The dispute that arose when JJ Hough’s Singing Pub in Banagher shared a picture of its first fire of the season has generated 2,400 likes and shares, while one Offaly entrepreneur printed t-shirts of the pub’s final colourful response..
The pub’s response defended its traditional method of heating, questioning the environmental implications of international travel and highlighting the importance of turf in local culture and history.
The pub recently posted a picture on its Facebook page of two local men warming their hands with the message “first fire of the season”.
The post prompted a response from Adrian Caulfield’s online tourist information centre Working Holiday Ireland, “I see you’re burning turf. Carbon footprint guys.”
The Offaly pub took great exception to the criticism of the fire, and their response has been widely shared: “It’s how we heat the pub. Looking at your page you rely on tourists from abroad coming to Ireland, correct? How do they get here? They hardly swam. Maybe think before criticising a small family run pub’s turf fire.”
Irish Independent columnist Ian O’Doherty wrote: Lighting a turf fire in a pub won’t destroy the planet, so save your guilt-tripping for the big boys.
JJ Hough’s Singing Pub in Main Street, Banagher, is one of the county’s oldest and most cherished pubs, and was established over 250 years ago. Bord Na Móna has now stopped production, but JJ Hough’s staff still cuts their own turf, letting the wind dry it, before bringing it back on the tractor.
