We visited so many pubs in Ireland that I forgot which one this could be. Typically the older established pubs would have brown sooty walls stained from centuries of smoking patrons and a smoky peat fireplace. A couple other things I noticed about the pubs was that they usually had a photo of JFK on a wall and a smattering of postcards framing the back of the bar.
President Kennedy, being of Irish descent, was also considered a “favorite son” in most of the counties throughout the Emerald Isle. Often times you’d see a local toasting his favorite son, sometimes many times over.
A few of my favorite pubs were on the west side if the island in the grand town of Dingle. Here the pubs were disguised as a hardware storefront during the day and when “store hours” were over, transform into a down and dirty pub. Hen parties* would flock into Dingle on weekends when the Irish whiskey and Guinness flowed like a river and the noted Irish “gift of gab” rippled through town from pub, to pub, to pub. Otherwise known as the pub crawl.
And even though we met many locals who never even strayed away from their home county (or country), there were the regular publicans who traveled further that would send a postcard to establish their loyalty for that particular pub.
So as long as I don’t remember the name of this pub, I’ll just call it The Postcard Pub. Brilliant!
Cheers!
*hen party: the Irish version of our bachelorette party.
