4 - Volume One: Dublin (cont'd - Ha'Penny Bridge Inn Pub)

All of the entries in this post are from one night at the Ha'Penny Bridge Inn, the upstairs pub. The Sick and Indigent Song Club were playing and the place was PACKED. I mean, so packed that if you needed another pint from the bar, you would ask someone who would ask someone who would ask the bartender for your order. Money and pints were passed back and forth. The bar was staffed by one slightly ornery (but in a funny, Irish way) man and his son. I think there was a friend of the son helping, but not really 100% committed.

The man who made this entry was from France. He was there with his wife. Joe and I were within reach of the bar, so this man developed a bit of a friendly relationship with us so that he could use us to place his order with the bartender.



This is the wife of the man described above. We did not speak to her until the end of the night when the pub started clearing out at the end of the night (early morning). She thanked us for being the conduit to the bar for her husband through the night.



This woman was part of a theatre group from somewhere outside of Chicago. She was quite animated and wearing a bright red dress, if memory serves me right. She was about my age and was with a guy who was also in his 30's. The rest of the theatre group were ... older. They were a good laugh and said that the rest of the theatre group, the old folks, were tucked in their beds for the night, but that they wanted to get out and party.



It was this guy's birthday. He was another one of our fellow patrons who needed our help getting drinks from the bar (thus the "ducking and diving" comment - ducking and diving through the crowd to get to the bar) On a related note, another big memory I have of this evening was the rows of poured Guinness pints lined up behind the bar, the bartender trying to stay a step ahead of the patrons.



Another member of the theatre group, the guy that was with the woman mentioned above. He was the spitting image of Jim Carrey (thus all the references in his entry).



This is from one of the army guys who were there that night. We didn't even know they were there all night (we basically got to talk to the dozen or so people who were pressed up against us at the bar!), but when I was getting something from the wallets of the theatre group people, they came over to check out what I was doing and started searching through their wallets for what they could contribute. It was at this point that I realized that the "Something From Your Wallet" idea was a smashing success!



Another one of the army guys. They were all stationed in Germany, I think, and on leave, spending St Patrick's Day weekend in Dublin.



Another one of the army guys. Picture it: it is the end of the night, the pub is closing, the bartender and his son are trying to kick everyone out so that they can close up. A bunch of big hulking army guys are all hovering over me at one of the tables, making their entries in my journal. So funny...



Last of the army guys. He gave me his Army Values card!! Love his sign off.



This is the son, who was bar tending and clearing glasses. This guy and his Dad really earned their keep that night - it was the most packed, most energetic scene I have ever been in, with an insane amount of pints being poured constantly.
The army guys had just left and this guy came over to see what the fuss was about. I explained what I was doing and that he had to give me something from his wallet. He grabbed a pack of matches from the bar. I told him that was not good enough because it was not from his wallet, to which he replied that he didn't have his wallet on him (I think he and his Dad lived on the premises). He reached into his pocket and pulled out a penny. So the penny and the match box face made it into the book.



There was one small group left in the pub (so a hundred or so people have finally made their way out of the Ha'Penny Bridge Inn upstairs pub). I think I approached them and asked them if they would like to contribute. I believe they were all pretty drunk. Very young, probably didn't even know each other before this evening, all from France. This guy was currently living in Dublin and gave me his LUAS (commuter train) pass from the previous month.

Another of the small French group that lingered as the staff were trying to get us OUT of the pub so they could close up!

And finally, the last entry made that night at the Ha-Penny Bridge Inn upstairs pub. It is incredible what people keep in the their wallets for long periods of time. This a boarding pass from August 2, 2006 that was contributed on March 16th, 2007. She was also one of the small group from France lingering to the bitter end.

.

.

.

So that was it, the "Something From Your Wallet" experience in Dublin. Joe and I had spent the week leading up to St Patrick's Day in Dublin with a goal of visiting as many historical and "traditional" Irish pubs as we could manage, with at least one pint of Guinness in each pub. We certainly had some repeat visits to some pubs, and we certainly drank more than one pint in quite a few of the pubs, but we did manage to get to 24 pubs in 7 days.

.

For each pub, we came up with one line to describe the pub.

I will list them here:

Long Hall - interior gate, quite unusual

Neery's - the place with the arms

McDaid's - small, nice roof, dark, off Grafton, North Star

Kehoes - reminds us of pubs in the Annex

The Bank - unusually ornate bank with skylights

The Brazen Head - like a country pub

Oliver St John Gogarty - great people-watching and live music

Brogan's Bar - great floor, puzzling column

Ha'Penny Bridge Inn - downstairs quaint, upstairs great band

Kruger's (Howth) - peat smoke, sheperd's pie, toilet mirror

The Oak - clean, tidy (dark) pub, lots o' wood, nice lighting

The Porter House - more than 999 bottles of beer on the wall

Temple Bar - MUCH bigger than it looks

Nancy Hands - on Parkgate Road, before heading to Guinness

Kavanagh's - turretted exterior, very bright interior

Beach House (Greystones) - on the beach, horse-racing on TV

Stag's Head - most intricate pub we've been in

Davy Byrne's - art deco!

O'Neill's - so deceivingly small on the outside

The Pale - great for getting people on the street to wave back

Grogan's - toast-y pub filled with art ("crap")

Messrs Maguire - lots of levels and nooks and crannies

Fitzgerald's - St Paddy's Parade break, Italy vs. Ireland

Doheny & Nesbitt - there's always space under the TV