The Bishopstown Bar in Cork has courted controversy once again by offering the Leaving Cert students in its area an opportunity to ‘study’ in it’s premises.
“The B-town” as it’s known to locals has attempted to cash in on todays teachers strike by luring the impressionable adolescents in with a nice fry-up and the promise of a lovely fuckin’ pint.
In the past the bar has shamelessly advertised it’s opening hours on Leaving Cert results day, under the misapprehension that students binge drink on the day they finish their exams.
A few years ago the bar was famously banned from opening its doors on CIT Christmas day.
The seminal college event, which traditionally fell on the last Friday of November, was often a raucous day for all of Cork City. With students setting their alarms as early as 7:30am to indulge in a marathon day of badly cooked turkey and vodka, the B-Town was the main hub of delinquency from noon onwards.
The Gardai were eventually forced to intervene and take the bars licence away for CIT Christmas Day in subsequent years.
Despite this, the tradition continued in an unofficial capacity, with the debauchery and law-breaking subsequently spilled over onto the streets.
After numerous complaints about glass-breaking, bin-tipping, cat-snatching and overly-zealous displays of affection in public places (shagging), the B-Town bar was given its licence back for the day as a sort of temporary mental asylum.
This latest attempt by the B-Town bar to generate business from students fondness of binge drinking has gone down like a copper balloon, but what the fuck would they do otherwise?