A rural pub in Co. Tipperary, which only opens one night a week, has been named among the best in Ireland, according to the Irish Times Barfly series.
Billed as "the great Irish pub column", the series reviews some of the best pubs in the country, 51 of them in total across 19 counties, and has chosen its top ten for 2015 based on readership and social sharing.
Surprisingly, the most read in 2015 was also the least known: Jim O'the Mill in Upperchurch in Tipperary, which its describes as a place where "There is hardly room to move and certainly no chance of a seat as locals arrive through the half-door with fiddles, boxes and bodhrans in tow".
Jim O’ the Mill, run by Jim and Kae Ryan and their five daughters, is built into a flag-stoned kitchen and parlour, and opens only on Thursday nights with a trad session from 9pm.
Five Dublin pubs made the top 10 cut, with The Long Hall, John Kavanagh's (Gravediggers), Kehoe's, Grogan's Castle Lounge and The Cobblestone all mentioned.
Commenting about The Long Hall, the highest ranked Dublin pub, the reviewer said: "There are few pubs in Dublin that can match this great Victorian relic for its warm nostalgia, and Lynott and thousands like him have all had their own moment of melancholy at its bar".
The Top 10 Pubs in Full:
1. Jim O’ the Mill, Upperchurch, Tipperary
2. J O’Connells, Skryne, County Meath
3. The Long Hall, Georges St, Dublin
4. Sean’s Bar, Athlone, County Westmeath
5. Nora Murphy’s Bar, Brandon, County Kerry
6. John Kavanagh’s (The Gravediggers), Glasnevin, Dublin
7. Kehoe’s, South Anne Street, Dublin 2
8. Grogan’s Castle Lounge, 15 William St South, Dublin 2
9. The Cobblestone in Dublin’s Smithfield
10. The Hanged Man’s pub, Milltown, County Kildare.
