Dickie Beirne’s Pub At Eastersnow

For those of you who have not known the pleasure of a night in Dickies’, you are missing the opportunity to experience a type of socializing that is rapidly disappearing in Ireland.

Dickie’s is located in the parish of Croghan and the quaintly named townland of Eastersnow.  The pub has been in the Beirne family for three generations and for Dickie its not a case of making a living from the pub, it’s his way of socializing. 

Each evening the fire is lit in the lounge and Dickie stretches in his chair which is strategically placed to see both entrance doors to the pub and to enjoy the heat of the fire as he watches TV with his dogs spread-eagled by the fireplace.  When the door opens, all are greeted by name and as if they were expected.  If the guest is a dog lover, Dickie makes a desultory effort to tell the dogs to get up but if there’s a stranger in the company Duke and Tipp are commandeered to the kitchen.

Each Saturday and Sunday night parishioners of Croghan, Ballinameen, Boyle and Elphin slowly meander to the lounge or bar, and settle into their preferred seat. 

Some nights a group of traditional musicians will gather, many of whom would command substantial fees for performing in the National Concert Hall or significant  venues at home and abroad, but in Dickie’s they are welcome for what they are; musicians who enjoy music and like the intimacy of an appreciative audience.

Mostly though, the song and dance is provided by the local patrons of the pub with accompaniment by Una, Dickie’s wife on her keyboard, and any other visiting troubadour or musician. 

Eastersnow has been noted by scholars in The Annals of the Four Masters, The Heart of Ireland by P.A. Sharkey and by John O’Donovan but to those who call it home it is a place where we are all present and accounted for and above all—welcome.