True story: A woman walks into a bar and orders a glass of Connemaragh. Now, this particular bar being an “Irish” pub (albeit one in Toronto rather than Ireland) and Connemaragh being an Irish whiskey, one might well presume that this is exactly what she would receive—especially since the spirits menu clearly lists the brand. Instead, minutes pass. Long minutes.
In Ireland, regardless of where you may be or what you might drink, pub hopping is rarely, if ever, a particular hardship.
Nearly a quarter of an hour later, with our heroine despairing of ever receiving a drink, the waitress appears bearing…a plate of calamari. As her customer fixes the plate with a look of wild incomprehension, the fleetingly flustered server asks, “Isn’t this what you ordered?”
Such is the lot of Irish drinks producers whose products are not named Guinness or Jameson or Bushmills. Request their brands, even in a place that proudly carries them, and you are instead served squid.
Sadly, this state of affairs largely persists even in Eire itself. From Dublin to Galway, Cork to Donegal, those looking to slake their thirst with a pint of the black stuff had best get plenty used to Guinness, since finding even the Heineken-owned Murphy’s or Scottish & Newcastle’s Beamish can oft times be a challenge, and locating a tap pouring the Carlow Brewing Co.’s O’Hara is nearly impossible.
It’s better with whiskeys, since Ireland’s only independent Irish-owned distiller, Cooley, has a bit more of a presence in the country’s vast landscape of pubs. Still, spotting a bottle of the Tyrconnell Single Malt Irish Whiskey amid the sea of Paddy, Power, Jameson and Bushmills can be a truly daunting task at times.
Of course, the plus side of all of this means that the more hunting you need to do, the more pubs you need to visit. And in Ireland, regardless of where you may be or what you might drink, pub hopping is rarely, if ever, a particular hardship.
