Dungloe, Co. Donegal - Population 1164 in 2016 - is one of those towns that has - or had, really - A Lot Of Pubs. During my lifetime, I believe the peak was 12. I spent last weekend up there, and decided to try visit as many of them as I could, but closures and weather intervened significantly, with 5/6 being all I was able to do
Starting from the South end of the town, there are/were:
LEP079 (I think...) Patrick Johnny Sally - this was open pre-Lockdown but I'm not sure if it has opened since.
LEP078 The Midway
LEP077 Teach Owenie Bán
The Central Bar - closed for quite some time
(can't find a number) Mulherns Corner Bar
LEP083 Beedys Bar - open recently, for sale.
Sweeneys Hotel - long closed and derelict; but currently under redevelopment
1006226 The Bridge Inn - rebuilt from near dereliction in 2011
LEP084 Atlantic Bar - currently closed and for rent according to signs in window
LEP073 McCaffertys (The Bayview until recently)
Braeside House / Forkers - closed for quite some time
LEP086 Waterfront Hotel (formerly Ostan na Rossan)
Expecting to get a few pubs in before dinner in the hotel, and a few after, I started at the furthest away point, with a pint in The Midway - a small guesthouse with a bar and restaurant. I can't actually remember much that stands out here, which is not a bad thing,
Crossing the road to Teach Owenie Bán brought us to the most traditional/rural of the pubs, albeit one with two pool tables and a number of fruit machines out the back. Signage outside advertises jiving classes, and signage both outside and in makes it clear this pubs football allegiances - to Liverpool. The Rosses is far less of a GAA-supporting area than most of rural Ireland, although their is still support for the GAA and an established club in Dungloe, so seeing this is not that unexpected.
The next open pub is Mulhern's Corner Bar, recently enough refurbished in to a very comfortable space. There is more obvious football club support here, this time for Celtic;
The most recent "addition" to Dungloes bars - in that the building was nearly entirely replaced in early 2010s - is the Bridge Inn. There was a very run down pub of this name on this site before, with a "niteclub" in the basement, but what's there now is a very modern premises similar to any modern or modernised pub in any urban area.
What is interesting is that all four of these premises, from the very traditional to the very modern, charged exactly the same prices. Which are low, by Dublin standards - 4.60 for a lager and 4.40 for a Smithwicks.
It was time to get out of the rain and get ready for dinner at this stage, so back to the Waterfront.
The hotel pricing was also relatively low by Dublin standards, albeit not quite as low. Bottled Kinnegar beers were 5.10, and it was these I finished my night with - as extremely squally weather had closed in, and there was zero chance that I was going to walk down to McCaffertys. I'll have to return to actually close off the town as "done", but I'd expect at least a few more premises to be open for the Summer tourist season anyway (Beedys, Sweeneys as soon as its ready, Patrick Johnny Sallys)
