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Alcohol and Good Friday
Read more about: Dublin North East, Fianna Fail, Law 
I posted this 3 years ago (Apr 13, 2006) but as it is getting a comment or two I will bump it up.
Today is probably the biggest off licence purchasing day in Ireland. As tomorrow is good Friday and by law all the bars have to close. This law is one of the last vestiges left in Ireland of the time when the Catholic Church ruled the country and said that all bars must be closed on Good Friday. I am surprised they didn’t have a similar law banning the opening of butchers.
In this new multicultural Ireland where we have people of all religions and none it seems wrong that the bars are been forced to close due to some catholic tradition. Na in fact it is a disgrace. We are not Dev’s pious spiritually people we are materialistic alcoholics. So why is this law still in place?
The law that covers this is the Intoxicatin Liquor Act (2000) yes you read it correctly 2000 this is not a law that was brought in Dev’s time this law was amended by the present government. The same government who’s main party has a member that decided it was part of his job description to release a press release giving out about the an increase of 4 cent in the price of a pint. Would a party in any other country say “efforts must be taken to ensure drinkers are not being ripped off.”? this is of course coming from the party that scuppered the café bars. What kind of message does this send out. With all the troubles in the country do we really think TD’s should be devoting their energies to a price increase of 4 cent by a single product. Only the polls will tell whether the voters of Dublin North East think they are getting value for their taxes for Martin Brady.
Anyway back to Good Friday The original law dates back to 1927 here is the amended version.
“(1) Save as otherwise provided by this Act, it shall not be lawful for any person to sell or expose for sale any intoxicating liquor, or to open or keep open any premises for the sale of intoxicating liquor, or to permit any intoxicating liquor to be consumed on licensed premises—
(a) at any time on Christmas Day or Good Friday;
(b) on any other day, as specified hereunder, outside the times so specified in respect of it—
(i) Saint Patrick’s Day: between 12.30 p.m. and 12.30 a.m. on the following day;
(ii) the 23rd December: if it falls on a Sunday, between 10.30 a.m. and 11.30 p.m.;
(iii) Christmas Eve and the eve of Good Friday: between 10.30 a.m. and 11.30 p.m.;
(iv) the eve of any public holiday (other than Christmas Eve):
(I) if the eve falls on a weekday, between 10.30 a.m. and 12.30 a.m. on the following day, or
(II) if it falls on a Sunday, between 12.30 p.m. and 12.30 a.m. on the following day;
(v) any other Sunday (except a Saint Patrick’s Day which falls on a Sunday): between 12.30 p.m. and 11.00 p.m.;
(vi) any other Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday: between 10.30 a.m. and 11.30 p.m.; and
(vii) any other Thursday, Friday or Saturday: between 10.30 a.m. and 12.30 a.m. on the following day.
Now really this law makes little sense to me why are these days been excluded, why don’t we have a similar law banning the sale of Tobacco or McDonalds. Now I disagree with pub closing times but I can see some logic to it. It is in effect to stop people excessively drinking and being violent. Good Friday is picked because it is a catholic holy day no other reason. To a non-Christian good Friday is just a Friday like any other. It is a disgrace that we still do this in this country. The government talk about equality if they believe that then they should remove this ban. If you are Catholic don’t go to the pub don’t expect the government to legislate your religion. My point is not that I want to go drinking on Good Friday it is that I should have the choice
However possibly the worst thing about this is that fact that people stock up for the day. They see it as a challenge. They panic buy alcohol thinking my god I can’t drink tomorrow I better stock up. This says something about us in Ireland that is not nice.
Nice post simon.
“Good Friday is picked because it is a catholic holy day no other reason. To a non-Christian good Friday is just a Friday like any other. It is a disgrace that we still do this in this country.”
As a non-Christian I quite agree. It is a disgrace that alcohol sale is banned on Good Friday only. Alcohol sales should be banned entirely. Just as you have a smoking ban in Dublin we have implemented an alcohol ban in Basra and it is working quite well.
The importance of this issue leaves me speechless!
Thanks a million Simon
Am in the middle of a Uni assignment on the effect of relgiion on identity on both sides of the border. I’d made the point that Ireland had shed its Catholic ethos but this point will make an interesting aside.
Much obliged!
Thats what we are here for.
Ah, we drink enough on the other 364 days of the year. One day off won’t hurt anyone.
