29) The Pavilion Bar of Trinity College Dublin, D2

Following the burning of the Buttery (by onetime pyromaniac and current city counsellor Gerard Mannix Flynn, also known as an actor, artist and activist) and its subsequent rebranding as a food-only canteen, the Pavilion at the college's east end is now Trinity's only student pub. One might say there's a cricketing theme at work – the pub overlooks the cricket fields and below stairs the cricketers can shower – while within a big board commemorates past heads of past cricket teams. Easy to be sentimental about this mediocre and somewhat characterless watering hole, waxing cod-lyrical ad nauseam about pseudo-golden days of comparatively carefree youth, circles of friends wasting endless afternoons sprawled on the grass or on the steps, arousing the envy of the studious sequestered in the libraries afar, gobbling paradisal dishes of curried chips topped by golden cheese, spilling cans and subsequently sitting in dampening stagnating puddles of pissy gut-rotting beer – 'to have a Bav in the Pav', as the saying goes.

The summer and examination period will see endless queues – many will attempt to circumvent this by sneaking in (cheaper) slabs of tins from outside, contraband cans the men in shiny suits are quick to confiscate (and perhaps consume themselves). Supposedly only students are served, though many an alumnus or tourist also seems to get by. Barman Mahmoud (who has been seen haunting numerous other locals nearby) has been known to proffer girls free rounds if they boast of having gotten A1s in their essays or tests. The Pav was also the scene of the 50th anniversary celebrations of J.P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man (famously regarded as the go-to 'Trinity novel' whose sales rise every Freshers week), an event attended by the geriatric author himself, a year or so before he finally died.

‘Ave a Bav in the Pav, Gav!

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