The pub with your name on it (maybe)
Have you ever dreamed of owning a pub? If your family name is McLoughlin, you're in luck: Heineken has just launched a campaign to find a new owner for McLoughlin's pub on the remote Achill Island before its fourth-generation McLoughlin owner retires. The goal is to keep a tradition alive.
That tradition dates back to 1872. Back then, British law required all pubs in Ireland to display the owner's name above the door – not for sentimentality, but to make it easier to collect taxes. Though the law is long gone, the practice has endured: over a quarter of Irish pubs still bear a family name. And many have been passed on through generations, with one in six having an owner or staff member whose family name matches the sign above the door.
But it's not only family ties that make pubs essential to Irish life. They are strongholds of local socialising, especially in rural areas. Whether you are attending a birthday, a wedding, a funeral, or watching sports, an Irish pub is usually the answer.
If you don't live in Ireland, chances are you've still been to an Irish pub. Irish emigration exported Irish pubs across the world, especially in the US. Over time, though, many turned into exercises in ”paddywhackery” – the caricatured portrayal of supposed Irish behaviour: drunk, boastful, and belligerent.
To preserve authenticity (and sell more beer), the iconic Irish beer brand Guinness started a website in the 1990s offering guidance to those wanting to get into the business. Another company can design and ship you your very own pub. If you live outside Ireland, stick to a pub with a patronymic name. Take it from me: I nearly walked into an ”Irish pub” in Morocco, which turned out to be a bar for meeting sex workers...