Saint Patrick's Day: Adelaide's Irish pub culture changing as trends, taxes take over
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According to Brecknock Hotel regular Eddie Carroll, it seemed "everybody wanted to be Irish" in 1990s Adelaide.
Irish-themed bars were springing up across the city and the hotel's St Patrick's Day street party drew tens of thousands of people to Gilbert Street on March 17 annually.
But move forward to 2017 and the street party has become a legend of memories.
Most of the Brecknock Hotel has become a Chinese restaurant and the number of Irish-themed bars across Adelaide has declined.
Those that remain, including the hotel's Corner Bar, will be packed full of people this Friday for St Patrick's Day.
But outside the annual celebration, Irish pub culture appears to be in decline, with changing trends and increasing taxes on pub beer to blame.
Irish pub explosion attributed to 'Riverdance'
Mr Carroll, who has been drinking at the Brecknock for 30 years, attributed the worldwide success of Dublin's 1995 hit theatrical production, Riverdance, for the "trend" of Irish culture.
"That was when all the pubs changed their name. The Norwood became Finn McCool's, the Circuit became PJ O'Brien's — before that it was the East End Hotel — and the James Craig became Mick O'Shea's," he said.
"It was a lovely thing. Everybody wanted to be Irish."
Those Irish pubs remain, as does the centre point for traditional St Patrick's Day celebrations in Adelaide, The Irish Club.
But further afield, the once-popular Shenanigans Irish Pub at Marion Shopping Centre has long since disappeared and the Daniel O'Connell has recently reverted to its former name, The North Adelaide Hotel.
Australian Hotels Association SA general manager Ian Horne said fads came and went and Adelaide was experiencing an upswing in craft beers and micro brewers.
"It reflects the fact that a new generation of consumers have come through, brought up in a different set of experiences, and they are predominantly driven by social media now," he said.
"Whereas, perhaps 20 or 30 years ago, it was driven by what was in the movies, or in magazines, or on TV.
"And there's only so many themed hotels you can have."
Guinness a driving force behind Irish-themed bars
Guinness Appreciation Society life and founding member Malachy O'Reilly said the staple drink of the Irish-themed pub, Guinness, had a long history of clever marketing and was itself behind the boon in Irish-themed bars worldwide.
"In 1997 to 1998 ... Guinness were pushing to try and have 2,000 Irish-themed pubs opened worldwide by the year 2000," he said.
"It was being pushed and marketed significantly well and Adelaide had its fair share.
"It's probably dropped off, but I imagine alcohol consumption in general has dropped off in the last 17 years too, because of the smoking rules and the drink-driver laws."
He said the increasing price of alcohol in pubs and clubs had also negatively affected patronage.
The price of Guinness — like all beers — goes up every six months due to the Federal Government's increasing excise on alcohol.
"And even though it's brewed at the West End brewery they sell it at imported special beer prices," Mr O'Reilly said.
"There's some places that charge $10.50 for a pint. It's ridiculous."
Mr Horne said statistics revealed 80 per cent of alcohol in Australia was now consumed away from licensed premises and it was a problem for the hotel industry.
"The reality is, the cost of drinking in a restaurant or bar or club is significantly higher per standard drink than it is going to a packaged liquor outlet and taking it somewhere else," he said.
"On-premise sales is where all the costs are in employment.
"You need somebody physically standing there all the time, and the busier you get the more people you need. In a bottle shop, you only need a cash register and one person, generally speaking."
A 'sad' affair when Guinness no longer served
Mr Horne said the Guinness brand itself was being challenged with new beers in the same way traditional Australian beers were challenged back in the 80s and 90s.
"It is now faced with a multitude of other brands and beer tastes, and many of those will fail, but in the meantime, they pick up a slice of the action," he said.
"However, I say Guinness probably emotionally holds a place in most beer-drinkers' hearts, because of the Irish connection, the history of it, kissing the Blarney Stone, and St Patrick, and all those wonderful things we associate with Irish culture.
"You would hate to think that they would rebadge themselves to make it more trendy or whatever, because then it would cease to be the iconic Guinness."
But Mile End Hotel bartender Nicole Donnelly, a permanent resident who arrived from Ireland three-and-a-half years ago, said people who acquired a taste for Guinness drank it all-year round, as if "there was nothing else".
The hotel in Adelaide's inner-west took Guinness off tap late last year, but has brought to it back in time for St Patrick's Day on Friday — when Irish-themed pubs across the city are expecting large crowds.
Ms Donnelly said people would come to the hotel thinking it was on tap "and they would be devastated".
"You would try and give them an alternative, like we do have other great stouts here, and they're like no, we came for the Guinness, and off they go," she said.
"It's kind of sad."
Topics: popular-culture, community-and-society, alcohol, adelaide-5000, sa
