- In this friendly European town around every corner you will see a church and a pub.

And then another church and then another pub.

Church, pub, church, pub, where else could we be but Dublin?

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- From saints to songs to pouring the perfect pint, welcome to Dublin.

Ah yes, Dublin is known for St. Patrick, Trinity College, and lots and lots of authentic Irish pubs.

But why?

(bright music) Here's what I'm curious about with Dublin's iconic pubs.

Where do we get the name, pub?

Why does a historically male drinking establishment have such pretty flowers adorning it?

How did traditional Irish music get intertwined with pub history?

What is the Brian Boru harp?

And what does it have to do with dark beer?

How did a man named Arthur create a Dublin icon?

What was a Brehon Law, and a spirit grocery, and a snug?

What is the science and the art to pouring the perfect pint?

And most importantly, why does a pub feel like a friend's home?

Who, what, where, why, when, and how.

Pull up a stool and grab a pint, it's time to get curious about Dublin's pub history.

(gentle music) We begin our curious journey at one of the oldest pubs in Dublin.

The Brazen Head dates back to 1198.

From medieval times through modern, when James Joyce and Jonathan Swift were known to throw back a pint or two here.

Another famous Dublin bar is Temple Bar, which isn't really a pub.

This is the famous Temple Bar that is neither a temple nor a bar.

It refers to the entire area here that in 1599 was named after Sir William Temple.

The bar part comes from a sandbar that was built right around here to protect from flooding from the nearby River Liffey.

Now to be fair, today there are a lot of bars within the Temple Bar area, but here in Dublin they call them pubs, so let's not get confused.

And those pubs, or bars, are covered with pretty flowers.

Why something so delicate where manly men throw back a pint?

Well this tradition dates back to ancient Roman times when the alewoman would place a bunch of vine leaves high up on a pole to let travelers from afar know that the ale was ready.

(bright music) Next, where do we get the terms pub or tavern?

We get the name tavern from the Latin taberna, meaning hut or dwelling.

Then the word branched off into two very different meanings.

Tavern, where one commits one sins, and tabernacle, where one begs forgiveness for said sins.

So, as I said, the pub and the church are forever intertwined.

(angelic music) But where do we get the name pub?

Well, quite simply from public house.

Ever notice how a pub looks like a home?

Well that is because pubs came out of private homes.

The owners would open their first floors or parlor rooms as a bar.

Sometimes they'd also rent out a room upstairs to weary travelers, which is why you might see the word inn in the names of pubs today.

Next, during the Middle Ages, lest ye think a pub is only a place for sinners, many pubs were used by travelers on a religious pilgrimage.

But no matter the purpose of their visit, all pub guests would share stories about their adventures, which created our next pub tradition, storytelling.

And for that history we go to the Little Museum of Dublin where there's an entire exhibit dedicated to the history of the Irish pub.

Here, Director Trevor White tells the tale of telling tall tales in Irish pubs.

The idea is at a pub you come up to the bar, and as you sit next to a stranger it's impolite to not talk to the stranger.

Whereas maybe in the States or somewhere else, it's impolite or it would be intrusive to just start up a conversation with a stranger.

- Absolutely, it's more than a cliche.

A stranger is a friend you have never met.

That is a phrase that embodies the Irish tradition of hospitality.

- [Christine] And once you strike up a conversation with your new friend, sit back and get ready for some serious Irish banter.

- Indeed, it's arguable that conversation, this thing that we're really good at here in Dublin, which is arguing with each other, basically, isn't an art form in Dublin, it's more of a sport.

And it's a sport that's played in pubs all over the city.

- And those pubs that host this uniquely Irish sport are quite beautiful.

And one bit of authentic Irish pub architecture is so snugly it is simple called the snug.

So we snuggle into the snug with museum curator and Irish pub expert, Simon O'Connor.

- A snug is a very interesting piece of the architecture of a typical dublin bar.

- And who sat in the snug?

