No wind-up: Irish down 300,000 pints each day
As a nation, we down an estimated 300,000 pints every single day — and 200,000 bottles of wine.
And to help us unwind, we spend in the region of €22m eating out, trips to the cinema, attending events, socialising and pampering ourselves daily.
The pub is also popular with people trying to let off a little steam, with a new documentary, How Ireland Unwinds, showing more than 140,000 people will unwind in one of the country’s 7,000 pubs, where they’ll drink an estimated 300,000 pints and 65,000 shorts.
Kerry publican Sean O’Mahony revealed how he dreamed up a unique taxi service called Social Spin where volunteers take turns to drive a community car to ferry their neighbours to and from the pub.
“People socialise and go for a pint so I came up with the name Social Spin. I called a meeting and I was amazed to get 30 drivers so I bought a car,” said the owner and publican at Faha Court Pub.
The pilot taxi service has been a huge success.
“These people were isolated, they would get up in the morning and they only contact they would have is with their animals,” he said.
“They were prisoners in their home really and this is why I introduced social spin.
We need pubs in rural Ireland. If we haven’t had pubs for people to come out for a chat Ireland is finished.
Irish people have the distinction of being the top moviegoers in Europe with 43,000 people going to the cinema in a single day.
We are also at the top of the table in the EU when it comes to eating out with €2m will be spent dining out in restaurants every day.
Another soaring catering business is the takeaway industry with the population forking out €1.4m on such food in a single day.
Dublin Deliveroo cyclist Christoph — who is one of more than 600 bike couriers currently in the capital — cycles 100km every night making up to 22 food deliveries.
“I try and do one every 20 minutes.” he said. “Sometimes you get €6.50 and €7 for a job. Short ones are €2.90.
“You have got to keep an eye on the bike, literally in Dublin city if you leave your bike outside for too long it will be gone like that.”
Ireland’s love affair with movie-going is well-known but the series reveals we splash out €300,000 on cinema tickets daily – and fork out €3.8m on snacks and drinks at the cinema a day.
It also found:
- We get an average of seven hours and 38 minutes sleep every night
- 1,000 people a day will buy a new mattress
- 8,000 of us head out to a live event every evening
Burlesque dancer Sinead Gould whose stage name is Bonnie Boo, said she originally thought she would become an accountant but opted for life on stage.
“For me to see smiling faces and see people enjoying the act is important.”
