Have you ever thought of becoming a bartender? Making drinks, meeting new people, hearing interesting stories, and making good money sounds like a dream job. Join UC Santa Cruz students, Jessica, Jordan, Amm, and Kat as we talk to Luke McNamara, a bartender at John Benny’s Pub in Dingle, Ireland, about what it’s really like behind the bar.

Guilt of the Guinness

Transcript:

[music]

Jessica: Welcome to Dingle, a small town in the southwest corner of Ireland and home to over 50 pubs. We’re here for five weeks as part of the UC Santa Cruz Study Abroad program. Being able to go into pubs for the first time raised some questions on what it’s really like to be a bartender and encouraged us to explore the intricacies of life on the other side of the bar.

Kat: This is Jessica, Jordan, Am, and Kat, and we’re here to give it to you neat on what it’s like to be a bartender in one of the most notorious tourist destinations in Ireland. Welcome to the podcast Guilt of the Guinness.

Jordan: John Benny’s pub is located across from the Dingle Pier. Its exterior is painted a deep royal blue with three large windows above the shaded outdoor seating area. Walking through the bright orange front door, you’re greeted by the host, Ben, who points you into the direction of the bar. Sitting at the tall seats, you see dozens of alcohol bottles, dollar bills, and police badges taped onto the back wall of the bar.

Kat: Imagine a bustling room full of chatter and live music as you sip on your favorite drink to ease you into comfort. That’s exactly what a typical night at John Benny’s Pub is like, if you’re on the customer’s side.

Amm: Bartenders perform a graceful dance in constant motion as their quick hands appear to work independently, making your favorite drink while they give advice, tell stories and lend an ear. Have you ever thought you could be a bartender?

Luke: This is good fun while it lasts, but, you know, this isn’t forever.

Jessica: Meet Luke McNamara, a bartender at John Benny’s. He dresses like your typical 20 something year old, with straight cut jeans, a black polo tee, and his accessory, an ice latte. His eyes narrow as his smile widens, which happens quite often as he’s always cracking jokes. His brown hair lays flat against his forehead, from the sweat droplets as he rhythmically dashes from one side of the bar to the next, filling pines with Guinness, ringing up bills, and chatting with the old guy at the end of the bar about the soccer game.

Luke: My name is Luke McNamara. I’m a student and bartender.

Jordan: Luke has been bartending for six years, but his bartending career started before he could even legally drink.

Luke: I was stuck for cash when I was about 15. So I went down to my local pub and said, can I have a job? And they said, yes. So I started 15, just changing kegs, collecting glasses, running the food, doing the odd drink here and there.And I really shouldn’t have been.

Amm: Bartending entails much more than we originally thought.

Kat: Luke, could you describe what the job looks like for you?

Luke: You have to make drinks, serve drinks, you have to do it quickly. And you have to be able to talk to people. On a day to day basis, there’s at least 300 people coming over to our job at least. And I’d speak to 200 of them, even if it’s just hello. So after a summer, let’s say that’s what, a thousand people a week for ten weeks, you’ve met 10, 000 people in three months. So you have to have a base level of knowledge on pretty much everything. Okay. to hold at least a 30 second conversation whether it be about sport, politics, religion, what they had to be in a certain restaurant seven years ago.

Amm: Okay, 10, 000 people, 30 seconds each, that’s 300, 000 seconds of small talk, that’s 5, 000 minutes. Could you talk about anything for 30 seconds?

Jess: Yeah, like what if I asked you about magic mushrooms in Ireland?

Jordan: Oh my god, um, I think you’re better off asking Steve about that one.

Luke: I think bartenders as a whole tend to be chatty people, or are able to, there’s an Irish expression, the gift of the gab, where you can just talk about pretty much anything, get away with it.

Amm: Luke is currently working 55 to 65 hours a week at John Benny’s, with only one day off. Those Irish seem crazy. A typical full time work week is 40 hours. I mean, he must be exhausted.

