Sup at the craic of dawn

Night shift workers & retirees ready for tipple | Boss says mornings 'great craic' & no issues

- DANNY DE VAAL

BOOZERS were having the craic at the crack of dawn in one of Ireland's last remaining early pubs which still serves from 7am when the Irish Mirror visited yesterday.

We headed to Molloy's on Talbot Street, Dublin, where punters enjoying a tipple shortly after sunrise.

Manager Agata Kot, who has worked in the city centre watering hole for eight years, says she has become close with the regulars and said they're now like her family.

She also wanted to dispel the myth that everybody who has pints in the morning is an alcoholic - saying they have customers who pull up a bar stool at 7am who have just finished a night shift and it was their "evening".

She told us: "It's great craic, you can learn a lot from the customers. Everybody should come into an early house at least once.

"The staff enjoy being behind the bar and the customers enjoy the pints.

"After so many years, you're so close with the regulars and you treat them like a family.

ATMOSPHERE

"Like all pubs, we're watching who's coming in. We don't want any trouble.

There's a nice atmosphere." Her colleague Derek McDonnell added: "It's a fantastic place to work.

I've been introduced to some very interesting characters over the years.

"You think 'How is this going to work?', 'Are we going to get lots of people on roll-overs', 'Is it going to be messy?' "What you typically get is shift workers or people who are retired who might have worked night shifts whose system might just be set to that.

"This is their evening time, they've done a full 10-hour or 12-hour shift.

They'll arrive at 7- 7.30am and have a couple of drinks and go home.