135 Best Nightlife in Ireland

Dublin's first superpub received a €4 million face-lift just before the pandemic with three floors of opulent Art Nouveau style à la grand Parisian brasserie, an extensive food menu, and a spectacular enclosed garden terrace with a retractable glass roof. This is one of Dublin's more elegant places to socialize.

A glorious house of ale in the best Dublin tradition, the Cobblestone is popular with Smithfield Market workers. Its chatty imbibers and high-quality, nightly, live traditional music are attracting a more varied, younger crowd from all over town.

With its selection of more than 60 Irish and 30 Scottish whiskeys and a vast range of Irish craft beers, this family-run traditional bar in the town center is an excellent spot for discovering Ireland's distilling and brewing traditions. A favorite of local and visiting musicians, it hosts live traditional sessions Monday to Thursday in season, with live contemporary music every Friday night.

Part cobbler's shop, part bar, this tiny pub has been quenching thirsts since 1899. Offering a quintessential Dingle experience, with music nightly and a big selection of whiskeys. It has its own food truck and microbrewery by the beer garden, where tours and tastings take place daily in the taproom.

Somehow you always get a seat in this tiny sliver of a pub—a warm, old-school boozer at its best—tucked away on a corner near St. Patrick's Cathedral. Pure Dublin class.

With giant multinational Molson Coors at the helm of this establishment, Franciscan Well's microbrewery status is debatable, but every effort has been made to retain the flavor of the beer. On the site of an ancient Franciscan monastery (in fact, story goes that there are monks buried beneath the flooring), it has a heated beer garden and an atmospheric candlelit bar, open daily from 3 pm. Share a pizza fresh from the wood-burning oven.

Also known as the Castle Lounge, Grogan's is a small place packed with creative folk. The old owner was known as a patron of local artists, and his walls are still covered with their work. There's no music or TV, so you can have a proper chat with your pint and toastie.

Part of the social fabric of Sligo since 1868, Hargadons Bar preserves its unique historic character and maintains high standards in a much-loved institution. Wood paneling, cozy snugs (small booths) for private powwows, marble-top counters, and little glass doors on hinges make this place especially conducive to that intangible Irish element, the craic. Check out the walls, covered with historical black-and-white photos as well as fading invoices from the bar's early days. Hearty food at great prices is served at lunchtime (12:30–3:30 pm) and the evening dinner menu (4–9 pm), featuring oysters, mussels, salmon, steak sandwiches, or chicken wings, lists local suppliers. The bar specializes in Irish craft beers with Andersons from Sligo and the White Hag from Ballymote among a wide selection. On Friday night, Irish traditional musicians often hold center stage, followed by a bluegrass group. On Saturday night you may hear country-rock, pop, or folk music. Walk through the bar and in separate premises at the back you will find the well-stocked Hargadons Wine Shop in Johnston Court.

The who's who of city society have always been drawn to the elegance of this glorious Dublin institution at the Shelbourne hotel. There's comparatively little space for drinkers around the famous semicircular bar—but this does wonders for making friends quickly.

Informally known as "the sweetshop Pub" this much-loved Killarney landmark, bang in the center of town, dates from 1870 and was recently given an inspired makeover. The sweets are still there in jars, but one side of the pub now serves coffee, cakes, and light snacks, while the other is a regular pub. Both sides of the establishment are decorated with a fascinating collection of memorabilia. It's a great place to meet the locals.

With the most eye-catching facade on High Street, if not Galway City, the King's Head is dripping with 800 years of history with its association to the execution of King Charles I. Staff are charming and a cúpla focal (a few words in the Irish language) will put you in good favor. There are trad music sessions nightly.

Matt Molloy of famed musical group the Chieftains curates this lively spot in Westport's town center. Traditional music is, naturally, the main attraction.

Instantly recognizable by fans of writer Pete McCarthy as the bar in the cover photograph of his hilarious and best-selling travelogue, McCarthy's Bar, which bore the motto "never pass a bar with your name on it." It's an old-fashioned pub in the real sense, which means it doubles as a shop, so guests can buy a packet of cereal from behind the wood counter or order a pint of the black stuff (or do both). A Japanese katana sword hangs self-consciously on the wall, uncomfortable in its old Irish world setting, but it's a good talking point with the McCarthy family members from the snug at the other side of the counter. The late Dr. Aidan McCarthy, father of the current owners, was a survivor of Dunkirk, a World War II prisoner of war camp, and the bombing of Nagasaki.

Down a narrow, mural-coated lane off the main drag near the English Market, this cavernous little candlelit pub is the perfect setting for a clandestine pirate meeting, and given its 1787 vintage---making it one of Cork City's oldest inns---that may well have been the case in the misty past. A roaring fire welcomes guests during the winter months, while Rising Brew craft beer quenches the thirst in summer. Get in early for seating; it really is that small.

Behind the subtle, light-yellow timber-front entrance, this whiskey and tequila bar is a long warren of Victorian-bar idiosyncrasies, with lofty ceilings, barrel tables, two-story-high whiskey cabinets that manifest like the love child of an old west saloon and a traditional Irish pub. The evening entertainment reflects the same hybrid, with jazz, blues, acoustic sessions, and the occasional bit of reggae offered back-to-back with trad-music sessions. It's the best place in town for a refreshing cocktail, and the antidote to an overindulgence in ballads and fiddles.

