TOPIC:

Debts force UCD students to call time on pub[/url:ajbdkop2]

UCD now has no bar. the sports bar closed years ago. The Student Forum Bar is closed for refurbishment. The Student bar is closed for the moment. The Montrose and the bar underneath it have been closed for a few years now. The Merrion Inn[/url:ajbdkop2] is closed by fire.

What does it say about the future of pubs in Ireland if a campus with 16000+ students 3,000 of them living on campus can't keep a bar open. Some of the problem comes from general mismanagement, some from strict rules on noise and drinks promotions that clubs/bars in town do not have to obey as strictly.

But how much is from young people today just not being interested in pub culture? What the hell do students do all day if they're not in the pub?

Sounds like the Student Forum Bar is only closed temporarily?

I would have thought a large part of the situation is kids opting to drink slabs of cheap beer at home too? I'm not necessarily calling it a problem, it's just a shift in habits/thinking.

Having said that the craft beer revolution does seem at times to be only for the well heeled, which students usually aint.

[quote:2v1pexnp]Sounds like the Student Forum Bar is only closed temporarily?[/quote:2v1pexnp]

I'd say both are only closed temperarily. But neither have a due back date yet. And there was a time when running the sole bar on UCD campus at the start of term would be such a money spinner you would never let the doors close.
[quote:2v1pexnp]
I would have thought a large part of the situation is kids opting to drink slabs of cheap beer at home too? I'm not necessarily calling it a problem, it's just a shift in habits/thinking.[/quote:2v1pexnp]
I am told it is. But it is not just other sources of alcohol that pubs now compete with. A lot of the entertainment these days is very cheap. Facebook and youtube are effectively free. Clay Shirky[/url:2v1pexnp] has a phrase, "no medium has ever survived the indifference of 25-year-olds". Which implies to me the Irish pub is in much more serious trouble than can be explained with drink driving laws and the other excuses the LVF spout.

[quote:2v1pexnp]
Having said that the craft beer revolution does seem at times to be only for the well heeled, which students usually aint.[/quote:2v1pexnp]
This is true. Have any universities had craft beer. Cork Brew beer and serve it at the Franciscan well festivals. Do they sell it on campus. How about the brewing courses in the UK presumably some of them sell to the student population?

Interestly I've had a request from The Dutch Society in UCD for someone to come give them a demonstration on how to brew beer.

"a_friend_in_mead":45ozplw4 wrote: I'd say both are only closed temperarily. But neither have a due back date yet. And there was a time when running the sole bar on UCD campus at the start of term would be such a money spinner you would never let the doors close.[/quote:45ozplw4]
That could be as much to do with who is running it. It's not a business man/woman. Whoever they are they are probably salaried by UCD, and their salary is not based on bar earnings.

"a_friend_in_mead":1rhvecvc wrote: Cork Brew beer and serve it at the Franciscan well festivals. Do they sell it on campus.[/quote:1rhvecvc]
They do not serve it on campus, in fact most of the student population doesn't know that the brewery exists.
On a recent tour of the brewery I took it was almost imposable to find and no one we asked knew where it was.

Personally I do think culture is changing away from the pub. If a pub doesn't give you what you want why go there?
I would rather have a homebrew or two at home or a bottle of craft beer than visit a pub with nothing interesting on offer, maybe the students are coping on!