Drink on Good Friday – it won’t be the first time for customers in some Kerry pubs

SIR, Pubs will open on Good Friday after the lifting of a 90-year-old ban on the sale of alcohol on that day. Removal of the ban was inevitable in an increasingly secular Ireland where Good Friday is a normal working day and where religious practice is now based on conviction rather than obligation.

My paternal grandfather was a publican and staunch Catholic. At a time when business ground to a halt on Good Friday he provided a ‘holy hour’ from 4.30pm to 7pm where regular customers were kept sweet and deterred from taking their custom elsewhere. As his brother in law was a Dominican priest, grandfather encouraged his regular customers to attend the Passion Ceremonies at 3pm or the Stations of the Cross at 7.30pm in the local Dominican Church, with which our family has a strong affinity.

The regular customers slipped discretely into the back of the pub by the rear entrance. Guinness was the only beverage served on Good Friday. Spirits were off the menu in deference to the day that was in it. Each drink had to be carefully nursed as there was a strict quota of two pints per male customer or two meejums (medium glass) per female customer.

When the clock struck 6pm, all present were led in a recitation of the Angelus, followed by all the trimmings, by my grandmother, who wasn’t totally comfortable with the improvised drinking arrangement but tolerated it as a necessary compromise. On her insistence, commerce was not conducted on the premises on Good Friday but all monies owed were duly paid up the following day.

Religious practice was very important in our house, but sometimes a few venial sins were committed to protect the business. By way of atonement, my grandfather and my father after him always made a generous ‘Dues’ contribution at Mass on Easter Sunday morning!

Sincerely,

Billy Ryle,

Spa,

Tralee.