Who was supposed to sit in the snug?

- So it could have been people who didn't want to be seen in the bar, it might have been policemen, it might have been priests.

But also as well it became an area for women to drink in.

It was very much just that, women wouldn't have really been welcome in bars.

Yeah, so it was a very patriarchal type of scenario.

- Yup, that's right.

The snug was mostly known for the time of some serious gender inequality when women weren't welcomed in pubs.

Believe it or not, until the modern day it was illegal in Ireland for a woman to be served a pint of beer in a pub unless of course, she was accompanied by a male chaperone.

And until the 1970s some pubs still didn't allow women in at all.

But many pubs had a snug where the women could gather, and quite likely banter a bit about those men.

But today, it's just a lovely bit of pub history and architecture.

But way before the snug dictated where different people could drink, in the Middle Ages there was something that dictated that certain people could drink for free.

This was part of something called the Brehon Laws.

What was the Brehon Law and how did that affect pub culture?

- They're kind of amusing in a lot of ways, because they speak to this very different society that existed.

A king or a landowner was duty bound by these laws to have a place where travelers could go and drink for free.

- [Christine] Oh, interesting.

- The laws governed things like how much monks were allowed drink versus regular people, because the monks obviously were producing lots of the ale themselves.

And there was just very unusual laws.

But I think what's interesting about them is that they do speak to that hospitality which is such a character of the country.

- By the 1600s there were nearly 1,200 pubs in Dublin.

Now this was at a time when there were only 4,000 families in Dublin.

That's a lot of hospitality.

So, pubs in Ireland were formally licensed in 1635.

In 1735, the Drink on Credit to Servants Act said that pub owners could not collect on an unpaid bar tab from a servant or a poor person.

Believe or not, that law is still in effect in Ireland today.

In this spirit of welcoming the every man made the pubs not just a place to grab a pint, but it also functioned as the working class' personal living room.

Was there a point in history where it was only private clubs that perhaps men would go to and they'd have to pay a fee to be in the club to drink, and therefor the alternative for the every day man was the public house, 'cause you didn't have to pay a fee to go in?

- Exactly, yeah, so there's this concept that people talk about which is the idea of the third space.

So the first space is your home, the second space is where you work, and the third space is where you socialize.

But for most people the third space became the public house.

- Fast forward to the 19th and 20th centuries and we explore why you can buy a packet of crisps in a pub.

When the temperance movement of the 1800s dissuaded people from the evils of the drink, pubs had to diversify their businesses.

So the spirit grocery was born.

Which was basically a grocery store that happened to sell alcohol as one of its items, instead of a pub that only sold alcohol.

Some publicans, as pub owners were called, even became the local undertaker, selling pints and coffins side by side.

Creepy history aside, those spirit groceries explain why many of today's Irish pubs still have grocery shelves behind the bar.

(bright music) Next, from the place to buy your canned soup to the place to kick up your heels.

Licensing laws are also the reason why we hear beautiful traditional Irish music in pubs today.

- So that's actually really interesting.

The Catholic Church didn't want men and women getting together at music dances as much anymore.

They wanted to kind of move men and women away from each other.

And typically Irish music would have been heard in community halls, in dance halls.

But a law was passed in the mid 20th century that basically said you can't have music being performed in a place that doesn't have a license.

So ironically then, the music moved to pubs.

- 'Cause they had a license.

- Because they had a license.

- And there is one more Irish pub tradition that is perhaps the most curious of all.

And it has something to do with not Sunday worship, but Mondays.

Who is or was St. Monday?

- St. Monday.

(both laughing) St. Monday is a fantastic little anecdote.

St. Monday was the patron saint of hangovers.

And people would, it was just a phrase really that was used in Dublin where people would pray to St. Monday because they had gone out on a Sunday night and had to go into work on a Monday morning.

- The patron saint of hangovers.

- The patron saint of hangovers.

Who we should all be praying to, regularly.

