A nursing home in Ireland has hit on a cheering way to keep up the spirits of its elderly patients — by providing its own pub. St Mary’s Hospital in County Monaghan, near the Irish border with Northern Ireland, believes ready access to a good pint may help its patients — average age 85 — actually live longer. “We would say the whole social aspect of life does extend the years — it means the patients aren’t bored to death,” Rose Mooney, assistant director of nursing told Reuters. The pub, which opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 9 p.m. and charges normal bar prices, had also led to an increase in the number of visitors, she said. Having its own bar made the hospital, which has around 140 patients, unique in Ireland, she added. The benefits are twofold; moderate beer consumption is good for you (“beer drinking has equal or perhaps more benefit than wine or spirits“), as is socializing (“Social engagement was as strong as anything we found in determining longevity. “It was stronger than things like blood pressure, cholesterol, or other measures of health”) So, either having pubs in nursing homes is going to catch on here, or I’m going to retire to Ireland.
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