It feels like forever since we last had a pint in a pub.

We’ve taken to staring longingly at the locked doors of our favourite watering holes on our daily 5km walks around the city, trying to remember a time when you could casually drop in for a drink and a chat, without making a reservation or ordering a ‘substantial meal’.

With another nine weeks of Level 5 restrictions likely, it’ll be a while yet before we can snuggle down in a snug or take a table in a busy beer garden, but one well-known Cork personality has come up with an upbeat plan to while away the long weeks ahead.

Novelist, playwright, filmmaker and Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at UCC Conal Creedon (and his trusty, if notoriously thrifty, canine companion ‘Dogeen’) are putting the price of a pint on weekly layaway until things return to some sort of normality.

“Here’s My Plan – #keepingitpositive,” Creedon tweeted.

“I’m gonna put a fiver into the inside pocket of my good coat every Friday for the next 9 weeks. Then come that Friday in May – Me and Dogeen are gonna go on a massive scove and blow the lot.”

Sounds like a plan to us.

The Humble Tea-timer.
Ah yes, I guess it’s only true to say that some miss the pubs more than others … pic.twitter.com/lP7AEiuZxU

— Conal Creedon (@ConalCreedon) February 1, 2021

In the meantime you can check out Conal Creedon’s reading of a Second City Trilogy as part of The Everyman’s Made in Cork: Play It by Ear Rehearsed Readings, a collection of nine rehearsed readings with a distinctly Cork flavour, set to be released in March.