural Ireland.

Our pubs are primarily social centres where people meet up, have parties, hold fundraisers, play cards, watch sports events on TV and just generally relax. For the tourist the great attraction is that they can meet ordinary people.

Most pubs will have the proprietor present acting as chairman and facilitator of the discussion, using their experience and knowledge to have a word with everyone and keep the conversation going, an easy task among the locals.

Strangers are always made welcome and tourists appreciate this. The plenitude of “good spakes” and witty replies from the assembled colourful characters is a memory that stays with them when they return home.

Many pubs double as restaurants or music venues. Several of our top singers and musicians started their careers and learned their trade with gigs in their local pub.

The quickly served midday lunch fills a need for locals and tourists alike. Pubs are family friendly and tourits seem surprised at the ease with which the different age groups mix compared to other countries.

The pub is probably the best source of local information in rural areas when the tourist gets stuck or lost. The decline of rural post offices, creameries and grocery shops leaves the pub as the last local meeting place.

The pub gives a sense of community in isolated areas with no other facilities. All this is not to say that everything in the garden is rosy.

While Co. Tipperary still has over 300 licensed premises, numbers have greatly declined. Thurles town has lost about 70% of its pubs in the last fifty years.

Cheaper home drinking and the growth of off-licences is one factor. High tax and the VAT system is another. Getting transport to and from the pubs is probably the biggest problem.

Most pubs survive with zero marketing though they are one of the foundations of the tourism industry. These problems need to be addressed.

Above: The Thurles Publicans hurling team that took to the field at the Ned O’The Hill Festival in Upperchurch back in 1990:
Back (l to r): P.J. Ryan, John Mulhall, Derek O’Connell, Eddie Corbett, Willie Kennedy, Kieran Linnane, Conor O’Dwyer, Michael Gorman.
Middle (l to r): Paddy Carroll, Pascal Kelly, Larry Mackey, John Harris, Pat Hayes, Michael Bowe, Eamon Glasheen.
Front (l to r): Lar and Dinny Mackey, Lar Corbett, Garry and Mark Kelly.

Below is a group of Thurles publicans from the early 1980s who went together on a trip to a County Louth Brewery.