Unlike my two previous "travelogues" of sorts, I was never going to get close to full completion in a day. Tullamore has a population of ~15k, but the pub to population density is much higher in many provincial towns - particularly with the large GAA stadium bringing in visitors and the hospital providing significant employment.
A quick check of the licence register shows 21 pubs and 2 hotel public bars in Tullamore, but this is not always a guarantee that there aren't either more currently unlisted, or some listed but not open. I didn't even complete half of these, albeit I'm sure it was more than half of those open. One of these licences is the distillery (1018528), and another is the former, closed, distillery heritage centre (1014867) - which I'd actually been to anyway.
First pub up was TUP448 Eugene Kellys, a relatively small and quite traditional pub sitting beside the Grand Canal. With no TVs in the lounge, relatively low lighting and significant greebling, you get more than slight feelings of N0221 The Glimmerman in Dublin, albeit somewhat smaller, and without a smoking area of the same scale. The pub was very quiet when we went in, but picked up significantly with fans attending the Louth vs Kildare match in O'Connor Park nearby - something that would provide a large customer base for the next number of pubs.
A very short walk down the road to TUP447 The Goalpost found the first of a number of pubs that have clearly had quite a bit of cash spent on them recently. Small enough inside, but with a vast covered and heated outdoor area featuring a second bar, toilets and TVs, this place was quite full with match attendees but still had plenty of available seats outside. The outdoor area looked to have been rebuilt in the last year or so, with sockets and USB chargers at most tables
A few doors down, TUP446 Digans provided much of the same, but bigger - a larger bar comes with an even larger outdoor area - this one maybe prepped a bit more for locals trade than the matchday traffic. A pizza oven and DJ box were part of the fittings out here. This somehow feels like my local in Maynooth (O'Neills) to me, even though it has more indoor space and a less cohesive outdoor area (and a better drinks selection - it was notable that nearly everywhere sold the same, limited beer collection with Moretti or possibly Madri as the most interesting tap)
It was getting towards the match start time, making it a good time to try find a quieter pub. The walk to the next pub brought us past the first obviously closed pubs, The Hideout - which seems to have maybe shut in 2016 and is not currently on the licence register; and TUP425 Annie Kellys which seems to have closed after 2018. Both were for sale in recent times.
However, there is still a pub open on the street - TUP514 Wrafters Old Habour Bar. Although it doesn't actually look up from the street - only a side door was open, and the internal layout is... strange to say the least. Another odd feature was a CRT TV showing the match - with only the green and blue electron guns still working. There is something particularly surreal seeing a team that play in red and white playing a team that play in just white, on a TV with no red.
The fifth pub was the one I have least interest in going back to - albeit its still not an obviously bad pub. A sports bar, TUP470 Fergies seems to actually be named after a person and not the former Man United manager; but there is plenty of Man United stuff inside so I may be wrong. There is also some greebling that relates to the Irish Brigade in the Spanish Civil War... I don't usually judge any political stuff up in pubs, but I don't think there's any way to see O'Duffys "efforts" in Spain as having been anything but on the wrong side of history. A large pub, there are signs up relating to its Black & White Pub Awards win in 2003 and I suspect that may be roughly when it opened. Of the pubs we visited, this was probably the one most in need of investment - and yet was still in quite good nick.
Food was now obtained, not in a pub.
Another closed pub was now passed on the way to the next boozer - The Hole In The Wall. This has been up for sale for years it seems.
TUP422 Joe Lees was our next pub, a Victorian pub - albeit without as much of a Victorian interior as a Dublin drinker might expect. The match was now over and some people were starting to return back to the pubs afterwards - and most were tapped up for the local GAA club lottery by one of the barmen. We felt somewhere left out not to be asked!
TUP423, the Newtown Bar was nearby and is similar to the Goalpost and Digans from early - a relatively long pub with a modern smoking area out the back and which seems to have had quite a bit spent on it in recent years. There weren't quite as many match attendees here, although the barman did notice my Kildare non-accent and ask if I had been at it. Apparently this was owned by D. E. Williams, e.g. Tullamore Dew, at some point, according to an extensive local history of Tullamores pubs.
This street featured another closed pub - TUP424 Gallaghers Manor, which was also recently up for sale with eight apartments above. This has a recent-ish name change on the licence file so may be about to reopen.
TUP434 The Brewery Tap back on High Street was populated with a significant amount of GAA players, rather than fans this time, all in their finery. The annual dinner dance was on (I believe in TUP488 the Bridge Hotel) and this appeared to be the main pre-drinks, but they cleared out quite quickly. The pub name does relate to having been a Brewery Tap, for Egans, the long defunct local brewery who also had a distillery - but not the local D. E Williams distillery that is much better known.. This brand has been brought back in recent years, albeit using sourced whiskey. Interestingly, this was the only pub where I saw any non-macro products on tap - a single Wicklow Wolf tap - which is suitable for its history connected to an independent brewery.
The final pub of what had been a very long day was 1014867 The Phoenix, which seems to have only opened in 2018. Fitted out to a very Southside Dublin standard, this is a late bar and presumably targets the younger population of the town. Multiple wines on tap
This wouldn't have been the final pub, except there was a pay in event at TUP436 Hugh Lynchs that we decided not to bother paying in for. I'll be back to complete the town at some stage anyway.
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