It is not the point Niall. Why should this be a day that is designated that we should not drink. I agree that we drink to much but that is no reason to continue impossing an catholic law.
Actually unless you are talking about leap years it is 363 days Christmas day is also a pub closing day. Which although has more merit for family get together reasons. It still should not stand.
Ah I know Simon. I pretty much agree with you. But sometimes I wonder if there’s something wrong with us when we complain that the pub is closed for one or two days in the year.
This is a very late comment. I notice that one complainant has an Arabic type name. What has he ever said in public in those Arabic countries who ban all alcohol everywhere every day of the year? He would only do it once.
Equality.
It makes me absolutely sick that we’re being opressed by some bigot Catholic law. It actually makes me want to get even more wasted today, just to silently flip off their pathetic church, haha.
I’m not actually a big drinker. I often go weeks without consuming more than a sociable beer with some food. What galls me is the fact that this law is forced upon me as a devoutly anti-religious individual. The idea of having peoples’ ridiculous superstitions inflicted upon me makes me feel ill with discontent. Why does our government abuse our legal system to force other peoples’ mad beliefs on us? Where’s the law that says that Catholic churches have to close for two days of the year, by law, as decided by the Dublin Humanist Society?
Besides, everybody knows the Catholics are the biggest piss-artists of the lot of us; maybe their precious Church should have them fitted with ankle tags that report them to their religious leaders if they come within feet of the boozer/offie at Sunday mass the week before good Friday, taking them off again on Sunday. They could wear their tags like the Wednesday ashes; proud displays of faith.
Leave the rest of us with the freedom of choice that we earned when we decided to distance ourselves from flat-earth rhetoric, horse-shit and crawling gullibility.
Jay i love you! I need say no more as you have hit the nail on the head!!!!
Damn it, I forgot that today was good friday, the biggest drinking day of the year and I forgot to go the the off license yesterday… lame.
As a non-christian, I think it’s a disgrace that any law which prohibits any purchase or action on any day of the year because of a catholic tradition still exists. I have a right not to have the laws of somebody elses religion pressed on me. If Ireland was still a predominately practicing Catholic country there may be an argument for this law but it’s not. Lets move into the 21st century.
“Comment by Niall Apr 16th, 2006 21:04
Ah, we drink enough on the other 364 days of the year. One day off won’t hurt anyone. ”
This “ah sure, twill be grand, we’re ALL grand” attitude gets under my skin.
Its pathetic not being able to buy alcohol today, its a human rights violation.
You should all be ashamed of yourself! Christ suffered for you and all you can think of is the drink!!!! shame on all you heathens. He will love and forgive you all.
Peace be upon you during this easter time + + +
Great article Simon. It’s funny to have found this thread. I did a search for Irish Good Friday laws because, this being my first Spring at home in 10 years, i’d forgotten about this ridiculous law and it is really embarrassing to me as a proud Irishman.
Archaic laws such as these have no place in a modern multicultural society.
Imagine trawling the streets, ravenous and red-faced, hungry and loins burning with desire, only to end up in a Korean restaurant in a desperate bid to order a few bottles of ‘your cheapest pisswater my good man’. Or breaking your well-enforced church ban after a lengthy stretch of at least ten years, just to check if they dispense the wine at eucharist time. Now that would be hypocritical and oh so typical. Rugby tackle Fr. Shenanigans and down he goes. Blood of Christ my arse. Some Wally’s Hut and twenty Rothmans please.
You doing anything next tuesday evening Betty?
I ve been living in Ireland for 3 years now… yesterday was my birthday, went to the hotel to get a meal… and they would not serve me wine (I know it s beside the point but hotel residents can get their booze). WTF? Is there no separation of church and state in Ireland? I do understand it s not as bad as Saudi Arabia, but still.. as an atheist, i dont think drinking some wine on good friday is going to make me burn faster in hell.. even if it does, it is still my choice. I was really pissed off, had to go back home to get a steak and a bottle of red.
I take alcohol for medicinal purposes only so was flabergasted when I tried to purchase a bottle of Brandy yesterday. I have only recently come to live in Ireland so I wasn’t aware of the old fashioned Church rules. Alas the Church still rules the State in these matters. What is morally wrong with have an alcoholic drink on Good Friday. Its about time the State ran the country and let the Church think about its own moral state.
