Letters

The price of a pint

Liquid history

Sat Aug 12 2023 - 00:05

Sir, – Further to recent correspondence (August 11th), at our home in Slievenaboley, Co Down, during the 1950s and until his death in 1964, aged 90, my grandfather enjoyed his bottle of stout every afternoon at precisely 3pm. It was an enjoyable daily ritual for him and he drank it lukewarm, the opened bottle being heated in a saucepan of hot water until it reached the correct temperature. The bottle of stout was at the premium price of one shilling and three pence, as his weekly supply was delivered by the mobile grocer. – Yours, etc,

PAULINE COLL,

Bangor,

Co Down.

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Sir, – I know from experience in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, in the mid-1950s that the price of a pint went from one shilling, three pence and a halfpenny to one shilling and four pence.

Why am I so sure of this?

The local pint drinkers went on strike and paraded through the streets with placards stating “We’ll drink no more at one and four.” – Yours, etc,

FRANK WALSH,

Malahide,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – I was born in 1949. I was 16 when I could buy a pint for a half-crown, a packet of cigarettes for a half-crown and entry to the school dance in Cork City Hall for a half-crown. Three pints, fags and a dance for 10 bob!

That’s what a misspent youth cost in 1965.

Now no more fags or dances! – Yours, etc,

JOHN MORRISON,

Kildinan,

Co Cork.

Sir, – I recall, aged seven or so in 1960, being behind the bar in our family business in Tourlestrane, Co Sligo, when three elderly men, fresh from collecting their weekly pension at the nearby post office entered and ordered a half-pint bottle of Guinness each.

“Angry” and “aghast” goes nowhere near describing their reaction when I blithely informed them that the price of their tipple had been increased, in that week’s budget, from eight pence to 10 pence: a whopping 25 per cent overnight price hike!

Needless to say, none of them ever “followed” the drink as far as the shilling! – Yours, etc,

LIAM STENSON,

Galway.