20 of the very best pubs in Eire: readers’ ideas | Eire holidays

Successful tip: Tin Pub, Ahakista, Co Cork

On a superb night time, the Tin Pub on the Sheep’s Head peninsula is a harmful place. The title comes from the sheets of corrugated iron holding it collectively round a concrete ground and a small picket bar that serves Murphy’s and a cocktail known as Cormac on the Seaside, named after the red-headed barman. The backyard runs right down to the ocean and a view to the hills of the Mizen. That good night time could be a few males enjoying guitars after which some singing begins, and all of a sudden it’s an early morning stroll house.
• On Fb
Ralph

Seaside Bar, Aughris, Co Sligo

An image postcard thatched Irish cottage perched on a beautiful Atlantic seashore with gorgeous views of the distant mountain ranges may sound just like the stuff of fantasy. However it exists within the Seaside Bar. Inside the unique cottage, eccentric trinkets line the partitions, from previous fishing paraphernalia to Irish cottage dioramas. This household that runs the bar and restaurant additionally runs the campsite subsequent door. However the actual draw of the Seaside Bar is its location, in west Sligo, an space steeped in historical past, with castles, holy wells and megalithic monument.
• thebeachbarsligo.com
Julie

JJ Hough’s Singing Pub, Banagher, Co Offaly

I took 5 buddies on every week’s boat journey on the River Shannon, and this was our most memorable cease. Bushes and vines develop out and in of the home windows. The wall decorations have accrued organically over three generations and vary from marketing campaign posters from the 1970s to gadgets selling now-defunct beer model Merch. On our first go to I requested the younger lad behind the bar if I may borrow his bodhrán and play with the band. He gladly obliged and performed the spoons whereas pulling pints. His aged aunt was on the piano. I’ve by no means seen a household enterprise fairly prefer it.
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Stephen Herlihy

Bridge St bar, Castlebar, Co Mayo

My cousin introduced us straight to her “locals’ native” in Castlebar shortly after we flew into Knock. On a Thursday afternoon, I wasn’t anticipating to discover a pub that may genuinely rival the very best on this planet, hidden behind an unassuming entrance door – with an acoustic music session in full movement. The decor in Bridge St bar is solely fabulous. The eye to element is unbelievable (Castlebar Comedy Membership was upstairs that night time and there was a pint holder on the mic stand!). Castlebar goals to be Eire’s gin capital and Bridge St is among the pubs in town’s gin path – we beloved it.
• bridgest.ie

Powers Thatch, Oughterard, Co Galway

This can be a fantastic pub in pleasant Oughterard, a city proper on Lough Corrib, the most important lake within the Republic and never removed from Galway. The meals is absolutely fabulous with wonderful do-it-yourself Guinness and honey bread. There’s quirky decor, stay Irish music, however better of all of the friendliest customer support the very best I’ve had anyplace ever. The owner says his employees ought to deal with you as if you happen to had been visiting your grandmother who has cooked you your favorite Sunday lunch and is overjoyed to see you. And that’s the way it was throughout each go to.
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Celia

The Quays Bar and Restaurant, Galway

On our biking tour of Eire’s west coast we fetched up within the 400-year-old Quays Bar in Galway’s vibrant Latin Quarter. It’s a hanging place, with stained glass, inlaid wooden, Gothic arches and church pews. In the course of the summer season there’s stay music seven nights every week. We caught glorious native folks band Caltra. The Quays additionally hosts the filming of Glór Tíre (a very talked-about TV nation and western expertise competitors). Pleasant, with an actual buzz and a prime notch à la carte menu, it was simply the carry that two rain-bedraggled, saddle-sore guests wanted.
• louisfitzgerald.com/quaysgalway
Kevin

