€10.95 A PINT!

‘I don’t think I’m mugging people – I pay a million a year in entertainment’

THE price of a pint in one of Ireland’s most iconic pubs has shockingly risen to almost €11.

The Temple Bar in Dublin, which is famous among visitors as one of the most photographed bars in the country, is now charging €10.95 a pint for several of its lagers, ales and ciders during normal hours, including Heineken, Carlsberg, Harp, Bulmers, Orchard Thieves and its pale ale version of Smithwicks.

Meanwhile, the owner of a nearby pub which has followed suit in increasing the price of a pint to over €10 for several drinks told us: “I don’t think I’m mugging people.”

Oliver St John Gogarty owner Martin Keane says he has numerous overheads which necessitate him having to charge €10.95 for Heineken, Coors, Kilkenny, Bulmers, craft beers and its own brand of lager and ale.

“I put my prices up about two or three weeks ago,” Martin (75) told the Sunday World.

“I sold it cheap and now I’m selling it dear. I had my first licence when I was aged 23. That was a huge pub out in Donaghmede and we had four different prices out there back in those days. There was a fuel shortage and the country was in a jock.

MUSIC

“It’s all relative to your overheads. I had another pub and I had a happy hour and I was nearly burned out of the place.”

Martin’s pub has live music every day from just after noon until closing time in the early hours of the morning.

He points out that most bars in America are now charging well over $10 for a pint.

“I have Americans coming in to me and they say they are paying ridiculous prices over there and find here a bit cheaper,” maintains Martin, who also owns the interconnecting The Left Bank pub.

“I started when I was 13 [working], and I get so much out of it [the business] and that’s what I do,” he reflects.

“I don’t think I’m mugging people — I do the best I can to provide. I pay a million a year in entertainment [for the musicians playing in his pubs]. I can show you that any time.

“Then there’s all the bits and bobs, IMRO [the music rights organisation] and all the rest of them. We need security because you want a safe environment, you want to do the best you can.”

Last February the Sunday World revealed how the Merchant’s Arch pub became the first pub in the country to smash through the tenner a pint mark, charging €10.55 for a Rockshore cider in its restaurant, as well as over a tenner for many other beers with food.

Martin says other pubs in central Dublin could be charging more than a tenner a pint by the

end of the year.

“It’s quite possible,” he says. “Diageo are in for another hike again, right across the board. I heard that from one of the reps for a different brewery this morning.”

SKYROCKET

He also predicted prices could skyrocket in the future.

“There is a chance in a few years that people could be paying as much as €20 for a pint the way things are going,” he claims.

Tom Cleary is owner of the Temple Bar pub, with other industry figures explaining he is media shy.

“I was in the Deerpark in Clonskeagh and his parents had the Dropping Well,” recalls Martin.

“Tom was one of those original publicans who lived over the pub. Hugh O’Regan [a late publican who owned several pubs in Dublin] got Tom into Temple Bar, Hugh needed a few quid at the time and I said ‘Tom come down to Temple Bar, that’s 30 odd years ago’.”

Recently filed accounts showed that Drayton Holdings, which owns Martin’s pubs as well as Bloom’s Hotel, recorded turnover of just over €450,000 in 2022, down from nearly €780,000 the previous year.

In 2016 the company posted pre-tax profits of €3.11m, up from €1.75m a year earlier.

The company, which includes Martin’s wife Vera and daughter Martina as directors, is also behind a planned €90m development of the historic Iveagh Market, which has controversially stalled in recent years.

Martin himself likes to have a pint elsewhere.

“I go to the Bank, Charlie [Chawke’s pub], and I go into the Auld Dub across the road,” he explains. “To be honest with you, I don’t really be looking at the prices there.”

When it was put to him that an apparent multi-millionaire like himself wouldn’t look closely at the prices, unlike most people, he replied with a chuckle: “Do you think I could be living on the interest of what I owe?”

EXPENSIVE

A receipt doing the rounds on social media shows how a punter paid more than €47 for four drinks in Oliver St John Gogarty’s, including €10.65 for a vodka and €6.20 for a Red Bull to go with it, resulting in a price of €16.85.

“It is a fair whack alright,” Martin admits, before adding with a laugh: “We’re trying to keep the people healthy by keeping them off the Red Bull.”

Several other shorts in his pub are even more expensive — a serving of brandy, Jack Daniels or spiced rum cost €10.85.

A pint of Guinness there will set you back €9.95. The Temple Bar pub is also charging €9.95 for a pint of Guinness. It charges €7.35 for a Red Bull, with a vodka there priced at €10.95, while a glass of wine there costs €11.50.

While the Merchant’s Arch has prices of over €10 for some drinks with a meal, its regular bar has a pint of Guinness for €8.65 and Carlsberg for €9.10.

When we recently queried the prices with its owner, proprietor Tom Doone, he stormed: “Are you asking me to justify my prices?”

He also said at the time he “could not predict the future” if other pubs in the area would follow suit and start charging over a tenner for a pint.

Dublin City Councillor Jim Gildea (FG) described the prices of pints going over a tenner as “outrageous” and added: “I’m really concerned what this does for the tourist industry” as “Temple Bar is renowned for being the heart of Dublin”.

The Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) is the trade organisation which represents several hundred pubs in the Dublin area.

STANDARDS

“The LVA has no role in retail pricing, that’s a matter for each individual publican,” LVA chief executive Donal O’Keeffe told the Sunday World.

When it was put to him that many British tourists complain about the price of booze in Dublin pubs, he said: “The LVA has no role in pricing, it’s up to publicans to offer value and we operate in a discretionary part of the economy.

“People don’t have to spend money in pubs; they don’t have to go for a drink, so we need to offer good standards and good services to attract customers and the vast majority of publicans do

‘Americans say they find here a bit cheaper’