Called to the bar

Arthur’s Day promises top-class pub gigs. Tanya Sweeney recalls some great stories from Irish pubs

WHETHER you raise a glass tomorrow to Arthur, to Martha or to marketing, Arthur’s Day is as much a celebration of music as it is of Guinness. Big names will play in Ireland this week, in intimate venues: Mika, Mumford & Sons, Tinie Tempah, Primal Scream and Ellie Goulding. Fifty free music events will pay homage to Arthur Guinness. The one-off to celebrate Guinness’s 250th anniversary in 2009 has become the annual Arthur’s Day. Who can forget when David Gray surprised revellers in Dublin’s Whelan’s venue in 2009, or Paolo Nutini rocked up the Savoy in Cork in 2010? It’s not just on Arthur’s Day that rock ’n’ roll and the humble Irish pub clash gloriously. So we decided to list our favourite pubs, and their place in music history.

The Lobby, Union Quay, Cork: Closed since 2005, the Lobby was a hugely important bar for the city’s folk scene and beyond. It has since been immortalised in a song by John Spillane, and a recent book by Monica McNamara.