Six of the Best Irish Pubs

Six of the best Irish pubs
From Dublin to the remote taverns of Kerry’s Atlantic coast, the Irish pub scene mixes trad with the rad
Guyan Mitra

From The Sunday Times Travel Magazine

O’Connell’s, Skryne Hill, County Meath

If you think the exterior of this pub looks familiar, it’s because Guinness liked its stunning location (high above the sea on Skryne Hill) so much that they used the pub in one of their adverts. Lush green hills tumble out towards Dublin, and the noise of the waves masks the chatter around the bar.

Regulars don’t come to O’Connell’s for the view though, or the interior design: the only furniture in its two rooms is a line of rickety wooden benches along the wall, a few stools at the bar and a battered old pool table. But Mrs O’s (as it’s known in these parts) has one of the warmest welcomes in the country.

Smiley soaks turn their heads to the door and greet every newcomer, while the elegant old landlady shuffles around the pub solicitously until she’s sure that everyone’s happy.

The only evidence that you haven’t been transported back to an older, friendlier time is the dates on the newspapers (although there’s still a few yellowing cuttings decorating the place – mostly concerning sports and the ancient Hill of Tara burial site down the road).

As the evening draws in and the stout and whiskey take hold, the banter among the locals and the landlady reaches an almighty crescendo (Mrs O shells out so many free pints to help the atmosphere along that it’s a wonder she keeps a roof over her head).

Her favourite nights, she says, are when the fiddles and bodhráns (shallow one-sided drums) take over the corner by the grate fireplace – and everyone joins in a singsong.

O’Connell’s, Skryne Hill, County Meath (00 353 46 902 5122).

The Bulman, Kinsale, County Cork

Why does a pub need its own pier? Well how else are they going to source their famous claw-cluttered trays of crustaceans?

And the exquisite seafood isn’t the only reason to moor up at The Bulman: after an afternoon spent boating around a yacht-filled harbour, where baby-blue skies blend into bottle-green briny, this solitary little watering-hole on the edge of the shore is a welcome stop-off point.

Known, incongruously, as the Monte Carlo of Ireland, the south coast town of Kinsale earns its nickname with clement weather, posh food and glamorous residents. In fact, anybody who’s achieved anything in Ireland has a palatial home here – and spends plenty of time in The Bulman.

Chris de Burgh and film director Neil Jordan can often be heard setting the world to rights under the kitsch glass lampshades that hang from the stone ceilings, in front of a backdrop of ragged stone walls and an open fireplace. But nobody gets much serious talking done on Wednesdays or Thursdays, when violins, harpsichords and tin whistles invade the bar for the always-raucous traditional music nights.

To pass yourself off as a Bulman regular though, order a pint of Murphy’s (the local stout of choice in Cork, not ‘that Dublin muck’ Guinness), and join the patter among the punters outside, where the singsong lilt of the Cork accent and the lapping Atlantic provide a jovial soundtrack to a drink or few in the sunshine.

l The Bulman, Summercove, Kinsale, County Cork (00 353 21 477 2131, www.thebulman.com).

Cassidy’s, Dublin

Cassidy’s is the latest arrival to make a ripple in the boozy ocean of pubs on the Dublin scene.

The five-storey building couldn’t be more central, just a stone’s throw south of the Liffey Bridge, which unofficially marks the city’s mid-point.

And – despite having been open for little more than a year – the place already feels like a city institution thanks to the constant crowd of agreeably scruffy hacks who work around the corner in the Irish Times offices. Wednesday night is student night though, when Trinity College’s debating and traditional music societies make the short walk from their lecture halls to intellectualise, sing and dance.

It’s a seriously merry affair with deliberating academics shouting over humming bagpipes in the pub’s two ecclesiastically-themed lower floors. On the second storey, meanwhile, Cassidy’s

26-year-old landlord Barry has ambitiously changed tack and installed a Charleston-themed cocktail bar. A white grand piano stands out against the red, black and purple velvet cushions.

And, as you’d expect, it’s serving slightly more exotic tipples: try the Tipsy Trinity – a lethal mix of fresh cranberry juice, vodka and Jägermeister. Or, if you want to go straight for the mainline, they also serve vodka and Red Bull. On tap.