(bright music) - So in order to pray to St. Monday you have to put in your time at your local pub on Saturdays and Sundays, right?

Which brings us to the Cobblestone Pub in Dublin's Smithfield neighborhood.

This is owner Thomas Mulligan who is a school teacher by day and pub owner by night.

But this isn't just his family business, it is also his home.

- It's been in the family about 30, I'd say, here or thereabouts.

- And you literally grew up above the pub?

- Right above there, a room right down there at the front of the pub was where I was christened in, or they had the christening party.

On the second floor above that was my first home.

- From family celebrations to the local gathering spot, here in Dublin life happens in the pub.

So it's not just a place you pop in to have a drink?

- No, not all, it's very much the community center.

A church, or community center, would be the sort of equivalent.

But the church not so much in Ireland anymore, but the pub still is.

- [Christine] The pub as the neighborhood gathering place, the third place where everybody knows your name.

- There's friends who come in here, they play music in here, they drink in here, they've worked in here from time to time, some people have met the love of their life.

- So with the pub being such an integral part of every day life, there's bound to be regulars.

Are there any regulars that come in that maybe have been coming for years and you just know them all, you know exactly what they want to drink before-- - Yeah, for sure, that you just get.

That means a pint, a pint of Guinness or a pint of Carlsberg, based off who they are.

- Like that, that's how you do it?

- Yeah, well done.

- (laughs) That's fantastic.

And those regulars wouldn't dream of going anywhere other than their local pub which they simple call the local.

- It's nearly gang turf, you know.

Some people would just, they wouldn't deviate outside that.

There's a few lads that drink in here that every so often there might be a function on maybe somebody's birthday, so they want to go somewhere different from this pub.

So a few people would go, like maybe across the river, and they'd say that they're going on holidays.

It's just so alien to them.

(bright music) - Before we leave The Cobblestone, notice one more iconic element to the authentic Irish pub.

That authentic Irish music.

- They will welcome anybody into the session to sing a song.

Somebody could walk in with a didgeridoo and they'd ask them to play, yeah.

- So why have local musicians gathered to play in Irish pubs for centuries?

For that history, we go to another iconic Dublin pub, taking the scenic route to cross the musical symbol of Ireland.

When you think of the symbol of Ireland you may think of a four leaf clover.

But in fact, it is the Celtic harp.

And you'll see it all over Dublin.

It's on the coins, it is on their coat of arms, and the biggest example is behind me.

An entire bridge in the shape of a harp.

But no, it does not pay the notes as you walk across it.

(chiming music) The Irish harp dates back to the 10th century and it is so important to Irish history that it is actually a symbol of Ireland.

This specific harp is the Brian Boru harp.

Brian Boru was a king of Ireland around 1000 AD.

And it is this harp that's named after him that we see on display at Trinity College's Long Room Library.

And we see it imitated on the Samuel Beckett Bridge and also with the Irish government's coat of arms and on the Irish coin.

Which brings us to another bit of curious history.

In 1922, when Ireland became a free state, they wanted to use the Brian Boru harp as its symbol.

But, Guinness had already trademarked it as their own.

So the solution?

Just flip the harp to face the other direction.

To this day the government's harp faces to the left and Guinness' harp faces to the right.

You got to love a country where the beer comes first.

(bright music) Now, onto other traditional Irish instruments and music, this is O'Donoghue's Pub in Merrion Row.

It dates back to 1789, and it is the perfect place to hear a traditional Irish music session.

In an open session, anyone who knows how to play can join in.

And anyone in the pub is welcome to sing along.

All this leads to that legendary Irish camaraderie that permeates a pub.

But what's the history of the music itself?

It goes back a lot further than those public houses.

With its origins going back nearly 2,000 years, when the Celts arrived in Ireland.

And to chat about all this beautiful Irish music history is musician, dancer, and Irish music expert, Declan Gillen.

And it wouldn't be a proper pub chat if we didn't have to shout over the live music.

