Nightlife isn’t just about pubs and clubs – retail, arts and culture can reap the rewards of late opening too

Even before Covid came for their business, pubs had been closing at the rate of more than two a week.

Figures from the Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) showed there were 1,477 fewer pubs in Ireland in 2018 than in 2005, a 17.1pc drop.

In those years between 2005 and 2018, 1,535 or nearly 20pc of rural pubs closed, forced to close their doors because of the last recession.

Post Covid, we are staying at home more, for all sorts of reasons. The price of everything is one, including property (also, the spaces that once made perfect clubs are being snapped up by developers). In fact, if you think about the price you usually pay for a pint and if you’d invested that money over the past two decades instead, you could definitely be living in three-bedroomed splendour in the commuter belt by now.

A clean-living generation of young people has also had an effect. Among 16- to 44-year-olds, frequent drinking has fallen by as much as two-thirds since 2005. Then there’s Netflix, Deliveroo and Tinder providing endless fun on demand, so there’s less need than ever to leave the house.

I’m excited that a pilot programme will see ‘night-time advisers’ sent out to six towns and cities over the summer to help promote evening events and report back to Arts Minister Catherine Martin. There is also major work being done by Justice Minister Helen McEntee’s department on a massive overhaul of our drink laws.

It seems we might finally be able to visit DJ sets in iconic cultural institutions like the National Concert Hall. And afterwards dance in a nightclub until dawn. This is a chance to open the night up for all of us.

What happens after dark is no less important than what happens in the daytime. We need to attract as many people as possible out after dark.

An important part of that is the traditional after-work culture of going out for a drink. Or better still, drinks followed by dinner followed by more drinks. Think of it as helping the economy. At least that’s how I’ve justified my eating and drinking habits since the onset of this plague.

But it shouldn’t be all about the drink either. That’s a very narrow view of nightlife. The night-time economy should mean more than kilt-wearing Scots on stags stumbling around Temple Bar.

This is an opportunity to expand businesses and activities that can thrive at night. That doesn’t mean that drinking places and clubs have to shut down either; it just means we can diversify the offer that people have at night. It’s not about limiting things – it should be about seeing what else we can make happen.

You walk down Grafton Street, arguably Ireland’s most famous retail street, at 8pm, and it’s dead. Every shop is shuttered. Why aren’t some of the larger shops turning their ground floors into pop-up eateries? If we’re going to get serious about this, there’s huge potential to do things in a creative and interesting way.

On the annual Culture Night our big institutions buzz like no other night. But why does this only happen once a year? All of our museums and galleries open only during working hours, and our towns and cities are suffering for it. Governments have tried to democratise access to museums through free entry. But they haven’t thought about our time constraints. They open only when we are at work and then are dormant for two-thirds of the time. Open the galleries late and show that seeing art can be a good night out.

I’ve always been sceptical about trying to import a cafe culture to soggy Ireland, and it can be a sad sight to see people determinedly trying to pretend they are enjoying themselves on the wet and dirty strips of footpath outside restaurants at the moment.

It’s impossible to realise your vision of elegant European cafe culture when the wind has blown away your starter and you’re wishing you’d worn your rain jacket. Our blustery island doesn’t suit outdoor dining. Please make it stop and realise that dinner is best served under a solid roof.

Open more events and activities up and retail will follow naturally. Think about what extending shop opening hours would do for the economy and lead to considerable financial gain for a struggling retail sector.

With creative investment and collaboration, it should be possible to open up the evening and night-time economy to even more of us with late-night shopping, galleries, children’s activities and sports activities to bring more of us out after dark.

But our cities and towns will come into their own only when we all acknowledge that “nightlife” can mean more than heading to the pub.