Entertainment in Ireland
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Mezz
Dark, sweaty and loud: it’s the way music venues used to be in those heady days before standard lamps and leather sofas became, well, standard. Old-school rock, electronic, funk and garage bands belt it out most nights to a young up-for-it crowd.
reviewed
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B
New Theatre
This small theatre's location above a left-wing bookshop should be a guide to the kind of thinking that informs most of the performances taking place on its small stage. It's all about having a social conscience, whether by promoting new work by emerging playwrights or putting on established works that highlight society's injustices.
reviewed
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Laughter Lounge
Dublin’s only specially designated comedy theatre is where you’ll find those comics too famous for the smaller pub stages but not famous enough to sell out the city’s bigger venues. Think comedians on the way up (or on the way down).
reviewed
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D
Village
Packed to overflowing every weekend, this large modern bar is where the lovely lads and gorgeous gals show off their plumage in a fun-time courting ritual that has the rest of them queuing up at the door to join in. There are live bands and excellent DJs nightly, and Sunday night's Songs of Praise is the city's best karaoke night. The nightclub bit of the venue opens Thursday to Saturday.
reviewed
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O'Faolain's
Kilkenny is the regional hub of clubbing. But here the club itself is an attraction: it's built on three levels around an old stone church that was brought over from Wales. There are live DJs most nights, starting around 22:30 and weekend club nights.
reviewed
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Focus Theatre
The small Focus Theatre is committed to showcasing the work of new Irish playwrights, which is thoroughly laudable even if the quality of the work isn’t always top notch. Still, the company offers challenging work and is well worth checking out.
reviewed
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G
Morrisey's Club
In a basement a few doors from the Kilkenny Tourist Hostel, this club usually doesn't really get cranking until around 22:00 (those who show up earlier get in free). DJs rule but there are also live acts many nights. Sunday nights get a barely-18 crowd.
reviewed
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H
White House Pub
A classic right in the centre, this corner pub has good seating outside (under a rare tree) and a good beer list. On some nights it has live acoustic, on others it helps lead a rebirth of local poetry through readings (www.whitehousepoets.blogspot.com).
reviewed
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Cafés & Clubs
Watch for new cafés opening in the centre. This is the nightlife hub for those stuck out in the sticks; ask around to find out what the clubs of the moment are. There's usually something on along Tullow St and Thursday night is popular for live music.
reviewed
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Peadar O'Donnell's
A backpackers' favourite, Peadar's goes for traditional music sessions every night and often on weekend afternoons as well. It's done up as a typical Irish pub-cum-grocer down to shelves of grocery items, with a pig's head and hams hanging off the ceiling.
reviewed
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Shelbourne FC
Premier League champions in 2006, Shels was ignominiously booted out of the top division straight afterwards for financial irregularities, lost all its good players and spent the last four years struggling in Division 1 – which is really the second division.
reviewed
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Oval
This is a great little pub, where young and old come together in conversation and rich, creamy pints go down a treat. The Tardis effect is evident once you walk through the door: it is much bigger than it looks from the outside, spreading over three floors.
reviewed
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Hartigan’s
This is about as spartan a bar as you’ll find in the city, and is the daytime home to some serious drinkers, who appreciate the quiet, no-frills surroundings. In the evening it’s popular with students from the medical faculty of University College Dublin (UCD).
reviewed
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PJ O’Hares
This is a classic, stone-floor pub with a blazing fire. There’s music most nights in summer and the owners have recently opened a restaurant (mains €13 to €20) upstairs serving excellent oysters and the likes of steak-and-Guinness pie and shellfish linguine.
reviewed
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M
Rogue
Relative newcomer on the block, Rogue is an intimate two-floored venue and home to the Bodytonic crew, who specialise in expertly mixed disco, house and electro. Expect to hear melodic and deep house and techno at the excellent Discotonic on Saturday nights.
reviewed
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Patrick Conway’s
This gem of a pub has been lining up drinks since 1745 and joyous fathers – including Colm Meaney’s character in The Snapper – have been skulling celebratory pints at its bar since the day the Rotunda Maternity Hospital opened across the road in 1757. Upstairs is the fantastic Boom Boom Room, one of the best places in the city for good live music.
reviewed
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Crawdaddy
Named after the London club where the Stones launched their professional careers in 1963, Crawdaddy is an intimate bar/venue that specialises in putting on rootsy performers, from African drum bands to avant-garde jazz artists and flamenco guitarists. It's attached to the nightclub Tripod.
reviewed
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Peter's Pub
A pub for a chat and a convivial catch up, this humble and friendly place is more like Peter's Living Room, and is one of the few remaining drinking dens in this area that hasn't changed personality in recent years, and is all the better (and popular) for it.
reviewed
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Shine
In Shine, the students union can boast one of the city's best club nights - many visiting clubbers have recommended it - with resident and guest DJs pumping out harder, heavier dance music than most of Belfast's other clubs. Student or other photo ID required.
reviewed
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R
South's
Frank McCourt's father knocked 'em back here and the Angela's Ashes connection is played up, including the toilets named Frank and Angela.
reviewed
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Mac's Bar
This engaging place is actually part of the folk park village. It has traditional music many evenings from June to September, and at weekends the rest of the year. Ignore it during the day, but after the park closes (you can still get in) it starts to feel real.
reviewed
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Badgers Bar
A fine polished-brass and stained-glass Victorian pub crammed with wood-panelled nooks and crannies, Badgers overflows at lunchtime with shoppers enjoying quality pub grub, and offers a quiet haven in the evenings when it attracts a crowd of more mature drinkers.
reviewed
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Horseshoe Bar
The refurb of the Shelbourne has brought us a brand new Horseshoe Bar, a thoroughly modern version of the old one beloved of politicians, hacks and journalists, where many an important decision was made, celebrated and even regretted around the once-horsehoe-shaped-but-now-rectangular bar.
reviewed
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Floridita
Ernest Hemingway’s favourite Havana bar is now a multinational chain; this branch of the super-slick bar-club-restaurant is in the distinctly uncool Irish Life Mall. Real live Cuban musicians provide the backbeat to a night of rum, cigars and Latin American cuisine.
reviewed
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American Bar
Two large rooms fill with happy pint quaffers throughout the year. In low season sloshed locals anticipate the next year of tourists (especially the namesakes of the bar). The room on the right as you enter, with its windows and access to the terrace, is the best bet.
reviewed