Bar Reviews > Ireland
  by Pissedrunk

Back in Kuwait drinking a couple of Abbassiya Patta's after an eventful week in beaaautiful Ireland !!! Abbassiya Patta, incidentally, is the malayalee term for the locally distilled stuff that is available in Kuwait for those thirsting for a coupla 'numbers'. Abbassiya is the area in Kuwait which is inhabited (or infested?) by mallus, the perennial drunks.

For the record, the Irish have ganged up to fight the evil influence that Scotch has cast on the world. Whiskey (note the 'e' in the spelling, which the Irish claim is THE original word derived from Isque Bathe - or whatever - which means 'Water of life' and is the origin of the word Whisky - sorry, whiskEy). Jamesons, Bushmills, Paddy and Powers have all ganged up to form a consortium which is part of Groupe Pernod Ricard, in order to promote the ORIGINAL whiskey which of course is Irish. I visited both the Guinness Hop Store (their 'museum') and the Old Jameson Distillery while in Dublin, in between numerous visits to many of their outstanding pubs. Guinness was not as helpful as Jamesons was (probably because Sunday was the only day I could find to visit these esteemed establishments). I met the press relations chap at Jameson's, a gentleman who answers to the name of Barry (his last name was lost in the recesses of my whiskey-tinted mind). I appraised them of the wonderful work that you gentlemen are doing at Tulleeho.com, and have encouraged him to visit the website (he was not drunk - unlike me - so he doesn't have an excuse for forgetting the name of the site).

Gentlemen, heed my advise and shift base to Dublin. I swear there is no place in the world that downs as much whiskEy and beer as they do out there. This is probably the only place in the world where a person who has just donated blood is offered a pint of Guinness to help him on the road to recovery. This is the only place in the world where they talk about the nutritional value of a pint of Guinness. About how hops help the sleepless sleep. About how they have pillows stuffed with hops in England and France, but the poor Irish (!!!!!) have to fall back to the pint of Guinness to help them on their way into the comforting arms of sleep because hops cannot be grown in Ireland (can ya believe that ???). Alas, the excuses that are concocted are as incredulous as the Irish are jolly !!!

Suffice it to say that ye olde pissedrunk had a memorable visit to Ireland, helped by generous portions of Black Bush, (sacrilege !!!!!) Glenfiddich and Guinness. Memorable evenings were spent at Johnny Fox's (highest pub in Ireland), The Coach House, The Wooden Spoon, Jack's Railway Bar, The Lisdoo, Jacob's Well and Johnstown Inn. Of the lot, I would personally rate the two evenings and two afternoons spent at Johnnie Fox's as the best of the lot. Johnnie Fox's is an age old pub which STILL maintains it's original interiors with worn out bars and stuff. The stuff they serve is vintage, too. Of course, the lovely Irish Tapdancers were as fresh as they came !!!!!!!

Ireland is boozer's paradise. No two ways about it, PERIOD. Irish WhiskEy, as opposed to Scotch WhisKY is TRIPPLE distilled. And the malt is NOT smoked over PEAT giving it that (ugh ?) smokey taste that is the hallmark of good (???) Scotch. They roast it over SMOKELESS anthracite to preserve the goodness of the malt. No wonder the Irish are so healthy, especially the women !!! This, along with the triple distillation, makes Irish Whiskey so full of goodness and nutrition as opposed to the horrible stuff they distill across the sea in Scotland. Yukk !!! After a few Black Bushes, you tend the believe the chaps. They make great whiskey alright !!! Slointe !!!

Back to beer. Guinness (Stout) was actually 'invented' by mis