“I went to an Irish pub in Corsica and it was called Loch Ness Irish pub.”
Traveler Colm Dalton tells MailOnline Travel about his mission to visit every Irish pub in the world – and reveals one of the odd places he ticked off, after being asked if there was a minimum level of ‘Irishness’ required for a Irish pub.
Are there some who have no right to call themselves an Irish pub?
“There are definitely a few that are borderline,” he says. “Loch Ness, for example – famous not in Ireland.”
So what are the criteria for the perfect Irish pub?
Colm Dalton is on a mission to visit all the world’s Irish pubs. He’s pictured above outside Kelly’s Irish Pub in Austin, Texas, which he describes as “authentic” and the “real deal.”
Colm recommends Patrick Foley’s in Ghent (pictured above) – ‘a beautiful bar by the canal with a large mural of Celtic art in the beer garden’
Colm considers the Loch Ness pub in Corsica (pictured above) to be ‘frontier’ Irish. “Loch Ness – not known in Ireland,” he says
Colm, from County Kerry, explains: ‘The first way to judge is the name. If it’s named after an Irish family, like Quinn’s or Keane’s, you know it’s going to be good because it’s probably named after the person who founded it. At the other end of the scale, if it’s called Shamrock Pub or Guinness Pub, it’s not going to be good.’
The specialist adds that ‘live music is a very big sign as a good Irish pub will have good live music’. Bar-goers will also want to see some ‘aspects of Irish culture’ such as Irish sports on the TV in an authentic pub.
But the real key to knowing you’ve found a gem is the staff.
Colm says: ‘The bar staff in an Irish pub are usually amazing. They can take 20 orders at once and pull pints with their elbows. They are very friendly, but they are also very good at work. You can usually tell when the staff have been trained to pull a pint by an Irish owner. When the staff says, “What do you want to drink? We’ll pour it on your table.” This is the Rolls-Royce valet parking of an Irish pub. It’s classy. The welcome is important and that’s what you would expect in an Irish pub.’
Colm usually orders a Guinness at every bar ‘in the spirit of experimentation’. LEFT: Colm in Bologna. RIGHT: Colm at O’Caine’s Irish pub in California
The keen traveler has ticked off 94 pubs in 45 countries so far – but where are the best watering holes?
He recommends Patrick Foley’s in Ghent, which is ‘a beautiful bar by the canal with a large mural of Celtic art in the beer garden’. Colm also loves Kelly’s in Austin, Texas. He says: ‘It’s in a shopping center but it looks like an Irish cottage. It’s authentic. It’s the real thing.’
Colm adds: ‘Atmosphere is important because it can be dead and it totally changes your perception. I was in one in Lisbon called O’GIllins on a Wednesday night and it was packed with a live band and everyone was singing. It was the perfect mix of Portuguese nightlife, but in an Irish pub.’
In the UK, he loves London’s Auld Shillelagh in Stoke Newington because it’s ‘a really good balance of quite hipster but quite Irish’. And Mc & Sonswhich has a ‘couple of beautiful wooden pubs with classic Irish pub Thai food’ in Vauxhall and Borough.
And quality Irish pubs can be found in the most surprising places.
Colm says: ‘In Jakarta, Indonesia, I was in a tuk-tuk for two hours and then it dropped me outside a shopping centre. There was a shoe shop and a hairdresser and then a small door and inside was a very good Irish pub.’
Colm’s record is nine pubs in one day on a holiday to Rome. LEFT: Outside The Fiddler’s Elbow bar in Rome. RIGHT: Outside Molly Malone’s in California. Colm says it’s the most common name for an Irish pub
Colm pictured outside Duffy’s Irish Bar in Krakow
‘Minas Tirith’, a Lord of the Rings themed Irish pub in a ‘crumbly back street in Palermo’ also makes the list of pleasantly surprising venues.
Any Irish pub travelers should leave off their to-do list?
Perhaps surprisingly, not Corsica’s Loch Ness, which was actually a ‘nice pub, just messed up’. However, he explains travelers will want to stay away from Belgrade’s Gecko Irish pub. Colm says: ‘It has a lizard on the brand and it’s like, “Have you ever been to Ireland? There are no lizards.” It was also a pirate theme, so they kind of confused Irish with a pirate. There was rigging on the walls.’
But the only Irish pub that Colm has ever ‘walked out of’ is the Guinness Pub in Sarajevo. He explains: ‘There was nobody there, there was no staff and we just sat in a room for 20 minutes thinking, “What’s going on?” And a staff member was just outside with a cigarette. They couldn’t be bothered.’
Colm usually orders a Guinness on his visits ‘in the spirit of experimentation’, but recalls a time when he had to miss out on one unique variation on the black stuff. He says: ‘In Bilbao the locals drank a drink called a Frankenstein, which is half Guinness and half Heineken. And it’s quite dark at the top and yellow-green at the bottom. I couldn’t bring myself to drink it.’
What does Colm think makes Irish pubs so popular around the world?
He explains: ‘In many countries you have cafes and clubs, but no third place. And I think an Irish pub kind of fulfills that. In some cities, the Irish pub is the alternative bar you go to if you want to feel like a frustrated poet. Then there is definitely a process of imitation where someone sees a nice pub and thinks they should recreate it.’
The most used name for an Irish pub? Molly Malone’s, says Colm, which is ‘particularly popular’ in South East Asia. However, James Joyce is another top choice, perhaps because of the Irish author’s ‘really cool side profile’, suggests Colm.
The Irish Pubs Global Federation estimates there are more than 6,500 Irish pubs in the world, but Colm is ‘optimistic’ about his aim to visit every one.
Colm brings his partner with him on his missions. LEFT: They are pictured at The Tipperary Irish Pub in London. RIGHT: Colm at The Drunken Poet in Singapore
His record is nine bars in one day during a holiday to Rome where he went from ‘museum to bar to museum to bar’. The pub lover usually brings his partner along on his mission and says she has ‘become something of a connoisseur herself’ and ‘developed a taste for Guinness’.
So which pubs are next on the expert’s wish list?
Colm says: ‘There’s one in Namche Bazaar in the foothills of the Himalayas that looks really good and I think it’s the tallest Irish pub.
‘There is another one in Kampala, Uganda called Bubbles O’Leary and it was moved brick by brick from Ireland to Uganda.
‘And then recently, I don’t know how feasible it is, I found on Google that there’s an Irish bar in Guantanamo Bay. I don’t know the logistics of getting there, but it will certainly be interesting to see if it can be done.’
To follow Colm’s journey visit his Instagram at @publicenemy or website – publicanenemy.com.