I said kind of half jokingly but half seriously, I feel like there's two main types of Irish music.

One that makes you dance and one that makes you cry.

And when hear the two different, you can't not dance and you can't not cry.

'Cause they're both so effective.

Is that almost close to, you know what?

- That's actually really, really close.

We have three kinds, people would say we have three kinds of music in Irish.

We have Irish names, which is the (speaks in foreign language).

And it is, one of them is the Irish music that makes you dance is the (speaks in foreign language).

And then we have the Irish music that makes you sad which is the (speaks in foreign language), that's sort of the laments.

And then we have one more kind as well, it's called the (speaks in foreign language).

And that's the music to make you sleep, like the lullabies.

- I love it.

(bright music) Now that we know the different types of traditional Irish music, now we explore the traditional Irish instruments.

Wait, those are Irish, right?

- What you hear most of the time in Irish music today, a lot of the instruments that are played aren't actually Irish.

We use the wooden flute, which is actually English.

We use the fiddle, which is more Italian.

We only have three instruments that are actually Irish, and that's the Uilleann pipes, which is our version of the bagpipes.

It's called the Uilleann pipes because your elbow is your Uilleann in Irish.

And you play them with your elbows.

- Oh, no way, okay.

- And then we have the harp.

Our version of the harp is an older version which is called the (speaks in foreign language), and then we have more, it's called the (speaks in foreign language).

The (speaks in foreign language) is a drum.

It comes from the Irish word (speaks in foreign language), so it actually translates as deafener.

(bright music) - But as you are clapping along, make sure you don't spill the most crucial element to Irish pub history, the beer.

And here in Dublin that beer is most likely to be and iconic dark and almost chewy brew, known as Guinness.

And for the history of Guinness we go, no not to another pub, but to a medieval gate named after a saint.

Well of course we do.

(angelic music) St. Jame's Gate dates back to Dublin's medieval history when it was the western entrance to the city.

It was named after St. James because his holy well lay near this spot.

Later, St. Jame's Gate became the starting point for Christians from all over Ireland to being their pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

From a holy quest to a brewery?

Yep, the Gate of St. James was demolished in 1734.

And 25 years later an old brewery near the site was purchased by an Irish visionary.

Who would become very important to Dublin's pub history.

The name of the man who lived here is synonymous with Dublin.

His legacy is known around the world, including six generations of philanthropy.

That man's name was Arthur Guinness.

St. Patrick's Cathedral got a much needed renovation in the 1800s.

St. Stephen's Green was opened to the public.

And numerous charities were established, including housing for the poor.

All thanks to the Guinness family.

And there was one more kind of important contribution.

What was it again?

Oh yeah, a magical dark elixir brewed right here at St. James' Brewery, that all started with a curiously long lease.

On New Year's Eve in 1759, Arthur Guinness signed the lease and built his brewery right here.

The interesting thing is, that lease happened to be for 9,000 years.

I just say that's confidence.

He knew people would be enjoying his brew for a very, very long time.

Now look closely at the signature on that lease.

Look familiar?

It's the signature seen around the world on every bottle of Guinness.

Also on every bottle is that iconic harp, with the curve to the right, of course.

(angelic music) But it's what on the inside that counts.

Let's get to the brew itself.

What was it that Arthur had invented?

Was the beer already like that, he improved on it?

I mean, when you have a Guinness, it's so distinct.

- So Arthur was brewing ale as a young man, as that was the only type of beer that existed in Ireland at the time.

He actually went over to London and tried porter that had become very popular with the market porters on the docks.

He actually wanted to brew his own porter.

So he came back here to St. James' Gate and that's when he started roasting barely for the first time.

And that's what gives Guinness the dark color.

You know, it's known around the world as the black stuff, but it's actually a very, very, very deep ruby red.

- And there's even more curious science to Guinness' iconic brew.

In 1959, to celebrate their 200th anniversary, nitrogen was added to Guinness beer.

