The Irish Pub Guide

If it’s good enough for a US President, then it’s probably good enough for the rest of us.

Ireland has hosted 11 presidential visits of sitting US leaders over the years, with a handful of them making their way to sample a pint in some of the country’s bars.

Such is the tourism appeal of a pint, particularly Guinness, in Ireland, the chance to get a picture of a president with a drink has become more regular in recent years, Barack Obama being the most famous example of that.

So, if you did want to drink like a former US President, here are the Irish spots where you can.

Windsor Bar, Dundalk – drink like Joe Biden

The most recent presidential visit was that of Joe Biden in 2023, the outgoing president is hugely proud of his Irish roots and that’s what led him to this now famous pub in Co Louth.

Of course, Joe Biden himself doesn’t actually drink alcohol, but he did spend over an hour meeting and greeting people in this pub, owned by the McGeough family.

Owner Donal told Drinks Industry Ireland: “It will go down in the history books as it was the first speech that he [Biden] made in the Republic of Ireland as US president so that’s very special to us.”

You can visit here to this day and the staff will no doubt be happy to tell you about the time Biden came by. They do food as well as the standard drinks you’d expect and are one of the most popular spots in the town.

Such an honour this evening to welcome President Joe Biden to Louth in the Windsor Bar in Dundalk.

He spoke with such love for the beautiful Cooley Peninsula & how he felt such an incredible sense of home with us all in Louth @POTUS pic.twitter.com/0IbISfqGZm

— Erin McGreehan TD (@ErinMcGreehan) April 12, 2023

The pubs of Doonbeg – drink like the Trump family

The little village of Doonbeg is forever linked with Donald Trump thanks to his hotel there and that is the obvious place to head if you want to have a tipple where the incoming President no doubt has too at some point.

He has visited here on multiple occasions but is not known to have ever headed to any pubs nearby, but that’s where his sons come in, who certainly have.

Back in 2019, Eric and Donald Jr went on their own little pub crawl around Doonbeg, delighting locals by even putting a few drinks on them for those who happened to be there.

The pair took multiple pictures in Tubridy’s bar on the main street but visited all of Doonbeg’s watering holes on the night, followed by swathes of locals.

Ollie Hayes Bar, Moneygall, Co Offaly – drink like the Obama family

A place that was truly put on the map back in 2011, Moneygall’s claim to fame is that it is the ancestral home of former US President Barack Obama and that he and wife Michelle Obama came to visit the village which is home to just 300 people.

And on that famous trip, the then president and his wife headed into Ollie Hayes Bar and managed to get their hands on a pint of Guinness, which was captured in what is now a famous image.

More than 10 years on, the pub continues to pay homage to the politician and encourages visitors to come inside and have their picture taken at the Obama bust and view the exact glasses the famous couple took their drinks out of.

Ronald Reagan’s pub

Back in the 80s, Ronald Reagan too came back to trace his roots and ended up in the village of Ballyporeen in Co Tipperary, where his great-grandfather had been born and lived before his family moved across the Atlantic.

And in a bid to meet some locals in 1984, the then president headed to the much loved local of O’Farrell’s Pub, where he is said to have had a few drinks and chatted to some of the regulars inside.

Unfortunately this pub no longer exists in the way it did back then, the owners at the time were looking to sell and eventually did, but not in the way you’d expect.

Frederick J. Ryan Jr, the chairman of the board of trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation, came back to visit the pub that Reagan had spoken so highly of many years later to find it boarded up.

And Mr Ryan wasn’t satisfied with just that, and offered to buy the pub, which he did, and then take apart the entire interior of the pub and send it to California where it would be reborn.

To this day, the now renamed Ronald Reagan pub is up and running and offering up drinks on 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley, California – sitting under the wings of the former president’s retired Air Force One’s wings.