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The Irish Pub: Past, Present – Whither the Future?

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The Irish Pub: Past, Present – Whither the Future? The Irish Pub: Past, Present – Whither the Future? Submitted By: Audrey Naughton Submission Date: 1st September 2011 Statement: This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for achieving a Master of Business in Strategy and Innovation Management at the Galway- Mayo Institute of Technology. Year: 2011 Declaration: I hereby declare that this dissertation is my own work. Signature: ________________________ I Acknowledgements I wish to record my appreciation and thanks to all who helped me in the preparation of this dissertation and in the pursuit of my Master‘s studies generally. I thank especially my supervisor Monica Nielsen for all her time, support and advice throughout the academic year. To all the staff in the School of Business at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology for their assistance in the completion of this study. I thank Kevin Heffernan, Ivan Mc Phillips and Eamonn O‘Regan for their words of advice, support and encouragement. I am indebted to all my family, friends and colleagues for their kindness and understanding. To my beautiful son Daniel, thank you for your patience. A special thanks to my parents Brendan and Della, my sisters Pamela, Anne-Marie and Niamh, brothers David and John and to Aiden. I thank Mark Campbell from eMedia Interactive Limited in the Innovation in Business Centre for giving me the time off work to complete my dissertation and to all the interview participants for their willingness to partake in my research. II Executive Summary The purpose of this research is to examine the main economic, legislative, and socio- cultural factors that are currently influencing the pub trade in Ireland and their specific impact on a sample of publicans in both Galway city and county. In approaching this task the author engaged in a comprehensive literature review on the origin, history and evolution of the Irish pub; examined the socio-cultural and economic role of the public house in Ireland and developed a profile of the Irish pub by undertaking a number of semi-structured interviews with pub owners from the area. In doing so, the author obtained the views and opinions of the publicans on the current state of their businesses, the extent to which patterns of trade have changed over recent years, the challenges and factors currently influencing their trade, the actions they believed to be necessary to promote the trade and address perceived difficulties and how they viewed the future of the pub business within the framework of the current regulatory regime. In light of this research, the author identified a number of key findings and put forward a series of recommendations designed to promote the future success and development of the pub trade in Ireland. The research established that public houses are currently operating under a very unfavourable regulatory framework that has resulted in the serious decline of the trade over the last decade. This decline appears to have coincided initially with the introduction of the ban on smoking in the workplace and was exacerbated further by the advent of more severe drink-driving laws, especially mandatory breath testing. Other unfavourable conditions include the high levels of excise duty, value added tax and local authority commercial rates. In addition to these regulatory factors, the research established that a major impediment to the pub trade is the unfair competition from supermarkets and other off-licence retail outlets and especially to the phenomenon of the below-cost selling of alcohol. The recession has also been a major contributory factor to the decline in the trade as also has been the trend towards lifestyle changes and home drinking mirroring the practice in some continental European countries. III Table of Contents Title Page I Acknowledgements II Executive Summary III Table of Contents IV List of Abbreviations IX Chapter One: Introduction...................................................................................1 1.1 Context of the Research.....................................................................................1 1.2 Focus of the Research........................................................................................3 1.3 The Research Objectives....................................................................................3 1.4 Limitations of the Research...............................................................................4 1.5 Summary of the Findings..................................................................................5 1.6 Structure of the Thesis.......................................................................................6 Chapter Two: The Historical Evolution of the Irish Pub 2.1 Introduction................................................................................................7 2.2 The History of Alcohol in Ireland...............................................................7 2.2.1 Alcohol: Escapism from Reality................................................................8 2.2.2 Illegal Distillation........................................................................................9 2.2.3 The Irish Working Class in Great Britain..................................................10 2.2.4 The Temperance Movement in Great Britain............................................10 2.2.5 The Temperance Movement in Ireland.....................................................11 IV 2.2.6 The Influence of the Catholic Church on the Irish People........................11 2.2.7 The Drinks Industry: The Source of Ireland‗s Individual Wealth............13 2.3 Origin and Evolution of the Pub in Ireland...............................................14 2.3.1 The Establishment of Taverns...................................................................14 2.3.2 The Start of Pub Control in Ireland...........................................................15 2.3.3 The Public House in 20th Century Ireland.................................................18 2.3.4 Mixed Trade Establishments.....................................................................18 2.3.5 Male Domination of the Public House......................................................19 2.3.6 The Arrival of Women – A Welcome Change..........................................19 2.3.7 Changing Nature of the Irish Pub..............................................................21 2.3.8 Universal Appeal of the Irish Pub.............................................................22 2.3.9 Prosperous Growth....................................................................................23 2.3.10 From Boom to Bust...................................................................................24 2.4 Factors Influencing the Pub Trade in Ireland............................................25 2.4.1 The Smoking Ban......................................................................................25 2.4.1.1 Impact of the Smoking ban on Irish Pub Trade.........................................28 2.4.2 Random Breath Testing.............................................................................29 2.4.2.1 Impact of Drink Driving Legislation.........................................................31 2.4.3 Below-Cost Selling of Alcohol.................................................................32 2.4.3.1 Impact of Below-Cost Selling of Alcohol.................................................34 2.4.4 Changing Consumer Lifestyles.................................................................35 2.5 Health Implications of Alcohol.................................................................39 2.6 Performance of the On-Licensed Sector in 2010......................................40 V 2.7 The Economic Contribution of the Drinks Industry..................................41 2.8 The Future of the On-Licensed Sector: Strategies for Survival.................42 2.9 Summary....................................................................................................46 2.10 Conclusion.................................................................................................49 Chapter Three: Research Methodology 3.1 Introduction................................................................................................51 3.2 The Objectives of the Research..................................................................51 3.3 Review of Literature...................................................................................52 3.4 Underlying Philosophical Assumptions.....................................................53 3.5 The Research Design..................................................................................55 3.6 Advantages of Semi-Structured Interviews...............................................56 3.7 Disadvantages of Semi-Structured Interviews...........................................57 3.8 Idioms of Research.....................................................................................57 3.9 Research Idiom Selection...........................................................................58 3.10 Sample Size and Sample Selection.............................................................58 3.11 The Interview Process.................................................................................59 3.12 Ethical Considerations................................................................................60 3.13 Conclusion..................................................................................................61 Chapter Four: The Research
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