Of Irish Pub Glasses
Hopfen und Malz goes a little secular today to talk about the merits of Irish pub glasses, check it out.
I have twice been to the beautiful country of Ireland and plan to go many times more. I have traveled there both for religious interest and also for a family vacation. Both times I have had a beautiful time. One of the truly unique and glorious features of Ireland is it pubs. While rightly famed for their beer they are even better for their atmosphere and their gregarious company. What I loved about them is that you can just walk in sit down and, with the most minimal effort, strike up a conversation which leads quickly to the purchasing of rounds for one another and can easily turn into an evening long event.
While in ancient monastic town of Glenadlough (in the Wicklow Mountains about an hour from Dublin) I made nightly trips down to the single pub. One particular evening I went down with our terrific guide, Kevin and we joined a table full of his buddies who worked for the Mountain Rescue Squad (who find and rescue stranded hikers and climbers). Several pints of Guinness into the conversation I expressed my admiration for their glasses (which boast the Guinness logo on both sides of the glass as opposed to the one sided glasses found in this country). One of our party said matter of factly, “Then just take it when you go.” I protested that I did not feel comfortable doing that. Someone else insisted, “Don’t worry, people do it all the time.” I explained that I was a priest. The give and take of encouragement and objection continued for several minutes. Finally, one of my new friends ended the debate when they grabbed my momentarily empty glass and stuffed it into my windbreaker. That glass sits in a place of honor upon my shelf to this day.
I can vouch for the fact that it is not at all uncommon in Europe to pilfer the occasional glass from a pub, although I wasn’t terribly comfortable with the practice either. I offered to purchase the glasses instead, which often led to the pub owner simply giving the glass to me anyway (perhaps out of pure shock that someone would actually ask).
As an aside, and this being the season of giving, In looking for a cool image for this post I found the above set of vintage label Guinness pub glasses at the Guinness shop, also a good gift idea for your Guinness-loving significant other. They’re not as cool as the good friar’s glass with a story (for that you’ll have to go to Ireland), but they are double-sided and look pretty nice to me. Ahem.
image from Guinness.com
Tags: beer, Glenadlough, Guinness, guinness_logo, hopfen_und_malz, ireland, irish_pub, priest, pub_glasses, Religion, religious_interest, Wicklow
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