Eat, drink

DUBLIN is buzzing. It's Friday night and the crowds spill out of the Horseshoe bar and into the lobby of the Shelbourne, the city's grandest hotel. No gentle sipping of cocktails here: Guinness gathers on top lips as voices rise.

Pub culture runs deep in Ireland. Writers, from Beckett to Behan and Joyce to Kavanagh, have all acknowledged the importance of the pub to Irish life. And now it's up for sale.

Irish pub designers have hit Europe with their country's inimitable mix of good food, drink and cheer, and can barely keep up with demand. Irish pubs, such as Kitty O'Sheas, are now well-established in Europe and bar signs such as Mulligan's and Finnegan's Wake are common in the 3rd and 5th arrondissements in Paris.

The recipe for an Irish pub, says Brendan Buckley, marketing manager for the Irish Pub Company, "is made up of four key ingredients: good staff (Irish, of course), good-quality food and drink,Irish music (preferably live) and good design".

And he should know. By the end of the year his company will have designed 50 pubs throughout Europe. Even British brewer Bass has approached it for contracts next year.

the dublin pub market

So what is it that makes Irish pubs so attractive? How are they different to British pubs? "It's the best pub concept in the world," declares Buckley, but he stresses, "You've got the Dublin pub market and the rest of Ireland pub market - it's very distinct. Dublin is switched on to every change. But in general, the Irish pub has certain qualities no other pub has.

"For a start, being a barman is a serious profession; it's a three-year apprenticeship. Pubs are renowned if the staff are good. In London, half the bar staff are Australian students. An English bar person will take one order at a time, an Irish bar person will serve 10 at once and have their next drink waiting."

Loud music and television is not encouraged (apart from the odd rugby match) and gaming machines are not allowed.

Apart from "the crack" - a term for that Irish combination of drink, food, fun, music and a barman who can spin a good yarn while he pulls a pint - design is fundamental to the Irish pub's success.

"Irish pubs are very specific," explains Buckley. "Things like snugs and screens make the layout."

Snug? A small private room in a public house, the dictionary says; a place where men stashed their wives out of drunken male reach, is the less official definition.

And "snug" is an accurate description. Lunch in the snug at one of Dublin's oldest pubs, Ryan's on Parkgate Street, was a cosy affair. Six of us piled in behind a frosted glass and wood screen on to two tiny tables, a bench and a couple of stools. A pulley door handle was operated solely by bar staff.

Shelf displays take the place of optic rails. "In England you have a bloody big canopy or over-bar hanging in front of you," says Buckley, "and optic rails totally obscure your views of the bevelled glass on a lovely Victorian back bar."

Other design features include high drinks shelves close to the counter, which extend the counter space and ambience and allow customers to catch the bar person's eye.

"The most popular space in most Irish pubs is the counter," says David Crowley, architect and veteran Irish pub designer, who claims to be a founder of the former design element. Crowley also claims to have started the trend for ripping up tired pub carpets in favour of hard floors of tiles and timber, now the norm. Jack Fitzpatrick, marketing manager for Gemmell, Griffin and Dunbar, pub interior designers and refurbishers and the Irish Pub Company's main competitor, disagrees: "That was surely O'Dwyer?"

Liam O'Dwyer tore up the carpet and formica of his namesake pub in Mount Street in 1983, while his father was away in Australia. He put in their place a solid Brazilian, mahogany, hand-carved back bar and floor tiles. "That was the start of it," says Fitzpatrick. "I know - it was our back bar."

Ciss Maddens,donnybrook road

"In the early 1980s a lot of money was spent on pubs in Ireland," explains Buckley, sitting in Ciss Maddens in the Donnybrook area of Dublin. "A lot of stuff was thrown out, along with the formica and plastic."

Lighting comes from the odd bare bulb and artfully cracked shades. Floorboards, reeded screens, a snug and battered pictures make up the rest. "We distressed those ourselves," he says, pointing to the bashed frame and stained print. "There's a move towards retro in Irish pub design at the moment."

Ciss Maddens is "the traditional Irish pub shop", one of the five styles on offer through the Irish Pub Company. Often a grocer or hardware shop would double up as a pub, and customers in town to stock up with provisions would have a small "sup" to take them through the day.

