COVID-19 Prohibition-style speakeasies, shebeens, lock-ins, etc.

When people make rules, other people will try to break them, often successfully. Not surprisingly, we have Prohibition era-style phenomena such as illegal drinking venues, although this time because of a prohibition of contact, not because of a prohibition of alkyhol. Inevitably, some of these incidents would be funny if they weren't potentially so serious.

To me, the interesting thing here is that the law is, in theory at least, designed to help us govern the way we live together as a society, but in a pandemic situation the need for social distancing and limiting contact, and the laws and regulations designed to bring these aims about, can feel like the worst kind of prohibition--with the law keeping us apart rather than bringing us together. It's not at all surprising that, for whatever 'reason'--'the people I meet are all safe'; 'Dominic Cummings broke the rules and was let off'; 'it's a hoax'; 'I've already had it'; 'my uncle had it and it was a mere sniffle', etc.--people will seek to overcome them. I'm convinced that some people would still be flouting the rules if a virus was confirmed to be 100% fatal.

I'm not suggesting that pub lock-ins ever went away completely following the Licensing Act 2003, which was supposed to get rid of them by liberalising licensing hours (much of which has been rolled back at Licensing Committees), but this indicates the Queen's Head that was caught here is probably not the only one doing lock-ins at the moment:

Pc Chloe Corder said through a gap in the blinds she saw “two females of large build sat at the bar, drinking.” Barrister Sarah Le Fevre, on behalf of the pub, said the women were cleaners but told the committee it could not produce CCTV evidence to prove it.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/e­astenders-pub-queens-head-licence-review­-karaoke-b153333.html

Gardaí in Ireland have been raiding shebeens (at least in counties Cork, Limerick, Meath, Kildare, and Carlow) on such a scale that you can't help but imagine there must be loads of similar set-ups in Britain:

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-an­d-law/covid-shebeens-all-set-to-pour-hun­dreds-of-pints-when-raided-1.4379950

https://www.irishpost.com/news/gardai-di­scover-fully-operational-pub-with-bar-be­er-on-tap-and-full-size-pool-table-in-ki­ldare-raid-196096

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/g­arda%C3%AD-find-15-people-in-co-kildare-­shebeen-on-new-year-s-eve-1.4448222

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2020/121­9/1185489-covid-breaches-gardai/

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/court­andcrime/arid-40193940.html

Here's a dominoes speakeasy at the back of a restaurant:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/d­ominoes-police-covid-restrictions-east-l­ondon-b651626.html

Apart from more or less permanent set-ups, there have also been major parties--although this isn't something I find nearly as interesting, here are some links from the above Standard article:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/co­vid-breach-restaurant-basement-party-bel­size-park-b632672.html
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/po­lice-new-year-illegal-rave-london-b60927­2.html
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/p­olice-london-covid-new-year-parties-b613­678.html
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/new-year­-raves-london-covid19-fines-b595286.html­

Or this:

Enforcement officers then visited the premises on Saturday 8 August at 3.04am following a noise complaint, but were declined entrance to an obvious party. However, officers witnessed about 200 people leaving the premises after the event had been closed down by the manager, Mr Yahye Ahmed.

(My emphasis.)

https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/news/east-london­-council-shuts-down-shisha-bar-flouting-­coronavirus-rules

I'm sure there are lots more like these, including in other countries.

Some of these events are perhaps worse than others:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/es­sex-church-trash-nye-b617799.html

Imagine the thinking behind coming up with the conclusion that this would be a good idea, or the portaloo company thinking that this would be a kosher event to supply loos to.

A local(ish) football club was dinged recently for having lock-ins at their ground: https://brownhillsbob.com/2020/12/09/wes­t-midlands-police-statement-illegal-lock­-in-broken-up-at-football-club-in-walsal­l/

Thanks. I suppose if the Titanic's going down, you might as well:

While [police were] attempting to cut through various padlocks the people inside starting chanting, they switched the lights and music back on and continued to defiantly party.

The Irish are still at it--another well-appointed shebeen has been raided:

https://www.kildarenow.com/news/news/604­389/latest-shebeen-raided-at-industrial-­premises-had-kegs-taps-and-bar-stools.ht­ml

Just as a slight counterpoint to Oliver's tired stereotyping of the Irish, there are some more local examples - my old Limehouse local was totally taking the piss:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/e­astenders-pub-queens-head-licence-review­-karaoke-b153333.html

There was also an Italian restaurant on Narrow Street in Lockdown 1/2 which was having some work done, so screened off an area away from the windows and ran a mini-pub. A few friends took advantage, but I didn't join them. I mean, £6 for a fucking Peroni?

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/e­astenders-pub-queens-head-licence-review­-karaoke-b153333.html

Already posted in the OP. :)

NB I also said in the OP that I'm sure there are loads in Britain, they just haven't been raided.

One issue is that the Irish have a word for this sort of thing, which I think both makes it more likely that they will be set up, and also easier to count them--the operations in London were all very different and harder to summarise.

For the record, I like Ireland and the Irish a lot.

Already posted in the OP.

Well, that'll teach me to read things properly*.

*it will not

So here we have East Londoners trying to outdo the Irish:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/co­vid-fines-walthamstow-ps49k-slapped-on-e­ast-london-rule-breakers-b918389.html

This has naturally alarmed West Londoners and now they're trying to catch up:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/p­eople-break-covid-lockdown-rules-chiswic­k-london-restaurant-b918330.html

West Londoners

Really?

Yes, it's still West London and not East Ruislip.

Now it's Central Londoners' turn:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/so­ho-police-party-lockdown-rented-online-f­lat-b918793.html

East Ruislip.

How could you?

Hehe.

Took you a while. :)

I missed this one in Westport, Co. Mayo:

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/gard­ai-raid-mayo-shebeen-with-draught-beer-a­nd-stout-on-tap-1059504.html

Four that I can see on-line that the Gardaí have recently busted in Ireland:

Edenderry, Co. Offaly:

https://www.nova.ie/six-kegs-seized-by-g­ardai-in-edenderry-shebeen-raid-197997/

Monkstown, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin:

https://www.independent.ie/news/gardai-r­aid-suspected-shebeen-in-south-dublin-40­205499.html

Limerick, Co. Limerick:

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/gard­ai-raid-suspected-shebeen-in-limerick-10­99693.html

Loch Gowna, Co. Cavan:

https://www.sundayworld.com/crime/irish-­crime/number-of-people-to-receive-fines-­after-gardai-raid-shebeen-in-loch-gowna-­cavan-40186758.html

It’s a human condition not linked to any one nation. Here we can drink in a restaurant but bars are closed so there are almost daily raids like this:

https://www.dimsumdaily.hk/31-arrested-i­n-unlicensed-bar-in-kwun-tong/

(FYI a Wetherspoons would be a restaurant here because it serves food. There’s no requirement to buy food, you get given a menu to make it look like you are still deciding despite being three pints in)

Oh, sure, as I said above, there are probably loads in the UK that have remained undiscovered because there's so little enforcement. The frequency of posting of Irish incidences is just because they have the word 'shebeen', which is easily searched for.