Luke: I feel ancient, I’m 21. Lots of people think it’s a great idea, until they try and do it and the workload is just insane. And you’re never actually off work, ever. It’s more than full time.

Kat: So, it’s hard work. What about work life balance?

Luke: Trying to balance a social life and Full time job in hospitality is near nigh on impossible. So my day off is a Monday. Most people are off Saturday, Sunday. And then, let’s say people are doing stuff on a Friday night, I’m probably working until 1am. You tend to gravitate towards people in the same industry, quite often. Which you will see, a lot of people who work in one pub will hang out with people who work in a different pub, because your all hours kind of merge. It’s when you’re able to socialize.

Jess: The secret to working these long hours?

Luke: Caffeine and nicotine. I think it is just a natural stress relief. You just kind of go, and relax. And it takes you out of the environment as well. Because obviously, I can’t light up a cigarette behind the bar. But I think it becomes a habit.

Jordan: So, how do you relax once you’re off work?

Luke: You do take an hour or two to decompress. I kind of just sit at home, eat, scroll through my phone. I really don’t speak to anyone. I’ll say hello to my parents and I’ll just sit. I just kind of can’t because you spend all day speaking to people. Social battery is dead.

Kat: I don’t know how he does it. My social battery only lasts for a few hours.

Jess: Being around so many people can be draining, especially after dealing with people who’ve had a little too much to drink.

Luke: I’ve had people screaming and shouting and calling and shouting all sorts of abuse over the other side of the counter and you have to sit there and go, whatever, leave. Because you can’t be responsible for what might happen if they are beyond that point.

Jordan: So Luke, when they do get to that point, what do you do?

Luke: Cut them off straight away. And people really don’t like being told that. I had some guy try and fight me. He was just squaring up. He was like, we don’t have a bouncer where I work in England at the minute. So he’s like What are you going to do? You’re not involved, so what are you going to do about it? You know, and just, there’s no need. You just have to sit there and be calm and let it, let them get it out of their system.

Kat: Luke also shares how he’s considered walking away when he’s become too overwhelmed.

Jordan: So wait, was there ever a time you considered leaving the industry?

Luke: Oh God, yeah. I’ve, I’ve considered quite many places. I’ve never done it. I think everyone, anyone in hospitality who says they haven’t considered walking at least once is lying. They’re lying. Because some days it is just too stressful, it is just too much.

Amm: Even though the job can be strenuous, Luke keeps coming back to work.

Jess: What about this job makes him stick with it?

Luke: The money, mainly. I need to be able to afford to live.

Kat: After all these negatives, you start to wonder, are there any positives that come with bartending?

Luke: I like meeting new people, talking to everyone. I do actually like the serving, and also I do secretly enjoy it. I do enjoy the work I do, and I’m good at it now.

[Music: Bartender Blues “I’m just a bartending and I don’t like my work. But I don’t mind the money”]

Jordan: After talking with Luke and getting to know a little bit more about what he does for work Would you guys ever consider being a bartender?

Amm: I’ve considered it in the past, but now I’m not so sure I think I would do it.

Jess: As much hard work as it seems, it seems like he has a lot of fun doing it, and I think I would enjoy that.

Jordan: Yeah, for sure. He’s always talking to, like, a lot of different people, and he has a lot of cool stories, and he gets paid a lot of money, so. Yum.

Jess: What did we learn from this experience?

Jordan: Um, I learned a lot. I definitely have a greater appreciation for service workers, and, like, Since interviewing Luke, sitting at the pub, like, I just remember, like, Oh, the bartender’s a human, too. Like, I gotta treat them as a person.

Kat: Yeah, I agree. As a service worker myself, I can definitely understand where he’s coming from, and understand, like, the amount of work he does, and it just makes me more empathetic to service workers myself.

All/Kat: Thank you all for listening. This has been Jessica, Jordan, Am, and Kat on Guilt of the Guinness with Luke McNamara.

Shalanje!

[Music: Bartender Blues “I see lots of sad faces, and lots of bad cases, of folks with their backs to the wall.”]