395) Barnwells Bar of the Long Mile Road, Walkinstown, D12

A smaller side bar off the larger ‘Castle Inn.’ It seems that TDP arrived to this pleasant hostelry just in time - only two hours prior to our arrival, they had run out of our favourite beverage of Beamish, and the stock had only just been replenished in time for our sidelong entrance. Timing, timing, prescience, prescience! The Beamish was excellent too, vending at a refreshing €4.50 (like a throwback to olden days), but alas it shan’t vend like that for long. So toothsome was the Beamo we stayed for another round.

We arrived on a dark November day in 2022, at a time when all the talk was of rising prices and hikes in costs - a chatty and very informative barman bemoaned the situation and length, and joined our conversation at regular intervals. Says he, ‘There’s a lot of profit to be made in food’, in view of all the wet pubs turning dry. The counter boasts USB sockets for to plug one’s phone in, a cutting-edge touch in what otherwise seems a soundly traditional establishment. Whiskey aficionado Andrew Stephens remarked upon their very fine selection of said spirits. Friendly staff are honest, when a barman found a marked fiver on the ground he did his rounds trying to discover its owner. We were asked ‘You wouldn’t have a fiver with sellotape in yer pocket, would ya?’

We had arrived after pints in Eleanora’s and The Halfway House and so found it mildly amusing to attempt to write random words backwards on a racing paper, as in, sdrawkcab. FACT!

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