306) The Bachelor Inn of Bachelor's Walk, D1

Guinness is priced at five euro and eighty cents – consider yourself lucky. The only saving grace is a good view of the river, especially fine on a radiant sunny day. Otherwise, it's a claptrap tourist trap, with nauseating wallpaper purporting to be fake brickwork, frayed and peeling at the edges. A local loudmouth and no doubt self-declared 'living legend' is fond of delivering lengthy monologues of wearying tedium and replete with cliche ('All these city centre pubs have no character...they're all full of foreigners...sure you wouldn't find a Dub in any of them...Wetherspoons are onto something...') to the deeply bored barman, at such a volume that he cannot be ignored – he also dispenses unwanted sage advice to sullen visitors on must-see spots in the not-so-fair city (perhaps he's on Bord Failte's payroll?).

Quotes aplenty from Irish writers make up the façade which stretches down Bachelors Way, such as: ‘Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.’ – W.B. Yeats, and: ‘Lack of money is the root of all Evil.’ – G.B. Shaw. James Joyce is also subtly misquoted, with 'A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are portals of discovery' - which is now rendered as 'A man's mistakes are portals of discovery', which goes some way to distorting the meaning. Bit of a typo, wha?

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