The Irish Pub

The Irish Pub

Surprising as it may be, it’s never easy choosing your drink in the pub. Your first few minutes inside the door are spent, arm over counter, scanning the lovely liquid and mumbling, ‘Ermmmmm. I’ll have aaaaaaaaaa...’ Don’t worry, though, because that’s all part of the fun. Will it be a glistening pint of porter with a thick head of cream just peeking over the glass or will it be a whiskey beside a peat fire with all that oaky, woody goodness charming your throat and your soul? Of course, if your visit to the pub has been preceeded by a long woodland walk, you might opt for the old reliable tummy warmer, an Irish Coffee. Choices, choices...

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Session Seeking

So you’re sitting on a stool, swishing your whiskey and watching the syrupy liquid run down the glass in little delicious rivulets. But suddenly, you’re jerked out of your daydream by a bearded fellow in an Aran sweater sitting beside you with a guitar followed by a young woman with a fiddle and an elderly man holding a flute. Within seconds, you’re front row at your first traditional music session and you didn’t even buy a ticket! Hours later as you wave goodbye and shut the pub door behind you, you say to yourself – ‘I’m not sure what just happened, but I liked it’. And whether your session occurred in a shibeen in Dingle, County Kerry or the Feakle Festival, County Clare, it is totally acceptable to dance all the way back to your hotel. In fact, that’s kind of the point!

Pub Particulars

Let’s face it, if we had the time we’d visit all the pubs in Ireland. Life, though, gets in the way and our holidays can’t last forever. So, considering that we’re not able to check out every single pub, which ones should we most definitely NOT miss? OK, deep breath – for gas-lit gorgeousness it’s Belfast’s Crown Bar Liquor Saloon; for those who like their pubs hidden in a leather-work shop it’s Dick Mack’s in Dingle; and for those who like their pubs with a little bit of literary history it’s Dublin’s Davy Byrnes. Of course, we’d also be pretty loathe to miss out on the olde-worlde charm of EJ Morrisey’s in Abbeyleix, County Laois, the warm welcome in De Barra’s in County Cork or the beautifully aged Locke Bar and Oyster House in Limerick City. All different pubs, all different styles, all different locations but, most importantly, all wonderful.

Ireland’s Liquid Legacy

Ireland’s history is one rich tapestry. Take a little look at our timeline and you’ll come across some fascinating stories, tales and characters. You might also notice how skilled we are at creating what have become some of the world’s favourite beverages. For example, you may have tasted a creamy, dreamy gulp of Guinness, but did you know that the lease on the brewery at James’ Gate in Dublin is for 9,000 years and only cost £100? And your palate may have been charmed by the honey, woody notes of a Bushmills whiskey, first distilled 400 years ago in a distillery that would eventually house allied forces during WWII. Perhaps your throat was tickled by a gulp of Smithwick’s ale originally mastered by a group of Franciscan monks in County Kilkenny?

The soft stuff

Of course, we also have beverages of the non-alcholic variety. The island of ireland has a speciality all its own, and it comes in the form of lemonade. Adults of all ages and island-wide will fondly remember red lemonade from their childhood, and they’ll likely still be familiar with it as they grow up when they ask for ‘red’ as a mixer for whiskey or vodka. In Northern Ireland, there’ll be brown lemonade as well as red. Then there’s white, naturally, which is what everyone else around the world knows well. Confused? Don’t be: we have red, brown and white lemonade over here, which means we’re probably the only island in the world where you need to specify a colour if asking for a drop of lemonade! So now you know: wherever you go and whatever you drink, your liquid refreshment will be backed up by some rather tasty history, whether centuries old, or simply in the childhood memories of locals.

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