Dublin Pubs

We spent 3-4 nights doing the Dublin pub/music thing, mostly in Temple Bar, but not entirely. The best place, considering architecture as well as the music and dancing, we discovered at the end of our Dublin days, and it warrants a separate post.

Cobblestone is a bit of a neighborhood place, north of the Liffey,
in Smithfield

It is a bit of a purists' hang-out; apparently if you know Trad
music (as the Irish call it)(they are into the whole brevity thing)
you can just bring your instrument and join in; there are
instrumental numbers, solos, recitations, solo songs; it is not
fast paced, since much of the time is devoted to deciding what
number to do next; not everybody joins in on every number;
the quality was exceptional: not amateur hour

Indeed

Fleet St., Temple Bar district, early evening; over the weekend
it was loaded with stag and hen parties, nearly as much fun to
watch as the musicians

At The Temple Bar

I had no idea there are that many Irish whiskies

Much of our time was at Oliver St. John Gogarty's, where we
heard two groups

As at Cobblestone, and everywhere else, we were persistent
and lucky enough to get front row seats, or, as here, seats with
the group

A couple hours later, upstairs, another group

This guy, Stephen Leech, seated by his poster/painting, a
popular promoter of Trad, did things on the banjo I didn't  know a
banjo could do