Irish pubs - a global numbers game

More or Less: Behind the Stats

BBC

Business, Mathematics, Science, News Commentary, News

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 31 December 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's possible that the question we focus on in this week's programme occurred to you as you were sipping on an Irish Coffee in Bubbles O'Leary's in Kampala, Uganda: Where can the most Irish pubs be found - in Ireland? Or in all other countries combined? The popularity and sheer ubiquity of Irish pubs is a thing to behold. In 2015, the Irish Pubs Global Federation said there was approximately 6500 Irish pubs doing business outside the Emerald Isle - and our own research tells us there's at least one Irish bar in more than 160 of the world's 195 countries. But what is the secret, the recipe for global success? And can the More or Less team track down a definite number, thus answering the question some of you will have pondered whilst settling into a firelit Irish bar on a scorching hot day in rural Hawaii.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The dark is rising from the BBC World Service.
0:03.6	The powers of the dark are reaching out now steadily and stealthily all over this world.
0:09.9	Find out more at the end of this podcast.
0:18.2	Hello, welcome and many thanks for downloading the More or Less podcast with me Paul Carly.
0:24.3	Each week we set about trying to make sense of, for this case, peace together, numbers in the news or elsewhere in everyday life.
0:32.2	Now, have a listen to this.
0:38.0	What you're hearing is the youthily, the soothing sounds of an Irish pub at wintertime.
0:44.5	I'm in the cottage bar in Letter Kenny, Doney Gold in the northwest of Ireland.
0:49.2	And despite much might think, I have a perfectly good reason for being here.
0:54.5	Loyal listener James Olsen has a question.
0:57.9	My German wife and I met while abroad and in many cities we travelled through,
1:02.0	Irish pubs are a main feature of the town.
1:04.5	We now live in Bonn and we have at least five Irish pubs in a city of about 300,000.
1:10.0	So the question was born.
1:11.3	Are there more pubs in Ireland or Irish pubs in the rest of the world combined?
1:15.8	Hope you can help. Thank you.
1:18.0	So James, let's first lay some ground rules.
1:20.4	What does a pub need to be or do if it's to be justified in branding itself as a bonafide Irish pub?
1:27.4	Is it enough to have a Guinness untapped and lazily hung tricolor around the wall?
1:32.0	Or does it have to play traditional Irish tunes from dust till dawn?
1:35.7	And I've shamrocks, harps and virulent leprechauns plastered on everything from napkins to uridal selves.
1:41.8	So I've seen the most fantastic Irish pubs that experience the most.
	...

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