There seems to be a colossel overreaction to the ban in this thread. The ban should definitely stand. We have enough oppertunities to drink in this country and from my experience, plenty of families are happy about the ban, be they believers or not. There is a strong campaign to remove the Christian identity of this country but going by the increased mass attendences this week and the upsurge in fishsales on Good Friday, I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon.
An apple a day keeps the doctor at bay. A bottle of whiskey a day keeps everyone away.
On Good Friday 1977 I cooked dinner for my housemates; hake, my all time favourite fish. That much I remember. Someone produced a bottle of vodka. It was my first time to taste vodka. Come to think of it, it was also my last. In the ‘eighties there always seemed to be a ‘Good Friday party’ on somewhere, furtively attended by a bunch of us Irish atheists – you know the type, we disavow any belief in God but love religion; we carry the carapace of our Catholic guilt everywhere with us, especially into an obligatory knees up on Good Friday. This year we were treated to a fillet steak dinner, something else I haven’t tasted in ages, especially since the recession began. Then disaster struck. Our hostess had made a mistake in the supermarket. Advancing age and the shortsightedness that comes with it had caused her to somehow purchase only white wine, no red. Not a drop to wash down the steak. It’s those green bottles, she excused herself, it’s hard to tell the white from the red. No chance of redemption either. “You can’t go to the off-licence,” someone pointed out. “It’s Good Friday, for God’s sake!” So another Good Friday passed into oblivion.
I love Easter. You don’t have to buy anyone presents of stupid things they don’t want anyway. Only chocolate; loads of it. Happy Easter everyone.
Hey Simon – why don’t you go to Basra and make alcohol available to all the residents ?
Sober up….it’s only one miserable day without alcohol.
In one hundred years time it could all seem absolutely ridiculous. The Island Council on acceptable Koranic living will have banned both alcohol, and Good Friday.
And your descendents will know no better. In fact they will probably regard you as a terrible sinner, and a family embarrasment. They will not know what the term multicultural means – no more than the poor slobs in Iran or Saudi Arabia. So much for your concept of your own significance.
You are barking up the wrong tree !!! You idiot!
John Costelloe – you “take alcohol for medicinal purposes”.
That’s great news. I must remember that the next time I see the Hospital Accident and Emergency unit filled up with drunks.
It seems that there are a lot of determined people committed to making sure that there will never be seperation between the Irish mentality of life and alcohol.
That is our biggest problem in this country. Just look at all the alcoholics in the Dail !!!
Allen, you are way off the mark… the way it should work is I don t force you to drink alcohol during easter (your choice) but you can t force me to abstain. what s the deal with that anyway? is your god so frail that he s going to cry if i drink?
What frosts me is not the Black day but the 10.30 start every other day of the year. Some of us like to get our shopping in early in the day, just after the Dunnes/Tesco girl marks down the meat and anyway what self-respecting alcoholic will not have a stash enough to cover.
Why on earth we do not have 24/7 opening is beyond me, these sanctioned times are only benefiting pub and club owners. I believe its the oh-jasus-its-near-closing half dozen are the cause of most late night BS.
I can only say that, drunk or sober, the truth catches up with us all in the end, so who will have the last laugh?
“EddieL Apr 13th, 2009 14:04
I can only say that, drunk or sober, the truth catches up with us all in the end, so who will have the last laugh?”
-Alas, truth can’t even be seen by the average believer as so much as a speck in the rear-view, for the haze of bullshit kicked up in the wake of the wild-eyed, unsubstantiated claims and blatant fibbery that whisks their naive arses through life, from the second they plop out of the womb, to the point where they keel over into the hole the church began digging them into before they were even born.
Sadly, when it comes to personal can-kicking, the Vatican and their ilk will have the last chortle I suspect. I know I would if I’d managed to make such heavy coin from the same basic con that every dime-a-dozen cult peddles; ducking and dodging reason, evidence and calls of bullshit like a feckin ninja on meth. Only to bounce back every time smelling of roses to the deluded senses of my dupes, who applaud me wildly at every turn. If I had a conscience that was outweighed by my love of money and power I’d laugh that shit right up.
Spiderman doesn’t do meth. But on meth he does.
I went to a dress shop on Good Friday to buy a particular dress and there was the dress shop CLOSED AND SHUTTERED—was it the catholic church ordered that.
“I went to a dress shop on Good Friday to buy a particular dress and there was the dress shop CLOSED AND SHUTTERED—was it the catholic church ordered that.”
They might as well have, given the frenzied booze marathon the church inspires in it’s supposedly devout through meddling in our legal system.
