| |
| |
| |
Talking footballYou'd better let them.... |
For Ireland in the 2002 World Cup, the early local hours of the games created some difficulties.
Some of the games started at 12:30 in the afternoon, which made for some long drinking days. I was probably fortunate to be working then. Some of the games started at 7:30 in the morning, and that was well out of my league.
But to many Irish people, this earlier time was simply in conflict with the long tradition of watching a match in one's pub. Specifically, there was a legal predicament.
Pubs in Ireland are allowed to open at 10:30 a.m., and no sooner.
On the first of June, Ireland would be meeting Cameroon, at 7:30. What would a people do?
The Irish came up with a brilliant idea — they found an existing arcane law, and interpreted it correctly.
|
"We were dreading having to watch the match at home; it's just not the same." —a delighted fan, Daily Mirror. |
In this case, they found that a pub could be allowed to sell alcohol from 7:30 in the morning — but not for consumption on the premises. It would simply be up to the customer to leave the pub — and what? I don't know. The interpretation worked, up to that point, and so I think they just left it at that.
|
"Technically, outside normal hours, they must keep the shutters down.... "This [exception] is thanks to a little-known law which only a handful of people know about.... "A second existing law will allow all the pubs to serve drinks off the premises from 7:30 a.m." — "A source," from Daily Mirror |
So, the patrons ate soup and sandwiches and purchased beer to bring off the premises, with the pubs shuttered and the match showing on the television inside.
Ireland and Cameroon drew 1-1.
(Ireland did well in the World Cup, rising to the quarter-finals without their captain, who'd had a last-minute row with the manager [coach] and had gone home to Cork.)