A corner of the shop would be set aside for this purpose, with simple wooden tables and benches, and "a pot-bellied stove that would burn right through the winter, and wooden floors worn smooth by a thousand pairs of shuffling shoes", the brochure reads nostalgically.

Old biscuit tins are displayed on out-of-reach shelves. Buckley says these are getting more expensive now, so the company employs a person full time to scour the country for artefacts, the majority original. Most of the stuff here came from a drapers shop in Killorglan," he says. Walls are finished with a convincing nicotine-stained effect.

Two examples of this style of pub can be seen in the UK - Scruphy Murphy's in Edinburgh and O'Neill's in Aberdeen. The other four styles on offer are Irish Country Cottage, Victorian Dublin, Gaelic and Brewery.

Cafe En Seine, dawson street

Fiachra from Irish rock group the Hot House Flowers drinks here. So does U2's Bono. Café En Seine is part of the growing trend of European café-style bars opening up around the city - the Thomas Reid, the Globe and Hogan's are just three more names. Gone are the dark-tinted, leaded windows, in come big, bright bays, pavement furniture,cappuccino and croissants.

It's mid-morning and Dublin's shoppers perch on Café En Seine's minimalist furniture sipping espressos (with Guinness chaser). This is the flipside of Ireland's fling with Europe. Owner Liam O'Dwyer, who is also responsible for Tex-Mex chain Break For The Border, believes that Dubliners were getting tired of the Victorian pub concept. "It began to suit the city," he says of the café style of bar. "Dublin is cosmopolitan. It's all part of this inter-European closeness, although we haven't really got the weather for it!"

He says of his latest project: "It hadto still be tangibly a pub to survive in Dublin, so it's a café, bar and pub all rolled into one."

O'Dwyer salvaged the 75ft bar from its former life as a balcony and had it converted by artist Oliver Brady. A copper bar top was added, and the green, leather-look banquette seating opposite mirrored the wavy effect of the bar.

After a few legal wrangles to secure the site, Dwyer uncovered the café's showpiece of a ceiling after tearing down the existing office space above. The five big arches that make up the back bar are, in fact, entrance arches salvaged from a manor house in England. The light fittings were made up to O'Dwyer's designs by local company Dublin Ironcraft.

"Yes, it is art nouveau-ish, but I saw these great lights in the bars of Paris and elsewhere in Europe and knew I wanted something like that."

Brady painted the peacock mural and was responsible for the general colour scheme, with direction from O'Dwyer.

The evening brings with it a different crowd - suits and mobile phones from 6pm until 8pm, designer grunge thereafter.

The bar's success has meant that O'Dwyer is currently looking for a site in London for a second Café En Seine.

O'Neills, Pearce Street

Gemmell, Griffin and Dunbar also employ a full-time "salvage" person, but around 35% of their work is reproduction and there's no choice of design style - Victorian is very much their scene.

Dunbar is the joinery side of the business. Inspiration comes from existing old pubs such as Ryan's in Parkgate Street, "but really it's a mish-mash of the past and individual inspiration from the guy that's doing it," says Fitzpatrick.

The company started business back in the early 1980s with O'Dwyer's back bar among its first projects. "When people saw O'Dwyer's they wanted more. Look at that cash register over there," he says, pointing to the ornate machinery disguising computerised technology on O'Neills' back bar, "solid brass, that". The coloured glass panels running round the windows are Eileen Gemmell's work, as are the bevelled glass mirrors and etched screens.

How much does it cost? "You're talking about a variance of £600 to £1,000 per square metre. £600 will get you something fairly basic - such as Ciss Maddens, a rough and ready country style. If you're talking ornate Victorian - hand-carved mahogany, bevelled glass, mirrors, lighting - that moves up to £1,000 per square metre.

Gemmell, Griffin and Dunbar's work stretches across Europe, and Germany is their fastest-growing market. Surprisingly, Fitzpatrick is not so sure about the British market.

"When you put an Irish pub into Italy or Germany it has a very broad appeal. Irish nationals mix with native Berliners. In London the Irish pub tends to be ghettoised, staying in heavily Irish populated areas like Camden and Kilburn, so frequented mostly by the Irish. The troubles over the years have driven their wedge and dictated how the Irish were accepted in certain areas. But the peace process has changed that. It'll be interesting to see what happens now." n

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