When pubs reopen, we really will just be going for a swift one

SO, how soon do you think it will be before you will be able to have a proper pint in a pub?

- JOE O'SHEA

We’re not talking having to make a booking, arriving at the same time as your carefully vetted and limited number of family members and sitting nervously over a plate of lasagne, chips and coleslaw before your allocated 90 minutes are up and you have to run for the door.

That’s not going for a pint – that’s having a bad meal in a cross between a plague hospital and holding camp for political dissidents.

And it’s going to be about as far away from the classic Irish pub experience as you can imagine.

Nobody’s sure exactly how all of this is going to work but we are sure it’s going to be pretty tense and weird.