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Padraig Cribben, CEO of the VFI, refutes claim that the “era of the pub is over”.

30-January-2009

It was with some amusement that I read the comments attributed to John McKenna, author of the 2009 Bridgestone 100 Best Restaurants in Ireland and 100 Best Places to Stay. Attempting to grab cheap headlines, Mr McKenna has claimed that the Irish pub is “dying” and the “era of the pub is over”. Mr McKenna claims that restaurants are thriving due to a quality of service offered that you just don’t get in the Irish pub. What a load of rubbish. To put it mildly, Mr McKenna is talking nonsense. He has deliberately tried to put out hysterical and headline grabbing remarks in an attempt to sell his new book. His comments were self serving, pompous, incorrect and, if it were not for the fact that they were so off the mark, they may even have been damaging. Why Mr McKenna had to talk down the future of the pub and a large percentage of the hotel trade in order to promote restaurants is beyond me. Many Irish pubs all over the country serve food of outstanding quality and often very inexpensively. People flock from all over the world to visit Irish pubs and experience at first hand the friendly atmosphere and quality of service which has set us apart and which is often copied all over the globe. The Irish pub is one of the main tourist attractions to overseas visitors, primarily because of the friendly service Mr McKenna thinks is missing. In fact, last September saw the inclusion of more Irish pubs than ever before in the widely respected Michelin Eating Out in Pubs 2009 guide to the UK and Ireland and even prompted the editor, Derek Bulmer, to comment: “the standard of cooking in British and Irish pubs keeps getting better and better. We are seeing a growing confidence in our culinary heritage, greater use of local, seasonal ingredients and a rediscovery of regional specialities." The Irish pub trade is healthy despite the difficulties faced over the last number of years and I would like to invite Mr McKenna to visit any number of superb Irish pubs the length and breath of Ireland to see top class service and entertainment at first hand, because I sincerely doubt he has darkened the doorstep of many Irish pub for quite some time. His book is a misleading representation of the food offering in this country and only serves the interests of those he writes about.