Ireland's Top Attraction Is The Pub, Says Lonely Planet

One of the world's most-popular and influential travel guides, the Lonely Planet, says recession or no recession, the Irish pub remains the number one attraction for tourists to the country.

There is "no sign of letting up" when it comes to the nation's "most popular social pastime".

In its latest edition published this week, the Lonely Planet says that the pub is "still the best place to discover what makes the country tick" regardless of whether it's a "quiet traditional pub with flagstone floors and a peat fire" or a "modern bar with flashing lights and music".

It puts visiting a pub at number one in its list of attractions, ahead of others like the Rock of Cashel, Glendalough, Dingle and traditional music.

Dublin city is the number two attraction, which it says has "all the baubles of a major international metropolis" but people who are "friendlier, more easy-going and welcoming than the burghers of virtually any other European capital".

The guide is generally complimentary about Ireland.

It says despite the country's economic woes, the Irish won't let their humor diminish.

"The Irish - fatalistic and pessimistic to the core - will shrug their shoulders and just get on with their lives," it says.

Not everything in the book is complimentary.

Temple Bar has "crappy tourist shops and dreadful restaurants serving, bland overpriced food" despite its "bohemian bent".

Ireland's top paid attraction, the Guinness Storehouse Museum, is called "really about marketing and manipulation", the Book of Kells "an unsatisfactory pleasure" and the Dublin Writer's Museum "a damp squib".

There is also advice for visitors, including for example not to take offence at the Irish propensity to swear.

"Many Irish unconsciously pepper their speech with curse words, which are intended only to be emphatic," it says.

The guide also contains advice to on getting into a round in a bar with an Irish person.

Everyone is expected to take part and the next round "should always be bought before the first round is drunk".

Publicans welcomed the guide's reminder that the pub is at the heart of Irish life.

Chief Executive Officer of the Vintners' Federation of Ireland (VFI), which represents 4,500 publicans outside Dublin, Padraig Cribben said: "We are delighted to be recognized once again by the Lonely Planet."

"The Irish pub has a huge role to play in helping to assist economic growth through increased tourist numbers and the subsequent increased revenue"