It’s All in the Music

My first day in Ireland, I walked the streets of the City Centre and from every restaurant and pub came the sounds of music, both live and recorded.

The music continuously drew me from place to place and finally I settled on one special pub in particular. Gogarty's pub was the epitome of an Irish pub and at the very front were two men with guitars cracking jokes and playing songs. I was lucky enough to walk in right as one song began and almost instantly, every person in the pub was singing right along.

My goal of not standing out shattered, but at that moment it didn’t matter because I was literally surrounded by the culture. It didn’t matter that I was in a foreign country away from my family, that I had just come off a seven hour plane ride or that I had already been rained on four times. I was in Dublin, in a pub, listening to live authentic Irish music and I was hooked.

You can find live music almost everywhere in this city. The streets of Temple Bar are lined with musicians waiting for people to listen to them. But locals have told me to be cautious of the pubs in Temple Bar. In some, the music is hardly what they define as authentic but you will still have a good time listening to the music over a pint.

My recommendation though is to find a pub like Gogarty's with authentic live music. Here, tourist and locals collide as one group. For me, I not only got to see how the music plays into their culture, but I became a part of the culture as well. A few minutes inside that pub, you will feel Irish and never want to leave.

Below is a video from my time at Gogarty's, but please disregard the Scots dancing in the front. Even they can't help themselves when it comes to Irish music.