Quietpubs

Twittering with the times

2011-04-09T19:23:00.000+01:00

Now in full stereoscopic sound on Twitter, do follow us!

Now on Facebook

2010-08-09T03:14:00.000+01:00

We're finally getting with the times and have ourselves a little Facebook page.

Do Join in!

Still Still Here

2010-03-17T19:41:00.002Z

Wishing all you publovers out there a fantastic Paddy's day. Choose your pub wisely!

A man after our own heart

2008-10-09T03:12:00.003+01:00

Turtle Bunbury has published a new book simply entitled "The Irish Pub".

And after getting our grubby little hands on it, we can confirm it is a smashing read. Something to browse through while making plans for the next trip "down de country".

No hope for quiet pubs?

2008-01-11T15:42:00.000Z

Liam Collins in the Sunday Independent - The plain truth is, the pub is dead

Still alive

2007-04-23T23:28:00.000+01:00

In fairness we've been having too much fun wallowing in our favourite quiet pubs to write in the previous months. The Stag's Head, Kehoe's and especially Grogan's have been favourite haunts of late. The latter two always have the feel that you are at a cool house party and you've been invited.

We had a brief spell in Canada which has either VERY quiet pubs (see The Manx ) or pubs with 42 flat screens all showing the regional qualifications in senior female curling. So nothing to write home about.

For those of you with a diminished sense of direction, we now have a groovy google map of where the pub is.

See you Friday.

Where does Glenda Gilson drink??

2006-10-15T14:31:00.000+01:00

The wonderful blogorrah has noticed our little selves. Doff of the bowler hat to them and may all their pints be accompanied by the comforting murmur of conversation.

Temple Barred

2006-09-14T17:33:00.001+01:00

I have a new all time least favourite pub and it's called Fitzsimons. My first inkling as to its nature should have been clear on approaching the door as I could see multiple screens flickering. When I got in there were not 2, not 3, not even 4 but 5 screens. Ranging from a decent sized, would-do-for-the-bedroom TV to a gigantic 492 square meter screen. I swear a whole football pitch could be displayed to scale on it...

4 screens were showing one football match, while the smaller one was showing another match. The volume on all screeens was so high that shouting was in order. Anyway, after 90 minutes of fun and frolicks it was all over and I thought (hoped?) the screens would be rolled up and the TVs turned off, but no. The big screens were changed to women's Golf (one of my faves) and the little 'un changed to 10 pin bowling from the states! Scintillating.

Much drink was needed to endure all this so I was at the bar quite a bit. Pints were expensive - 4.80 for a Guinness, which was poured more or less in one go... Shoot me now. The toilets stank, you could feel the bacteria crawling up your trouser leg while you tried to pee into the urinals, which were full of discarded packets of john player blue and bog roll. Sometime earlish in the evening a pile of puke appeared on the stairs to the toilet. Aah, I love this town.

Around 11pm they turned on the house sound system (127 dB) and didn't even turn the TVs off. Instead they were just muted. There goes the environment. When I thought it couldn't get any worse a live musician turns up and installs some speakers which would not have sounded out of place in Croke park. He started playing and much to my amazement they didn't turn the music off, I could still hear a distinct tune or two coming through the other speaks. So here we were with 5 TVs on mute, the house sound system on in the background and a live musician belting out U2 at a pneumatic drill level. Conversation was futile. So we ran, left, skidaddled, parted (only about 4 hours too late).

Up and running

2006-09-01T01:47:00.000+01:00

Right, after many ham-fisted attempts at setting up a database, learning PHP and getting this place spick and span for the onslaught of visitors it looks like we are now live!

Thanks so far to Nessa, Iceman, MWalker, EoinO & Clemmer for suggestions.

On the radio

2006-08-22T15:59:00.000+01:00

Oooh, looks like we've hit a nerve. On the Rick O'Shea radio show tonight talking about the show. Keep the suggestions for pubs coming in.

Take back the Shite

2006-08-17T20:21:00.000+01:00

Over at DublinBlogs some other people who feel the same way!

I hear your pain.

The Birth of Quietpubs.com

2006-08-04T23:32:00.000+01:00

I've had enough. No more. Can't handle it. Doing my head in...

It seems since the price of LCD TVs have dropped that every pub owner in Ireland has gone down to the local Currys with a wheelbarrow and stocked up on Range Rover sized screens and then liberally decorated their watering holes with these monstrosities.

Then to get the most out of their investment they are left on 24 hours a day - SKY News in the morning, MTV in the afternoon and then at least 3 inconsequential soccer matches in a row on in the evening. It is nearly impossible to walk into a normal bar in Ireland now without being bombarded with these flickering devils.

The remaining pubs that don't have a TV seem to think that putting on the radio at 120 dB makes a pub welcoming and homely.

Well this is for the 1% of pubs that remain emporiums of conversation, somewhere you can read the paper without hearing the same news story on SKY for the 14th time in a row.

God bless yis all!