South Pole Inn, Annascaul, Co Kerry

Regardless of having a glacier and a mountain named for him, Tom Crean’s most enduring legacy is unquestionably the South Pole Inn, which he opened within the early 1920s. The blue and orange pub is an ideal pitstop on a visit round Dingle, the within is roofed with maps, pictures and every kind of polar memorabilia in celebration of the three-time Antarctic explorer (with Scott and Shackleton, with whom he made the astonishing small boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia), and former landlord. Drink Expedition Ale Irish Crimson, which is made by Tom’s granddaughter Aileen. A life-sized statue of the person himself holding two husky pups stands in a park throughout the street. Although additional afield Shackleton and Scott will all the time be extra well-known, in Annascaul Crean is king.
• annascaul-village.com
Hywel

Murphy’s Bar, Brandon, Co Kerry

This conventional family-run pub sits on the finish of Brandon pier, the place the mackerel appear to leap in direction of fishermen’s hooks. The view of the bay is gorgeous and the surface tables enable guests to absorb the ocean air whereas having fun with a superbly poured pint of the black stuff. The meals menu is brief however in content material solely. Attempt the pleasant crab sandwich with a superb previous packet of Taytos. Don’t overlook your swimming wear and luxuriate in a dip within the sea earlier than your drink.
• murphysbarbrandon.com
Rita Cunha

Ned Natterjacks, Citadel Gregory, Co Kerry

On vacation on the Dingle peninsula we used to go right here for lunch and for evenings out. The pub’s title is taken from the natterjack toads discovered within the space. The inside is stone and beams, and the ambiance was terrific, with locals and guests mixing. The music and repair had been glorious. It’s not removed from the coast, with glorious walks and views of mountains. When the drummer stated the band was often called the Chippendales as a result of they seemed like furnishings, I knew we had been in the proper place.
• nednatterjacks.enterprise.web site
Anthony

Charlie’s Bar, Cork

Stay fiddlers and flute gamers appear to show up out of skinny air at Charlie’s Bar, subsequent to the waterside on Union Quay. Eire’s rogue insurgent spirit is captured in a couple of hours right here, whether or not you’re cranking up the ambiance with the pleasant locals or having a morning espresso alone with the bar employees. Guinness and native beers movement as soon as the solar units and free folks music, with conventional Irish bands on Sunday evenings, attracts a energetic crowd. The normal coal fireplace warms up the ambiance too – dancing, with linked arms, typically spills out on to the streets in summer season – simply watch out you don’t fall into the water.
• charliesbarcork.com
Nigel Cox

The Marine Bar, Pulla, Co Waterford

On the fringes of the Ring Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking space), the Marine Bar has been holding the locals watered for greater than 300 years. These days the pub is thought throughout the sunny south east for its conventional music periods, led by proprietor Christy O’Neill. Hunker down for some ballads (participation welcomed) after a day’s exertion on the wild Copper Coast or biking the superb Waterford Greenway. Friday night time hearth periods are the preferred, however there’s music all through the week. The black stuff optionally available, however extremely really helpful.
• marinebar.ie
Steve Kirby

The Conferences, Vale of Avoca, Co Wicklow

“There’s not on this vast world a valley so candy, because the vale in whose bosom the intense waters meet.” The previous folks track precisely describes the fantastic setting of The Conferences pub on the confluence of the burbling Avonmore and Beg rivers. We loved a conventional seisiún with bodhrán, whistle and fiddle, within the firm of pleasant regulars. One, seeing us scrabble our few remaining euros collectively for a bar snack, beckoned us over, opened her capacious purse and doled out ham sandwiches and bananas. “Save your cash for the Guinness,” she stated.
• themeetings.ie
Moira

The Outdated Faculty Home, Swords, County Dublin

When you’re near Dublin airport, take a look at The Outdated Faculty Home, 5 minutes away, which has nice meals and common music evenings. The place is in style with locals and all the time packed. It’s on a number of ranges and lots of small alcoves add to the cosy ambiance. The place is steeped in historical past, with the constructing courting from 1846, immediately throughout from a spherical tower courting from 512AD – all that’s left of an early Christian monastery – and a brief stroll from a Norman fort. A should for individuals on the lookout for an genuine expertise.
• theoldschoolhouse.ie
Chris Wilson

