Can't wait to see great grandma in those "Hooters style Daisey Duke Short-shorts"........cataracts are good for something!

Note to wife: I have a wonderful new idea for our retirement plans! ;)

(Hey, she's always wanted to visit Ireland!)

God also gave us short johnsons to keep us from overpopulating the world, but don't tell anybody.

Drink for the elderly (hint...the "pub" is in a NURSING HOME) is hardly going to make an impact on world conquering, or, not.

True, the Irish do have their ways, no doubt about that, but Scotch comes from Scotland (still Ireland if you know your ancient history), wine comes from the Mediterranean, Egypt paid many of it's workers in beer and a form of onion, Northern Europe and South and Central America have their own versions of beer, alcohol and addictions, the French have relied on their Meditteranean cultural and gormet history to wrangle vino into their own version of sacred drink, and I read yesterday that two moose -- a mother and her child moose, no less -- were fighting to protect their found stash of fermented apples and were discouraged only because they ate so many they were falling down drunk...

The list is a long one of drunken ~masters~ missing world domination by a bushel and many barrels...and all the Irish ever do is build pubs and make merry, mad music amidst the broken,, rowdy residue.

~;-D

I think that most Pubs serve food as well. Can't have that pint without the fish and chips (or whatever).

I don't know because I've never been there, but I thought that a Pub might even be considered a place to bring the kids, unlike the American Bar, which isn't.

Some confirmation one way or another on this would be helpful.

Yes, Synova, to the Irish (and many in the U.K. entirely), the "PUB" is a local meeting place complete with food, the pint/s and a place you can get the local neighborhood meets and greets.

Very dissimilar to the U.S. version of "bar," where you go to drink and meet and greet with other intentions (socialization goals are very different than those in a PUB in Ireland).

The PUB in Ireland especially is more equivalent to an American cafe that serves beer and makes room for the neighborhood musicians to relax, play, laugh and have a good evening o' fun. Not at all similar to our American "bar."

Having a pint is akin in America to "let's go for coffee" in communication...except you get the beer in Ireland and not the boiled coffee syndrome, get to see and visit with your neighbors if you want, exchange a bit of information if you care to, visit, say hello, get your mail if you have any next door, things of that nature. The Pub in Ireland doesn't carry the negative, social implications that the 'bar' in the U.S. does. At least, not essentially, not socially.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that in the U.S., if/when people want to drink beer, they stock it at home (same with alcohol); when they want some other aspect (beer/alcohol-plus), they go to a bar.

In the U.K., you go to the Pub to get a draft (the pint), which most can't/wouldn't ever have stocked at home unless they owned the Pub downstairs, and, it's understood that you go to the Pub for socializing of the neighborhood kind and not just the sexual hookup (which is the "plus" part in the U.S.) or social animosities assoicated with, often, people who can't stock up for various reasons and so buy by the glass or pint.

hic!

One detail you left out -S- the tobacco haze in most Pubs I've been in rivals the thickest London Fog, LA smog, or Madison Square Garden haze at a rock concert you may have ever seen. I wonder what the smoking policy is at that nursing home, and its Pub?

Good whiskey is well worth waiting for.

Yeah, the Pub Fog is verra, verra bad. Which is why I don't go to most of them. Except for an Irish Stew if I ever get a chance to go back to Ireland.

Statistically the Irish are about fourth or fifth on the drinking ladder in Europe.

I'm Irish and 43. I've seen the place change a lot over the years and while it still has a drink culture it's not as prevailent.

Pubs are NOW pickup joints in the cities not so much in the country towns. Society in Ireland can be different within 5 miles. Sometimes the accent changes and the meaning of words are not the same.

Having said all this, Ireland is far more complex (as are other countries) than Americans can ever realise. After all, there is an Irish diaspora, most US citizens don't even have a passport.

However, my wife is from Maine and we live in her home town. And I love it. If we could just get rid of the beer drinkin'/smokin' and driving populaton of cupid stunts going around, life would be heavenly.
Sayonara - Paddibaldi

PS: I'd kill for a Jameson right now.................