Of all the compelling reasons to visit an Irish pub, a perfectly pulled pint of Guinness might not necessarily top the list.
Lively conversation – known on the Emerald Isle as “the craic” – is quite possibly the bigger draw, at least according to the Irish barkeeps interviewed in “The Irish Pub,” a lovingly laid-back documentary about the charms – liquid and otherwise – of the traditional Irish watering hole. Other attractions might include a folk song, a corny joke or even a bag of groceries. Several of the pubs featured in the film double as general stores; one proprietor moonlights as the town undertaker.
“The Irish Pub” isn’t just about pubs, you see, but about the Irish themselves, a race of people who are arguably given more to blarney than they are sometimes said to be drawn to drink. “The Irish Pub” is filled with funny (occasionally tall) tales about the barflies who one publican euphemistically calls “characters.”
Billy Keane, the proprietor of a pub in Listowel that bears the name of his father – literary legend John B. Keane – probably best sums up the pub’s role as a place to unburden oneself.
“It’s like a safety valve for the population of Ireland,” Keane says. “We probably have less psychologists than any other country in the world. But there’s probably no country in the world who needs them more.”
Two and a half stars. Unrated. Contains a bit of coarse language now and again. 76 minutes.
Ratings Guide: Four stars masterpiece, three stars very good, two stars OK, one star poor, no stars waste of time.
