Katrin Dreyer-Gibney and Aisha Bello-Dambatta
Earlier this year the Dŵr Uisce Research Team visited a traditional Irish Pub in Ireland, Gibney’s of Malahide. The purpose of the visit was to assess its water and energy savings potential and make recommendations how both could be improved.
Gibney’s is traditional Irish Pub which was established by the Gibney Family in 1937 and is still run by the family in its 5th generation. The pub is situated in the picturesque seaside town Malahide, about 15 km outside Dublin. However, the premises is much older and dates back to about 1870. Over the years the Gibney Family added extensions to the initial building, renovating, and upgrading facilities, at the same time as striving to implement energy, water, and cost savings measures such as solar panels, sponsored by a beer company.
Gibney’s of Malahide (Photo courtesy of Gibney’s of Malahide)
The Gibney Family (Photo courtesy of Gibney’s of Malahide)
Site visit: Dwr Uisce team members and Barry Gibney visiting the premises (From left Isabel Schestak, Barry Gibney, Aisha Bello-Dambatta and Katrin Dreyer- Gibney; Prof Paul Coughlan in the background).
The Dŵr Uisce team was met by Barry Gibney, the owner and managing director of the Pub. After some light refreshments the team had the opportunity to visit the bars, lounges event spaces, kitchen, cold room, and washroom facilities. The journey through the pub was very enjoyable, as Barry stopped at many occasions to highlight the pub’s rich historic peculiarities such as a wishing well, and explained the sporting memorabilia decorating the pub’s walls, mentioning also the famous Irish bands that started with “gigs” in Gibney’s.
Barry Gibney says: “We are always looking for opportunities to save water and energy and are delighted to be involved with the team from Trinity and Bangor University. We are looking forward to our future work together”.
True to their mission, the Dŵr Uisce researchers spent time to audit all water fittings and appliances as well as review the pub’s energy consumption. The Dŵr Uisce team were very encouraged to see the pub’s water and energy performance, even without a water and energy management plan in place. Much appears to be done in terms of maintaining water using appliances and fittings, with acceptable range of flow rates and hot tap temperatures.
Paul Coughlan, from the Dŵr Uisce team, adds: “Gibney’s of Malahide is an exceptional pub and a local landmark with an enviable history. Through its engagement with Dŵr Uisce, Barry and his team are looking to the future and taking active responsibility for their contribution to the environment”.
We are very excited to be working with Gibney’s and see this partnership as an opportunity to support the pub industry in reducing their water and energy resource use, improve their carbon footprint, and reduce costs in the process. Gibney’s is an interesting pub to begin working with because of the age and history of the building and the sheer scale of the operation. We think this will be an interesting case study to demonstrate the potential of water-related energy efficiency in helping Irish pub’s to take climate action through water use efficient and reduce their operational costs at the same time.