Best bar list snubs Irish watering holes

For a nation known — fairly, or not — the world around for its drinking habits as well as its riches-to-rags economy, it’s disappointing that no Irish hostelries feature in a compilation of the planet’s 50 best bars.

The lure of the black stuff and a friendly Irish barman (substitute young Eastern European barmaid where appropriate) is not enough to make the list compiled by a British newspaper.

The list was put together by Paul Wootton, editor of UK magazine Pub & Bar, and features more than a dozen continental European venues.