A publican yesterday warned bars might be reduced to selling warm, bottled beer by candlelight if feared blackouts hit swathes of the country.
Pub boss TJ McInerney was responding to power outage warnings from Ireland’s State-owned energy operator Eirgrid and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar. TJ, 45, told the Irish Mirror: “No power means lights out, no pints on draught, no ice, no kettle, no till.
“But I’ll make sure my customers can have a bottle of beer, a warm fire and good company this winter." TJ captured the mood of thousands of people across Ireland in 2020 when he emotionally appealed on TV for the Government to reopen pubs.
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He said yesterday: “They’ve been constantly telling us to go electric, to trust them to charge our cars – yet they are telling us now that they might not have enough electricity to power a lightbulb. It’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest leadership. It’s bleak, it’s like the 1980s and they have us in a time warp.”
Eirgrid, the State-owned electric operator of energy power in Ireland, yesterday warned in its annual Generation Capacity Statement that blackouts and outages are a threat for the next decade. Chief executive Mark Foley said it will be a “tight” winter ahead.”
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said: “Nobody wants to rule out [blackouts], but the likelihood of it is very low.” It follows last month’s Government authorisation for councils to turn off Christmas lights to save power for the national grid.
TJ responded: “It sounds so bleak that it feels like a Noah’s Ark situation. What are pubs going to do in a blackout?
“I don’t have a generator and most pubs don’t. They’re too dear at around €12,000 and they’re very complicated – it’s not like switching on the kettle.
“They’re not the solution. The main thing in pubs with electricity loss is lights out, tills down, no card readers and refrigeration loss, so no cold pints.
“No draught beer, no ice, bottles would be out of a warm fridge. Do they realise how bleak it could be in small towns and villages all across Ireland? We don’t all live in Dublin.
“But the pubs will be open because the show must go on. We’ll have the open fire lit, the chat will flow, and we’ll all be warm.”
TJ, whose award-winning TJ Mac’s bar in Mullinahone was recently named Best Local Pub in the South-West Region, said he fears street protests.
He said: “People are tolerating this madness for now, but it’s unbelievable to me, honest to God. They are going to be seriously unhappy. We have endured so much. I see an angry Irish public mob on the streets.
“We are asking the Government to Give us a bit of Christmas cheer. We need light in our lives. They can’t take Christmas from the children.”
He added: “The Government is saying that they might not have enough to power light bulbs – but they’ve been saying all along that we should go EV. I’m telling them that the solid fuel fire may be the only source of heat that many people have over the coming months.
“My electricity bill has gone up from €1,600 every two months to €4,100. Yes, Budget measures will help me with 40% of the difference, but the Government must stop scaring people.
“As well as financial help, we need positivity, but their messages are negative. They said in September that we may not be able to afford to turn on Christmas lights and now they’re on about national blackouts.
“Talk of this is killing people’s hopes.”
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