UK chain snaps up traditional Irish pubs

One of Britain’s biggest pub landlords is taking over a string of traditional Irish pubs — and turning them into brighter, music-free, models of his famous UK chain.

The Irish pub is one of our greatest exports but a documentary to be screened tonight reveals how one is closing its door every day.

But the British pub chain JD Wetherspoons is buying up prize pubs around the country with the aim of adding 30 traditional hostelries to its books.

The chairman of Wetherspoons, Tim Martin, told the RTÉ documentary they want to put the Wetherspoons stamp on the Irish bars they are snapping up.

“Good design, slightly brighter decor than the traditional pub perhaps, no music (which is) heresy for some people, quite a broad menu, and we’ll also be trying to import some beers from around the world and try to provide a bit more choice. Hopefully that will be an attractive proposition for Irish drinkers.”

Who’s Buying Ireland? puts a face on the billionaires and speculators who have swooped in on Ireland as property prices nose-dived.

Wetherspoons — a chain of 900 pubs in Britain — has already bought up a handful of pubs in Dublin and Cork. It attempted to expand into Ireland a decade ago but rocketing property prices saw it abandon plans.

In the documentary, Mr Martin discusses changing the decor of Irish pubs. “The design of pubs is really important. We have been looking at going over to Ireland where the background level of lighting is much lower than it is our pubs.”

He said his pub chain will be hoping to be competitive in the Irish market. He said that “judging on the prices we’ve seen, we would be 10% or 20% lower all being well”.

And he said the arrival of the British chain shouldn’t be seen negatively by Irish publicans. “Wetherspoons isn’t the Roman’s fifth column to come swooping in. We’re a pub company. When a Wetherspoons pub opens up it’s not necessarily a death knell for other pubs. Often we can attract a broader range of people that use a town. “It is complex issue and we’re not trying to steal anyone’s rice bowl as they say.”

* Who’s Buying Ireland airs on RTÉ One at 9.35pm tonight.