Transcript:
An ode to the Irish Pub on foreign soil – a home from home
Very shortly after arriving in Santiago, England were to play their final football World Cup group game against Wales. I finished work and headed out to watch the match. Not knowing the city, I chose Flannery’s, an Irish pub. In my experience of living and travelling abroad, Irish bars are always a safe bet when you want to find fellow countrymen to support your team with, or just friendly locals and expats alike to socialise. Expat bars in general are a home from home – a harbour in a *tempest; a *heady mix of tourists, backpackers, professional ex-pats and the not so professional, that all somehow ended up living far from home. I’ve spent many an hour in such bars, especially during my time navigating the expat scene in South Korea, leading to regrets and good memories albeit blurry ones, in equal measures. I’ve met many a character in my time in such bars – from the heavy drinkers that have their own barstool (the *bar flies) to those just passing through; these bars are a magnet for those wanting familiarity, companionship and *camaraderie.
Contrary to what many believe, Ireland’s biggest export is not its drinking – Irelands biggest exports are in fact pharmaceuticals, technology apparatus, organic chemicals, and electrical machinery, but perhaps its biggest cultural export is its drinking. Ironically, in Ireland itself there has been a sharp decline in alcohol consumption in recent years due to a shift in attitudes and a changing drinking culture moving away from the getting plastered and a being up for the ‘*craic’ mentally. and yet, the global thirst for Irelands drinks and culture seems *unquenchable.
Irelands drinks export business is *not to be sneezed at, approaching €2 billion in 2022, up by 22% year-on-year since the pandemic, and reaching 119 markets around the world. It’s no surprise then to find Irish pubs dotted all over the place and even in some of the most unexpected *far-flung corners of the globe. In my experience having been to more than a fair few of them on my travels, I’d say they are more than just the sum of their parts, each one has its own history, *patronage and clientele *regaling each other with drunken stories; for better or worse these places are living, breathing entities. Irish bars are conceivably second only to Chinese, Indian and Italian restaurants for crossing cultural and geographical divides.
Colm Dalton, from Kerry in Ireland, who is on a mission to visit every Irish pub on the planet, estimates, there are around 6,500 worldwide. If you were then to factor in Canadian, American, Kiwi, Aussie bars and the like; well, I wouldn’t like to guess the number but it’s safe to say a shitload. Colm has visited over a hundred Irish bars in around 35 countries on his quest to visit them all, and says that “…as you’d expect, with the good comes both the bad and the ugly”.
I’m not sure how many I’ve visited on my travels, I’m certainly on no mission, but my numbers have probably got to be up there. One thing I can say is that Irish pubs regardless of where they are stationed, are more alike than they are different – with dark wood panelling, and worn wooden tables, chairs and bar stools. Gaelic signs and countless other Irish *paraphernal *adorn the walls. Classic rock ballads play in the background and Guinness or a similar dark ale is always on tap. And more often than not they show sporting events, so when I didn’t know anyone in Santiago, that’s where I headed, and Flannery’s did not disappoint, it was all of the aforementioned.