Mulligan’s, Dublin

Between Tara Avenue Dart station and the Display screen cinema on Poolbeg Avenue, this boozer is just about unchanged since James Joyce’s time. It’s the place to go to if you wish to see a conventional pub (no jukeboxes, no musak, no pool tables) that sells what may very well be the very best Guinness in Dublin (and due to this fact the world), the place the pints are stored on trays whereas going by way of the varied phases of being pulled.
• mulligans.ie
Fergal

Blakes of the Hole, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh

Earlier than I used to be sufficiently old to drink I used to be conscious that Blakes of the Hole in Enniskillen was a particular place – the crimson and black-painted entrance, gaslights dim within the excessive steamed-up home windows, chatter and laughing and the stunning odor I knew from my father’s beer at house wafting from the door. I’m gone from Enniskillen now however going again brings a go to to that slim entrance bar, the marble prime, the previous barrels behind the bar, fireplace, images and, in fact, one of many most interesting pints of Guinness in Eire. The little Victorian bar stays in a constructing now internet hosting a number of bars and restaurant and but retains its character – it’s the place for a drink for any customer to Fermanagh.
blakesofthehollow
Nigel

The Belfast Empire, Belfast

On Botanic Avenue within the college quarter, this historic bar and music corridor is on one of many predominant thoroughfares of Belfast nightlife. Its attraction lies in its authenticity, the sense of historical past and the soul of a long-loved bar that was embellished lengthy earlier than Instagram got here round. Weekly blues bands, comedy nights and sport on the large display. Native crowd and college students. No fuss, no have to shout over acoustic covers of pop songs (the plague of many Belfast bars). Pours a superb Guinness. The beneath-street-level outside space is a should in the summertime.
thebelfastempire.com
Jack

The Spirit Retailer, Dundalk, Co Louth

The Spirit Retailer at George’s Quay in Dundalk bay overlooks the mythology-steeped Cooley mountains. A 19th-century port service provider’s home lovingly restored and reopened 20 years in the past, it’s a place for dialog, characters, chess, native beers and whiskey, roaring fires, and imbibing by the harbour’s edge when the solar finally peeps by way of. To prime it off, upstairs is one among Eire’s main stay music venues, beloved by musicians and comedians alike for the sound system and the heat of the group. Sunday afternoon trad periods are legendary, as had been the late night time lock-ins with Glen Hansard of The Frames.
• spiritstore.ie
Patrick

Packies Bar, close to Lettermacaward, Co Donegal

On a leisurely amble towards Corr Level, we found an incongruous-looking place known as Packies Bar, resembling extra somebody’s house than a pub. There have been no indicators outdoors to counsel whether or not it was open, solely the solitary previous bartender’s matter of truth assertion: “Is the door open? Then I’m open.” We had been despatched to take a seat down whereas, with meticulous precision, he poured us the creamiest Guinness we’ve ever had. Merely scrumptious. We drank black nectar in his “lounge” overlooking breathtaking Gweebarra Bay. What a discover!
Martin

The Seaview Tavern, Malin Head, Co Donegal

This pub is passionately run by the Doherty household and frequented by a loyal clientele for over 30 years. A picturesque setting out and in: conventional Irish décor – now dotted with Star Wars paraphernalia after its taking pictures close by – and a surprising view over the Atlantic. It serves as a eating pub and three-star resort with affordable costs. The northernmost level in Eire is thought for drinks being so low-cost that individuals depart them behind untouched; the £15 predominant programs could seem dear, however include a stuffing vary of sides. Both for a full meal, a drink within the salon or a decadent pint in “the wee bar”, it’s actually among the finest spots within the nation.
• seaviewtavern.ie
Etienne

Dawros Bay Home, Rosbeg, Co Donegal

This have to be the pub with the very best view in Eire. It’s received a spectacular location searching over Loughros Beg Bay to the hanging Tor Mor rock. The pub’s scrumptious fare attracts on the very best of the (very) native seafood – these crab claws in your plate had been most likely within the bay that morning. In excessive summer season there’s a preferred pub quiz each Thursday night time, the place some groups have a 20-year-long rivalry. It’s a hidden gem on Eire’s Wild Atlantic Method.
• On Fb
Rose