FURTHERMORE
By Gerry Moran
The sum of €5.60. That’s the price of my pint in my local. My ‘poison’ is a pint of Rockshore Lager. If I head out the door, walk twenty yards to my left that pint will cost me €6.10. Should I head up town, about half way up High Street, that pint will cost me €6.60. Should I motor on as far as The Parade that same pint will cost me the princely sum of €6.70. The same of €5.60 versus €6.70 is bit of a difference – a difference that will lighten your pocket considerably should you be on the town with a few pals and imbibing in that neck of the woods.
Anyway, I mentioned the difference in the price of my pint to my drinking buddies (in my local, of course) who were not short of advice but lacking in sympathy regarding my ‘plight’, my ‘price plight’. “Gerry,” came the first salvo, ‘Don’t be walking up town, stay sitting on that stool and buy the missus a bit of jewellery with the money you save.” Then, “Didn’t know you were short of a few bob, Gerry. Should we have a whip round for you when wandering up town?” And finally: ‘I strongly recommend that you give up the drink, Ger.”
To which I rapidly (for once) replied: “And deprive myself of your erudite, acerbic, caustic company?” They laughed (or was it a snigger?). And it was while I was cogitating about the price of a pint and how it varies from pub to pub that I remembered a poster that hung in the Club House Hotel many, many years ago. The poster charted the price of a pint (Guinness) from 1900 up to 1995 and I wanted to get a copy of it.
I duly contacted Jim Brennan (the proprietor of the Club House, along with his son Ian) who knew exactly
what I was on about but didn’t have a copy. Jim, fair dues to him, contacted some friends, and sometime later I got a call saying there was a copy of said poster at reception in the Club House.
Here, dear readers, are the stats from that poster which puts the price of my pint of Rockshore Lager in perspective. And thanks again, Jim, I owe you one. A pint, of
course. Oh, Old Money, for those of us old enough to remember, was pounds, shillings and pence, pence being denoted by d. So, as best as I can translate, the price of a pint, 3d, in 1900 (all of 124 years ago) was the equivalent of 1p in our money. One penny for one pint! The good old days for sure.
The Price of a Pint 1900 – 1995
Old Money
April 1900, 3d – Nov. 1914, 4d
June 1916, 6d – Jan 1917, 7d
April 1917, 8d – June 1917, 9d
July 1918, 10d – Aug 1919, 9d
Jan 1920, 12d -– April 1920, 10d
May 1928, 10d – Nov 1939, 11d
Oct 1947, 14d – Mar 1948, 11d
Dec 1951, 12d – April 1952, 15d
Nov 1955, 16d – May 1957, 17d
April 1958, 18d – July 1960, 19d
Jan 1962, 20d – April 1962, 22d
Nov 1963, 23d – April 1964, 25d
May 1965, 27d – Nov 1965, 26d
Mar 1966, 29d – April 1967, 30d
April 1968, 31d – Nov 1968, 35d
May 1969, 37d – July 1969, 38d
May 1970, 39d –
New Money
1971, 17p – 1972, 18p – 1973, 19p
April 1974, 20p – Dec 1974, 23p
April 1975, 26p – Dec 1975, 27p
Jan 1976, 28p – Feb 1976, 33p
Mar 1976, 38p – April 1977, 39p
Oct 1977, 41p – July 1978, 43p
Feb 1979, 47p – July 1979, 48p
Feb 1980, 51p – March 1980, 53p
Sep 1980, 59p – Jan 1981, 60p
Feb 1981, 65p – July 1981, 75p
July 1981, 77p – Nov 1981, 84p
Feb 1982, 88p – Mar 1982, 92p
May 1982, 95p – Sep 1982, 99p
June 1989, ££1.40 – Dec 1989, £1.45
April 1990, £1.48 – Nov 1990, £1.53
Feb 1991 £1.52 – Jun 1991, £1.56
Feb 1992, £1.78 – Nov 1993, £1.83
Dec 1994, £1.88 – Nov 1995, £1.93
