The price of a pint

Liquid history

Sir, – I’m here with my mother who is 90 in Wexford hospital. She loves the letters to the editor and is very amused with the letters regarding the price of a pint. A friend of hers in the 1950s told her that her husband went away every day. On enquiring, it turns out that she packed a sandwich for him and he caught the bus to Amiens Street and then the train to Cork. He had his pint every day in Cork because it was tuppence cheaper and he had free travel. He arrived home always in time for the dinner. – Yours, etc,

EMILY POWER,

Wexford.

Sir, – On August 12th a letter writer recalled a time of civil action in Nenagh in the 1950s when the pint drinkers of the town, in the face of a price increase by publicans, went on strike under the slogan “We’ll drink no more at one and four”.

READ MORE

I must take issue with this recollection.

The price was not increased by a halfpenny. It was increased by one penny.

It is a slight on the memory of the pint-drinking men of Nenagh to assert that they went on strike over a halfpenny. – Yours, etc,

DAN O’CONNELL,

Nenagh,

Co Tipperary.

A chara, – A wonderful motor cycling friend – sadly no longer with us – equated the price of a bottle of stout to how many minutes he had to work to buy same!

Doug always said the ratio varied little during his working life. – Yours, etc,

JOHN POYNTON,

Wicklow.