Dublin’s Famous Temple Bar

by Brooke Mills

            Ireland is the place I was most excited visit while studying and traveling abroad, other than England of course.  I was excited for the cold weather, the beautiful green lands, and the hot musically talented Irish men; I blame “P.S. I Love You” and Gerard Butler for these fantasies. For the must part though that’s what you get when going to Ireland, at least if one looks hard enough.  The cold weather and green lands were very easy to com by but hot musically talented Irish men are unfortunately not lurking around every corner, so I went looking and ended up at Dublin’s famous Temple Bar.

            Everyone in Dublin boasts about The Temple Bar being a must see and how amazing the performances are. I originally thought it was going to bar a little underground bar where new Irish musicians come to showcase their music, I should have realized though that it would not be very low profile or authentically Irish because of all the advertisement that went on about this bar throughout our time there. Though not exactly what I expected, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found.

            The Temple Bar in Dublin is an extremely popular pub, not just for tourists but for Irish people looking to pick up tourists as well. Temple Bar consists of two very large bars, on opposite ends of this one story building, a garden room, two table rooms, and a room for live music. Temple Bar is huge and every inch of it is packed with people, especially the music room.  Although the garden room is amazing with a glass ceiling, twinkle lights, and flowers and leaves throughout, my favorite room is still the music room.  

            In the music room there is a tremendously small stage, with band equipment and stools atop it, the wall behind the stage are covered with autograph pictures of famous musicians that have performed there before. The music room is very large but even with its size people are squished together, except for a little fear space right in front of the stage.  When I went, there was a band of three playing live music but unfortunately it was not their own, most of it was not even Irish songs, many of the songs were famous American ones. Although this disappointed me greatly, I still enjoyed the American songs sung with Irish accents.  The atmosphere of the pub was great even though it was touristy; people were kind and singing along to the music everyone just enjoying a good time

            When I do go back to Ireland I’m sure I will be gladly lured back into the ambiance that is The Temple Bar and I suggest this musical venue for anyone who has a free night in Dublin, weather you’re a tourist or not.