Strangely, the combination of traditional Irish pub and burlesque cocktail bar works, and Cassidy’s brings in Dublin’s young and beautiful crowd for a very mixed kind of craic.

Cassidy’s, 27 Westmoreland Street, Dublin (00 353 1 670 8604, www.cassidysbar.ie).

South Pole Inn, Annascaul, County Kerry

An old chap spinning a yarn is the essential accompaniment to any pint in Ireland.

At the South Pole Inn, the yarn spins to the other side of the Earth and back. Founding landlord Tom Crean opened for business in the village of Annascaul in 1927, after Antarctic expeditions with Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton.

He’d decided to dedicate the rest of his life to the less demanding career of pulling pints, but word has it that his wife, Ellen, did all the work while he regaled wide-eyed patrons with tales of his travels.

Now, decades later, the pub has been carefully restored to its original 1920s state, with wooden tables, stone walls and a crackling fireplace that toasts the toes of ramblers stopping off on hikes along the Dingle Peninsula. Photos of ‘Tom the Pole’ on his various expeditions adorn the walls; pull a stool up to the bar, invest in a nice Jameson for any of the elderly flat-capped regulars and ask them to tell you about the time Tom bravely strode alone for 50km to get help for his snowed-in, scurvy-ridden companions.

It’s a heroic story (no doubt enriched by years of whiskey-induced poetic licence), and made all the grander for the rural Kerry drawl it’s told in.

l South Pole Inn, Annascaul, County Kerry (00 353 66 915 7388).

The Gravity Bar, Dublin

It’s shamelessly touristy but no visit to the capital would be complete without a trip to The Guinness Storehouse and its brewery. It’s the thumping heart of alcoholic Ireland, from which thousands of kegs of the ‘black stuff’ are pumped through the main arteries of the country each day.

You can take a tour and learn about the brewing process, find out how to pull the perfect pint, and visit a tasting laboratory – or just head straight up to the seventh-floor Gravity Bar. The circular room feels like a spaceship hovering 40m above ground, but is actually perched on top of the old 1904 brewery building – with spectacular 360º views across Dublin from its floor-to-ceiling windows.

Take in a panorama of grey skies etched with the ragged chimneys of the Georgian city to the west; pull up a pew on the south-facing side to drink in the shadow of the Dublin Mountains; or look east to the sights of the city centre, with the River Liffey snaking out to the Irish Sea.

You can’t just walk in on views this good, though; in fact, there are only two ways of getting in: you either come on one of the daytime tours, or blag your way into one of the regular evening private parties (not as hard as it sounds; Dublin’s an open-book sort of city).

And aside from the views and celeb-filled bashes, there’s another reason to visit: this place serves the best pint of Guinness in the world.

l The Gravity Bar, Guinness Storehouse, St James’s Gate, Dublin (00 353 1 408 4800, www.guinness-storehouse.com). Tours cost £10 (includes a free pint).

Moran’s Oyster Cottage, Kilcogan, County Galway

It’s the picture-postcard image of an Irish lunch: the silky black pint, the creamy ribbon on top, and the ramshackle pile of oysters. The argument as to where you’ll find the best aphrodisiac mollusc in Ireland is an old one, but Moran’s has featured heavily in that discussion since the mid-1700s, when the thatched-roof cottage-cum-pub served its first.

Landlord Willie Moran grows his own oysters for the bar in a Bond-like secret location nearby. Fittingly, Roger Moore has popped in for a visit, as has Woody Allen. The oysters have even been given royal approval by the Emperor of Japan – who probably knows a thing or two about fine seafood.

And when gourmet types descend on Galway for the annual September Oyster Festival in Clarenbridge, Moran’s is always their first stop.

Indeed, with the sun peeking through the West Country drizzle, there are few finer places to slurp at shellfish than the wooden tables on the shores of this weir, which opens on to the Atlantic. Swans glide by, while in the distance oyster fishermen work knee-deep in water. If it’s raining – it occasionally happens here – grab an inside table by the peat fire and breathe in its homely, oaky aroma. Order slivers of smoked salmon and some freshly baked soda bread.

You’re only a thick layer of Irish butter and a lemon squeeze away from cosy culinary perfection.

Moran’s Oyster Cottage, The Weir, Kilcogan, Galway (00 353 91 796113, www.moransoystercottage.com)