Why can’t a pub behave more like a pub?  

The British know how it’s done. Pubs all over Britain offer you a laid-back atmosphere with a nice crowd of all ages, excellent lunches followed by drinks and an overall pleasant atmosphere in which to relax and unwind after a hectic week. At best, they might play some light background music or organise a live band. But Ryan’s Pub has to behave like a ‘hamallu’ nightclub in the early afternoon! Time and time again the owners change and the nightmare remains the same. Do they even have a permit for operating as a nightclub and playing their loud amplified bass with unknown DJs from 4pm till 11pm on a Sunday in a residential area?

For starters, it would be nice for us neighbours to enjoy one quiet day a week, without the bass booming through our walls – you know, what with Sunday being a day of rest and all that. Not to mention the queue of disorderly people and the broken glass left behind. Drivers are speeding up and down Wied Ghomor trying to find a parking space without a policeman in sight to control the traffic. Confusion and chaos on a Sunday: brilliant!

Why not create a laid-back place to eat and enjoy some quality wines and beers, with live music like a real Irish pub would do? Why not attract a more decent, laid-back crowd rather than a bunch of drunken youths who have no idea what a relaxed Sunday means? And last of all, at the very least, why not lower the volume of the terrible music? It was amusing to watch some British tourists give it a try and run out after five minutes. I think they were quick to realise that this was a full-on club scene and not a pub at all!

I hope you have your permits in place as a nightclub, Ryan’s Pub, because if you don’t we residents will continue to complain to the authorities until you start to behave like a pub and lower the music to a decent decibel level. Unleashing your “wild” Sundays on us as advertised on FB, for a quick buck is unfair. We all deserve a relaxed Sunday!

A. Agius

St Julian’s