February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Yes, that’s right — an Irish publican with something nice to say about the smoking ban.
Cleary, a 25-year-old native of Tipperary and a long-time barman, recently purchased a downtown Dublin pub with his two friends and business partners — brothers Ronan and Gavin Clarke, who are 28 and 24. Kennedy’s, found at the rear of Trinity College, cost the three 20-somethings several million euro earlier this year.
For the Clarke brothers, the Westland Row pub is not their first. They purchased Murray’s in Sandymount in March 2004 — the month the Irish smoking ban was introduced.
The conventional wisdom at the time was that the bottom was about to fall out of the lucrative Irish hospitality industry. The Irish Vintners envisaged a bleak future of job losses and pub closures.
Guinness brewer Diageo recently blamed a 4 percent drop in its draft sales on the ban.
Cleary and the Clarke brothers could be forgiven for thinking they were misled. According to Cleary, their first year in business has proved that a little hard work and imaginative thinking continues to bring in the punters.
“It’s all about service now,” he said. “With all the talk about the price of drink in Ireland, these days people aren’t just looking for somewhere where they can go to have a pint. They want somewhere comfortable, maybe with an open fire, a good atmosphere, good conversation and good barmen.”
Cleary said that the pub trade remains one of the most profitable around. Having managed the Murray’s bar for the last 12 months, he said, draft sales are up around 20-30 percent.
“You have to offer customers more,” he said. “We’ve introduced live music, a restaurant and poker classics. You notice the difference the smoking ban brings — especially on a Sunday — people are now willing to bring their kids to the pub when they have avoided the place due to smoke in the past.”
Emboldened by the success of Murray’s, the three have high hopes for Kennedy’s.
William Aherne of the Palace Bar on Fleet Street also believes the ban has been for the best.
“A year on, I think it’s a great thing now,” he said. “It’s the way forward and we’ve been an example for the rest of the world. At the time I was a bit worried about trade, but we’re fighting our corner.”
Aherne said trade has ebbed slightly during the day, but he believes this is as much to do with changes in Irish drinking culture as it is with the smoking ban. Established in 1843, the pub is one of the oldest in Ireland and has seen more changes in Irish society than most. W.B. Yeats and Patrick Kavanagh were known to frequent the bar.
However, Aherne said, “drinking during the day isn’t as much the done thing anymore. You have to do a bit more to get customers in the door now. We put on a bit of music — a few traditional sessions. Before Christmas we put on plays.
“When the ban came in we lost a few regular customers who said they’d never be coming back, but just in the last few weeks two of them have come back — we’ve been slagging them a bit about that.” According to Irish anti-smoking groups, the ban now enjoys widespread approval — even among smokers themselves.
Professor Luke Clancy, chairman of Ash in Ireland, has described the ban as the “health initiative of the century.” He does not believe the ban has had a detrimental impact on the pub business.
“As expected, the scare-mongering predictions, such as the projected loss of 60,000 jobs, have not materialized,” Clancy said last week. “Neither have vast numbers of public houses closed — in fact, the selling price of these establishments continues to increase.”
Meanwhile, by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s reckoning, more than 7,000 Irish people have kicked the smoking habit since the inception of the ban. A new smoking quit line has fielded more than 30,000 calls since it was set up 18 months ago, according to the taoiseach’s office.
Meanwhile, William Aherne sings the ban’s praises.
“You can see the change in people’s attitude toward it,” he said. “Even a couple of friends of mine who come in here who are smokers now appreciate it. There’s no longer the smell of smoke off your clothes — it’s a much nicer atmosphere.”