O’CONNELL’S, SKRYNE HILL, CO. MEATH, IRELAND

(046) 902 5122

My annual two week holiday in Ireland has finished and I am on my way home and whilst I have not visited this pub this holiday I didn’t think I could leave without writing about it; it’s that good. I also have many other favourite pubs in Ireland but they and you will have to wait until another time.

Skryne (Gaelic:  An Scrín) is a tiny village, situated on and around a hill between the N2 and N3 National primary roads in “the Royal” County of Meath. As the seat of the legendary High Kings of Ireland, the green pastures of this northeastern county are the ancient royal heartlands of Ireland.

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THE BLIND PIPER, CAHERDANIEL, CO. KERRY, IRELAND 

(066) 94 75126

As I said in an earlier post, I have been very lucky in life for many reasons. One of these is that some thirteen years ago, my wife Julie and I came across Derrynane Bay and Caherdaniel, in Co. Kerry. 

It was our first time in Ireland; we had toured down the West coast from Donegal over seven/eight days through appalling weather. We then spent a night in a B & B in Waterville and the next morning awoke to glorious weather. That morning we only travelled five or six miles and went over what we now know as the Coomakista Pass and down below was Derrynane Bay in all its glory.

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This was the headline from Marketing Week in October 2008. The article said AB InBev had remained silent amidst speculation it planned to launch a new variant named Stella Artois Black and denied plans to introduce a product with a higher ABV than its flagship brand.

The new beer, which was reportedly due to be launched in 2009 was rumoured to be a 5.5% ABV beer (I use that term loosely); higher than the current 5% ABV Stella Artois brand.

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