347) Waterside / Fisherman's Bar of Harbour Road, Howth, North County Dublin

The lounge is for eating, the Fisherman's Bar very much for drinking – it also operates as an early house, a growing rarity. The clientele seemed scruffier and rougher than the bulk of the Howth headers we encountered on this stretch (perhaps having started at 7am and put in a good day at the 'office'), and the whole joint reeked of cigarette smoke, which pestilential odour seeped into our pores and impregnated the very wool of our clothes, staying with us long after we made our exit. The source of this smoky emanation was a matter of some puzzlement for us – at times it seemed to be wafting in from a rundown backroom, at others it seemed to stem directly from the bar itself – Enrique reckoned one of the customers was brazenly having his fag in plain sight under the counter and none too shyly either, suggesting the anarchic atmosphere of the place and its staff. A Beamish bonder, but yet again, a poor Beamish it was too.

Update as of June 2022: The Fisherman’s bar is sadly closed, perhaps temporarily, perhaps forever. Its noisy neighborly sister bar The Waterside has been sold to the insufferable Conor McGregor.

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