Fans of musician Ed Sheeran will instantly recognize the interior of this landmark pub as the location of his "Galway Girl" music video with actress Saoirse Ronan. Trading since 1942, this generous-size tavern in Salthill is a firm favorite with visitors who browse through the pub's vast collection of paraphernalia, from farmyard tools and grandma’s garters (hanging over a hearth) to a life-size statue of the "Quiet Man," John Wayne. Its impressive collection of whiskey is showcased on an imposing shelf behind the bar counter.

Old meets new in this award-winning, cozy spot adjacent to the Drury Court hotel. The dark-wood and bar-mirror interior is classic Dublin, but the craft beer selection and chilled-out, board-gaming atmosphere has a more millennial vibe. 

Established in 1823, and scarcely changed since the 1940s, the wonderful Palace Bar is still all tiles and brass. Popular with journalists and writers (the Irish Times used to be nearby), the walls are lined with cartoons drawn by newspaper illustrators.

In Athlone's buzzing Left Bank sector, Sean's Bar styles itself as the world's oldest pub (a claim some cynics dispute, although a framed certificate from Guinness World Records says otherwise), dating to AD 900. This date has inspired the house beer, AD 900, a pale lager brewed in County Carlow. In 2018, Sean's produced two new whiskeys specially blended for the bar: one is dedicated to Luain, the first innkeeper, and is a blend of grain and malt, while the other is a malt whiskey called Clonmacnoise, a tribute to the monks who perfected the art of distillation, and with which you can wash down a complimentary dark chocolate whiskey-infused truffle. Sawdust on the floor of this dimly lighted, low-ceiling, long, narrow bar helps give it a rustic look and soaks up spills. Framed pictures and prints line the walls alongside maps of the Shannon navigation system, and the beer garden stretches almost down to the water. There's traditional music—or on Wednesday, jazz and folk—most nights of the year.

Note the slight tilting of the floor; this was an early medieval feat of engineering---when the Shannon River's water rose and spilled into town, it would flow in one door and out the other.

A Victorian beaut, the Stag's Head dates from 1770 and was rebuilt in 1895. Theater people from the nearby Olympia and Trinity students gather around the unusual Connemara red-marble bar, study their reflections in the many mirrors, and drink in all the oak carvings. They host live music and comedy downstairs most nights.

This fascinating landmark pub was built by local hero Tom Crean (1877–1938). Crean enlisted in the English navy at the age of 15, and served on three expeditions to Antarctica—the Discovery (1901–04) and the Terra Nova (1910–13), both under the command of Captain Robert Falcon Scott, and the Endurance (1914–16), where he was second officer to Ernest Shackleton. Crean himself failed to reach the South Pole on any of these expeditions, and named his pub so that in his retirement he could go to work at the South Pole every day.

Memorabilia at the pub fill in the details of Crean's Antarctic adventures. Famed for his amazing strength and resilience, he walked 56 km (35 miles) through an Antarctic blizzard to bring help to his colleagues, with only two bars of chocolate and three cookies for sustenance. For this he received the Albert Medal for Bravery. On another occasion he survived a 15-day journey across 1,280 km (800 miles) of ocean in an open boat.

Today the South Pole Inn offers heartwarming fare and a selection of local craft beer along with the usual brands.

Dating to the 13th century, the Thomas Moore Tavern is Wexford's oldest pub, named after the renowned Irish poet whose parents lived here. The pub has its original medieval walls and fine old beams along the ceiling, and a spot by the roaring fire is the perfect place for a quiet drink. There's a restaurant attached, and pub-grub dinners are served in the bar.

This bright-blue, mural-scarred pub is in the hub of Galway's medieval center and the core of its beating heart. For more than 120 years its mahogany snugs and alcoves have given patrons refuge from the city's infamous mist and rain while its stock of more than 130 brands of whiskey has fueled heat through their veins. Predictably, it's buzzing on the weekends.

Set on one of Kilkenny's famous "slips," Tynan's Bridge House was first used as an exercise run for dray horses. Inside, you can guess that the pub is more than 200 years old from all the gas lamps, silver tankards, and historic teapots on display. Behind the horseshoe-shape bar, you'll find antiquities from its time as a grocery and pharmacy, but it's best known these days for its Guinness and good conversation.

Ireland has gone through a craft-beer revolution and this busy spot is the place to sample a huge variety of them. The classy red pool table and selection of board games are perfect for a rainy afternoon. 

For a lively nighttime spot, try this large, busy pub in the town center, known for live Irish music and late hours.

A clever and cool addition to the Dublin nightlife scene, an evening at Anti Social can mean some serious dancing to live DJs, or a laid-back gaming session on the old-school arcade machines. 

Cross O'Brien Bridge and take the first left to find this Irish-speaking social club–pub, which is a great place to hear traditional music, watch (or join) dancing and language classes, and hear the Irish language in use. Non–Irish speakers are very welcome. Open weekdays only.

The huge world-beer selection, poker on Tuesday, and a DJ on Saturday lure a young, hip crowd here.