Sir, – Large bottles are not exclusively a Waterford phenomenon. In my days as a barman in suburban Dublin (northside) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a large bottle exclusively referred to Guinness. There was no such thing as a small bottle (just a bottle). Subsequent orders usually did not require a fresh glass (a half-pint always, as other letters have explained) and therefore were frequently ordered “by the neck”. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL STAPLETON,
Clonskeagh,
Dublin 14.
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Sir, – A popular order in Waterford was for “a large bottle and a half one”. The half one was not a small bottle to accompany the large bottle of stout but was, in fact, a half-measure of whiskey. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL C O’CONNOR,
Waterford.