Our First Night in Ireland: Three Sunrises and a Pub Lock-In
In 2015, we kissed our kitties, Kuma and Lillie, goodbye and headed to the Tampa airport at sunrise. We were flying to Ireland to celebrate our second wedding anniversary.
After a long layover in New York, we watched the sun set from the runway as we took off for Ireland. A red-eye flight later, we were watching the sun rise as we landed in Shannon.
We picked up our rental car and headed to Galway, where we settled into our hotel completely exhausted, but we couldn’t let our first day in Ireland get away from us. We wandered along the wharf, listened to some buskers, found a spot for dinner, and decided we’d better call it an early night.
The sun was just beginning to set as we walked back toward our hotel when we heard live music coming from a bar across the street. A gentleman walked out, saw us looking through the door, held it open, and said, “These guys are the best. You have to go in and have a pint!”
Live music is definitely one of our vices, so we couldn’t say no. We went in and grabbed a pint. Before long, we’d struck up a conversation with a guy sitting at the bar, then with the bartender.
When the band took a break, we ended up sitting and having a pint with them. They played another set, followed by another round of pints with everyone in the bar, which was probably about 20 people by then.
By that point, we really had to get to bed. We said our goodbyes and headed for the door, but the bartender stopped us.
Instead of taking us out the front, he led us through the kitchen and opened a back door. We stepped outside and were completely blinded by the light, as the sun was rising!
We crossed the street to our hotel and crashed hard for a few hours, but around noon, we dragged ourselves out of bed and headed back out to explore more of Galway.
A sign for fresh oysters caught our eye, so we grabbed a seat at the bar.
As we chatted with the bartender about what to see and do in the area over the next few days, he asked what we’d done so far. We quickly told him about the night before, laughing at ourselves for staying out until sunrise.
He grabbed a handful of the other servers, pointed at us and said, “These guys were at the lock-in at Garvey’s last night!”
Apparently, we’d been the talk of the town that morning, and we had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. We learned that a “lock-in” is when a pub closes, literally locks the front doors, and the patrons inside stay.
Apparently, Garvey didn’t allow just anyone to stay for his lock-ins. He would have had to meet us and approve us staying. Otherwise, he would have told us the bar was closing and sent us on our way.
We’re pretty sure no one ever introduced us to Garvey, so apparently he kept his identity secret from us, but we’re happy to have we passed his test!
Three sunrises before we got a full night’s sleep.
What a welcome to Ireland!
