CONDENSATION gathered on the front window of Dublin’s Cobblestone pub on a rainy Friday evening as patrons packed inside.
A circle of musicians played lively traditional reels on fiddles, tin whistles and concertinas, while bartenders served up golden pints of lager and creamy stout.
The scene looked mostly unchanged from decades before. The only difference? More and more of the pints being poured are alcohol free.
Nheaca Kelly, who was slinging drinks behind the bar, said that for a growing number of patrons losing the booze was now part of a normal night out.
“More people feel like they can go out, and have fun, and not get drunk,” she said.
“There was that stigma of not drinking that has kind of shifted.”
In a country where the pub has long held a near hallowed status, there has been a substantial dip in the amount of alcohol that people, particularly younger people, are drinking.
Ireland has seen a 34% drop in alcohol consumption over two decades, according to research published by Drinks Ireland, which represents the country’s alcohol industry. The shift reflects similar trends across Europe.
Alongside that, there has been an influx of new alcohol-free options.
Once relegated to the margins of menus, the beverages are now found in abundance at most bars, as people want to retain the ritual of pub drinking while avoiding some of alcohol’s worst consequences.
A new national obsession with health has seen sea swimming, sauna sessions and marathon training replace weekend-long pub sessions.
And more people are becoming aware of the impact of booze on the body.
For many, it’s about a more mindful, moderate approach to alcohol, rather than complete abstinence.
“You are still having the craic,” said Susan Kelly, 30, using an Irish slang term – pronounced “crack” – that loosely translates as a good time.
She drank with friends at Fidelity bar, a hip haunt known for craft beers, cocktails and a top-notch sound system.
On the table in front of them, three beers and one non-alcoholic beer offered a perfect representation of the country’s changing habits.
Kelly said, “You’re still getting that Friday night vibe without the Saturday morning hangover.”
Beer is still Ireland’s most popular alcoholic beverage, but sales have fallen, while non-alcoholic beer increased in market share by 150% in just five years.
25% of the population drinks non-alcoholic beer, wine or spirits, a 2025 government survey found.
Guinness, the black stout ubiquitous in Irish pubs that is also popular among younger drinkers, has had huge success with its non-alcoholic alternative, Guinness 0.
And smaller producers are getting in on the action, thanks in part to brewing innovations.
Whiplash, an independent Dublin brewery that partly owns Fidelity bar, has been brewing for a decade and in 2025 started selling its first zero-alcohol beer, the cleverly named Never Drinking Again.
It now makes up about 10% of the brewery’s production.
“We can’t make enough to meet the current demand,” said Alex Lawes, a founder of Whiplash.
Among the drinkers crowding Fidelity bar’s olive green booths on any given day, it’s nearly impossible to tell who is drinking alcohol rather than the variety of booze-free drinks that crowd the menu.
Fierce Mild, the first brewery in Ireland producing only non-alcoholic beer, uses specialised yeast that limits fermentation.
The bigger brands that dominate the market typically de-alcoholise their beer, a process where traditionally brewed beer is stripped of the alcohol created during fermentation.
Instead, Fierce Mild only produces beer that is alcohol-free from the start.
Fergal Carroll, 38, and Cathal Byrne, 38, brothers-in-law who own Fierce Mild, debuted their pale ale in 2024.
“It is getting so much better with flavour and choice, and people are not pigeonholing it into a side option,” Byrne said.
“The need for that pub culture is still there, and there’s still a love for beer, but it’s kind of redefining what that is,” Carroll added, explaining that it was “no longer about an all or nothing approach”.
That’s what Dublin’s pubgoers see as the real cultural shift: it has become more socially acceptable to alternate between alcohol-free beers and the typical brews, or to forgo the booze entirely.
At Board, a Dublin bar opened in 2023 that features alcohol-free drinks and board games, Orla Vaughan, 50, set down her Guinness 0 in front of her, as she erupted in laughter with a group of friends playing a fast-moving word game.
“The selection is amazing, and they actually taste really good,” she said of the non-alcoholic options that make up 70% of the bar’s menu.
“There’s no pressure to drink – you don’t feel like you are being the dull one in the group.”
Vaughan, whose family operated pubs in the west of Ireland for generations, said she had stopped drinking for her physical and mental well-being after her mother died.
“I grew up in a pub so it was everything,” Vaughan said of how her life revolved around drinking rituals.
With alcohol-free options, she added, “you still feel like you are part of it”. — ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times
