Self
Lise Hand: Being ordered to write about love in February is a gigantic pain in the arse, so I went to the pub instead
Ireland’s enduring love affair is with our greatest pubs, where the stories, yarns, tall tales, banter and argument add to that distinctive scent which is baked into the very walls of these time-honoured houses
“In time of trouble and lousy strife,
You have still got a darlint plan
You still can turn to a brighter life -
A pint of plain is your only man.”
(The Workman’s Friend, a ‘pome’ attributed to Jem Casey in At-Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O’Brien)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that every single person in possession of a column during February must write about love. They may write about finding it, losing it, finding ...