The local picture - Ireland;
We asked our local landlady what time the official closing was - she had to look it up, she didn't know.
In the next town last summer, an American visitor asked when the pub closed and was told 'November'.
Told this before; one beautiful summer night we were standing around the front of the the pub when the landlord came out and said, "Would you mind coming into the bar, we're closing".
In London, one music pub literally never closed; they changed the staff after each shift and kept going continuously. Fiddle player Bobby Casey went in one Friday night and didn't emerge into the daylight till the Sunday evening. Not realising how long he had been inside he looked up at the sky and said, "Isn't there a fine light to the evening".
During the Willie Clancy Music School here, a Dubliner was staying with a neighbour. After a long drinking spree he came to his lodgings and went to bed. Some time later he emerged from the front door and asked a passer-by what time it was. On being told four O-clock, he then asked "What day is it?"
Cheers,
Jim Carroll