In 2103, I travelled to the English town of Watford to meet Tim Martin. I was making a television documentary about the influx of capital into post-crash Ireland, and JD Wetherspoon, the British pub chain that Martin had launched in 1979, had unwrapped plans to enter the Irish market. The entry of Wetherspoon was not without controversy – within hours of the announcement that year, a Facebook petition called Feck Off Wetherspoons received 2,500 likes. Publicans, meanwhile, were fretting what the arrival of the UK chain, noted for cheap food and even cheaper drinks, would mean for the market.  Martin,…

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