ThoughIrish pubshave been exportedaround the world , one very traditional Irish drinking concept is harder to discover in New pubs : the snug . Prior to the sixties , Ireland ’s drinking establishments were almost exclusively the orbit of gentleman , and no hefty cleaning woman could or would be seen salute inside . It was n’t a law of nature , but it was the reign societal formula , and many bars would n’t permit adult female in . But that does n’t stand for that Irish char never drank . They just did it in a slightly less conspicuous way : inside a little , screened - off way attach to the streak called the snug .
In worldwide , Irish charwoman largely drank at plate , dispatching someone else ( often , their boy ) to bring back a jug of porter . Some even sit down outside pubs waiting for their menfolk to come back out . But inside many Irish pub of the 19th and other twentieth century , there would be a snug where women — and anyone else who did n’t need to be seen having a sapidity — could relish their pints privately . The snugs—“confession boxes we ’d call them , " a pub even callback in Kevin C. Kearns’sDublin Pub Life and Lore — An Oral History of Dublin ’s Traditional Irish Pubs — would have a small windowpane for barkeeper to excrete drink through , so no one could see the patron order . They also had locks so that they could n’t be unfold from the exterior , giving whoever was inside almost total privacy .
Fans of the BBC’sPeaky Blindersmight be intimate with the concept — the Shelby gang holds meetings in the Garrison Pub ’s cubby , where they can roll and manage out of public view . They were , however , one of the few public places that women could have a drink . In many bars , it was more expensive to corrupt a drink inside a cubbyhole , but for some , the seclusion was worth it .
A snuggery in a historical Dublin bar . Image credit entry : Ryans of Parkgate Street viaFacebook
When the Irish police force , the Garda Síochána , was found in 1922 , a large portion of police officer were teetotalist . " More than half the officers belonged to the Pioneers of the Sacred Heart , a total temperance organization , " as Irish journalist Cian Molloy writes in his 2003 historyThe Story of the Irish Pub . " Such was the emphasis placed on sobriety among Ireland ’s new police force after independency that from 1926 onwards , disciplinary action could be take against any ship’s officer who ' while on or off obligation , prove the final result of consume intoxicating liquor , the little departure from strict sobriety . ' " The Garda might be able to sneak into a snuggery , though .
During the War of Irish Independence in Ireland , theBlack and Tans(the UK police force oppose the Irish Republican Army ) could n’t be serve in Dublin ’s pothouse . As one Dubliner recalled to Kearns in his oral account , " the pubs would n’t serve them in their uniform … they might be able to slide into a snuggery privately , dressed as if they were going to the theater or all that . "
Men of the cloth , too , often frequented snug . InDublin Pub Life and Lore , Dubliner John Preston remembers that Father " Flash " Kavanagh , a local priest , was so warm of his drink that he ’d rush along through deal to get to the public house when it opened : " You ’d see him in there with his red vestment and he ’d go in right through the bar to a little back cubby there … that was his berth . "
However , not all close activities were so ill-affected . " The snuggery also play another societal role , " Molloy write . " It was the place where the matchmaker was found . The matchmaker was commonly a trusted old gentleman’s gentleman who would discretely arrange married couple between the sons and daughters of local Fannie Merritt Farmer and workshop keepers . "
Up until the 1960s and 1970s , women were mostly not seen drink in in a public tavern . Even women whoownedbars were n’t bully on having a female mien there . Mary Hyland , a ginmill possessor in the Irish Greenwich Village of Ballacolla who died in 1996 , did n’t approve of women drinking in her saloon even when it became more prosaic . Her nephew , who took over the measure when Mary was in her 80 , says she would n’t serve women at all until her late year . " A few years before her death [ at 83 ] , when two women walked in and consistent pints , her reaction was ' What is the world coming to ? ' " he tell Molloy .
But over clock time , as it became more socially acceptable for women to lead to the measure for a dry pint , snugsbegan to disappear . bar modernized by adding classier lounges where citizenry of both sexes could acceptably order drinks . During the course of those saloon renovations , manysnugsdisappeared . In an email to mental_floss , Molloy theorizes that " snugsstarted to disappear because they took up quite a act of way — they were attached to the end of a prevention , with only those in the snug having memory access to that end of the counter . Ged rid of the snug and more people can get to the bar . "
you’re able to still find snug in some historic barroom , though . Belfast’sCrown Bar , a historic landmark that opened in the early nineteenth century , has multiple . As doesRyan ’s of Parkgate Street , a Dublin pub dating back to 1886 . And there areseveralpubsacross the worldnamedThe Snug , though not all of them actually have individual snugs . On the bright side , womanhood do n’t have to interest about being seen drinking in populace anymore , so few of us need a snug , anyway .
