St Patrick's Pints

Posted Monday, March 19, 2007, 10:59 PM by Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet author James Bainbridge quenches his thirst and gets green with a random Irish guy - the best type of Irish - all while on the job...



I decide to spend St. Patrick's Day in Listowel (that's 'Listooowell') in the hope that the Kerry town's history of bar-propping poets will lend my own bender some literary associations. Needless to say, Ireland has its own ideas. In the John B Keane pub, named after the late local scribe whose output included the Richard Harris film The Field, I sit in the corner and scribble some observations. I feel like part of the furniture given the literary precedent here.

Then the barman and a random drinker separately stumble over and ask why I'm 'making lists'. 'We've had enough of writers round here,' says the random. He's joking but I put the notebook away anyway and order another drink - an activity that will surely only gain approval. While the Guinness is 'curing' (settling), I make one last valiant attempt to fit some work into the drinking spree. 'Do you have a business card for this pub?' I ask the barman. He slings me a key-ring, which bears only a rousing John B Keane couplet. Next I ask what nights the pub has music sessions. 'We had to send the guitarist home,' the barman laughs. 'He was drinking all day, but he'll be back tomorrow.'

Outside, the streets are messy. The parade, an innocent display of six-year-old leprechauns and local businesses shamelessly exploiting the event for self-promotion, is a distant memory. In the town nightclub, sinisterly called Mermaids, a band plods through U2 covers and a fight erupts involving half a dozen very large, very drunk men. Realising that St. Patrick's Day is coming to an abrupt end, and not wishing to follow suit, I make a break for my B&B. En route, I pull out my new key-ring and read Keane's lines about the Listowel of a bygone decade: 'There are so many - Lovely songs to sing'.

Labels: Europe, Travelsnitch

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