|
O'Donohue's pub is hard to miss - Fanore is a tiny place along the R479 coastal route in Co. Clare and O'Donohue's Pub, with its sea blue painted exterior, is possibly even the only building you might notice. If the truth be told, you could be forgiven for driving through Fanore without noticing the village itself, as your line of vision is focussed on the beautiful coastal scenery, but you'd have to be in an awful hurry to miss this pub. County Clare being the kind of place where people don't rush you anyway, we reckon O'Donohue's might just make the perfect halting post.
O'Donohue's is a very traditional Irish pub. It's been in Pat O'Donohue's family for 4 generations - to be precise, the pub will be celebrating its 100th anniversary this year in 2011. There are two distinctive parts to the pub - the bar and the lounge. Unless something is going on in the lounge, stick to the bar, this is where the "craic" will be happening and also very importantly this is where Pat keeps his collection of whiskeys. Pat's collection is VERY impressive - there's all the usual whiskeys that tell you some thought went into the selection - Greenspot, Dungourney, Connemara Cask Strength, Tullamore Dew 10 Year Old Reserve, etc. But there are also whiskeys you will never find behind an ordinary bar - the Greenspot 10 Year Old commemorative edition, Knappogue Castle 1995, the first Midleton Single Cask bottled for the Celtic Whiskey Shop, Magilligan's Single Malt, and the list goes on and on. There are over 100 whiskeys for you to sample in this pub, at least 80 of them Irish, which means that you can find more or less every brand of Irish whiskey available today in O'Donohue's pub, from the everyday favourites to once off bottlings.
O'Donohue's opens around 12 from April until end of October. On a sunny day, people will be sitting outside enjoying a drink and something to eat and breathing in the views and the sea air - the R479 (of note, the greater the number of digits on a road in Ireland, the narrower that road is!) is the only thing separating the front of the pub from the Atlantic. In winter (November to March), the pub doesn't open until 8pm and patrons will be cosying up in the bar in front of the open fire. O'Donohue's specialises in local food during the summer season, especially fish and seafood and Pat's ambition is to be known for the best fish and chips on the entire West Coast of Ireland... Try them and tell us what you think!
Whiskey, fish and chips and stunning scenery aside, the main attraction in this pub is probably Pat himself. Publicans in Ireland have a reputation for being friendly, talkative and for knowing what's going on in the locality. Well, Pat is just such a man, with undeniably an even bigger share of the above attributes than the average bar owner. So whether it's an update on the weather you need, a recommendation on a place to visit or you just want to forget about Facebook for a while and have a real live conversation with a local, then Pat's your man. Expect some Irish wit and wisdom thrown in for good measure too! There are a couple of B&B in Fanore and Ballyvaughan is only a few miles away, so we recommend you stay locally to make the most of this very memorable pub.
O'Donohue's Pub - Fanore, Co. Clare
Tel. +353 (0)65 7076119 / +353 (0)87 9099619
|