The owners of the dress shop were probably Catholic and lying face-down in a pool of booze and vomit somewhere unarsed about picking themselves from their own fluids let alone going into work.
Besides Betty, you should be ashamed of yourself! Christ suffered for you and all you can think about is buying dresses!!!
Betty – that dress, was it sackcloth by anychance?
Just to clarify—Betty of the dress is not the same as Betty the preacher.No,the dress was not sackcloth but I lived without it and so saved loadsa money, the same logic might apply to drink—look at all the money that can be saved
Betty,it might save some people money, but only because they’re paying off-license prices for their Good Friday boozathon. But with all the bulk buying and that, I doubt they’re saving much and plenty are out with gusto getting extra lashed out of it in the pub on the Thursday, and bouncing back with a post-famine zeal on the Saturday.
Too many piss artists actually revel in the sense of community they glean from stockpiling booze with friends and neighbours, and getting lashed out of it; like people in a hurricane bunker pooling their resources to weather the storm.
It’s the people who aren’t raging piss artists and who aren’t dementedly religious who end up getting shafted, because we forget to get a bottle of wine or a couple of beers on the Thursday. Our lives just don’t revolve around booze and martyrs, call us dysfunctional.
Depsite all the shitty arguments we have been putting forward, I think we should disregard this forum until next year when we once again forget to buy a heap of cans on the eve of Good Friday and need someone to shout at.
I am considering running a drink service throughout the entire day so I will probably see all of you at some stage. Toodles.
Jay “ducking and dodging reason, evidence and calls of bullshit like a feckin ninja on meth”… almost peed my pants laughing. That s an excellent description.
I was going to repost this somewhere, but I couldnt bring myslelf to do it. I’m not an expert in literary matters, but the grammar and punctuation in that article were something shocking. I spend enough time trying to convince these English people that we arent ‘backward’. That in fact, we hail from the Isle Of Saints And Scholars.
I normally hear people excuse their shite spelling/grammar on the internet, with the excuse of ‘O FFS ITZ JUST FACEBOOK IT AINT A FACKING ENGLISH ESSAY!!!’. What’s your excuse, my friend? My grammar and spelling are in no way perfect, but Jesus Christ, man… Microsoft Word.
Regarding the actual journalistic content, I am assuming that you are thirteen years old? Because if you’re a grown man, and you believe that that hackneyed, re-hashed Junior Cert English Composition is either original, or worthy of anyone’s time, then I feel for you.
But dont mind me, take your internet praise. It’s genuine. There is a Facebook group called ‘Om nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom’. It has 300,000 members. Every day, the page admin types ‘:-)’. Four hundred people click the ‘Like’ button. Another two hundred write a reply to him.
Enjoy your internet praise.
@Barry
I totally agree, shocking!
Ya know, it is all the Irish catholics that run around with their heads chopped off looking to buy a beer on Good Friday. Did you ever stop to wonder how it would be if Good Friday happened on a Thursday? No one would really give a crap, because they’d all have work the next day.
I want the right to choose. I may choose to have a drink in a pub supporting a local business (needed during recessionary times), or I may choose to sit at home and keep my heard earned money under the mattress saving it for a rainy day.
Either way, a law drafted in the early 1900′s dictating we cannot drink alcohol for religious reasons (when the bible does NOT state this) needs a little revision.
Limerick has opened the flood gates, watch the beer flow!
(oh, I feel like I should apologise for any grammatical errors I make, I did not realise this post was being ‘graded’. . . .
“I want the right to choose.” – last comment above.
We choose “investors” (money – the new god) to run the country. We choose abortion, contraception, divorse, drug addiction, drink, head-shops-the latest thing.
We have shown hatred for the one true God, truth, loyalty (especially among workers), self-restraint.
I come from an Ireland where I was taught in a boarding school by priests who taught me that stupidity was not a virtue and if I did not stand up for myself and the truth there would be thousands who would be only too glad to take advantage of my stupidity. Now I can see how right they were and how ripe we have become for the picking.
This is strange! As far as I am aware even Rome, were the Pope lives it is legal to purchase alcohol on good Friday
@dara: actually no it wouldn’t be ok if the country was predominantly catholic – even if the entire country was catholic and everyone agreed that we shouldn’t drink on good friday it STILL wouldn’t be ok, and here’s why: it’s NOT THE GOVERNMENT’S JOB to force people to follow a particular religious tradition!