Who the heck puts nitrogen into a drink?

Well a mathematician named Michael Ash, apparently.

He was the one who discovered that nitrogen would produce that creamy layer on the top of a Guinness.

Which leads us from science to sacrament.

Pouring the perfect pint is a serious business here in Dublin.

For the first pour you pull the handle towards you, and fill to the top of the harp.

Then before the second pour comes patience, for a step called the surge, where you wait for the waves and clouds to settle.

Told you this was scientific.

(tense music) Then the second pour and fill to a level Dubliners call just proud of the rim.

And this is the scary part.

It's right over the top.

Ah, work of art.

And now that we have our perfect pint, time to pair it with the perfect bite.

Which are also a big part of Irish pub history.

And one iconic bit of pub fare started in 1837 with the British prime minister and a slimy little fella taken straight from the Irish Sea.

- It was Benjamin Disraeli, the British prime minister, he had some oysters and some Guinness and he wrote a lovely letter to his sister, I believe, to tell her how well they paired well together.

So that was the first-- - Ah, interesting.

And that's how the restaurant got its name?

- Yeah, that's where the restaurant got its name, but that's where Guinness and food was born.

- Next, one of the most iconic Irish pub dishes, traditional Irish stew.

- Every household in Ireland, for hundreds of years, even before Guinness, had a peasant dinner if you like.

So they worked off the farm, they ate off the farms.

It's traditional in the sense of a peasant dinner.

For me, personally, as a child growing up, my mother, every Saturday would have beef and Guinness stew for us, for our dinner.

And we loved it.

But my father worked in Guinness itself, he worked here.

So our house always had a bottle of Guinness.

- Oh, that's great.

- So there was always Guinness going into the stew for us, which was great as well.

(bright music) - And there's one last authentic Irish pub lesson to be learned.

Whether you're in The Cobblestone, O'Donoghue's, or the Guinness Storehouse, it's how to toast as the Irish do.

(speaking in foreign language) That's Gaelic for to your health.

Because where else but in a Dublin pub is a beer considered healthy?

So from private houses welcoming thirsty travelers in Roman Britain, who put pretty little flowers up high to announce we're open, to a law that said the poor should drink for free, to a time when pubs were only welcoming to men, which gave rise to a snugly bit of architecture, to a saint named Monday, to a gathering place for family celebrations and a community center where the regulars know how to order a pint without saying a word.

- One of those.

(chuckles) - To the long-running Irish tradition of beautiful Irish music with instruments that come from all over the world.

To one instrument in particular that became the symbol of Ireland in a long library, on a bridge, and on a coin, that when flip it, the harp not the coin, you get the symbol for perhaps the most iconic ingredient of any Dublin pub.

A dark elixir that is equal parts science and art, that pours and pairs perfectly with a peasant dish you can still find in pubs today.

All this combines to create the Dublin institution that is the perfect setting for Ireland's greatest talent, chatting and hospitality.

Where a stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet.

Dublin's pubs have so much to be curious about.

Thank you for joining us on our educational journey, and hopefully now you're even more curious about the who, what, where, why, and how of Irish traditions and culture.

As the Irish say, (speaking in foreign language).

(bright music) Curios Traveler is made possible by the following.

- [Announcer] For more than 45 years, Vacations by Rail has been helping travelers explore the world with a collection of rail journeys and luxury river cruises through awe inspiring nature and cosmopolitan cities, from America's national parks to Europe and beyond.

Vacationsbyrail.com.

At GET, we believe travel is more than just getting away.

It's about experiencing a destination and iconic sights and delving deep into local culture.

Learn more at getours.com.

SmarTours offers group tours to over 50 must see destinations around the world.

With SmarTours we want you to enjoy the fun of travel while we do the planning for you.

The journey begins at smartours.com.

- [Christine] Still curious?

Go to curioustravelertv.com and follow us on Facebook @CuriousTravelerTV, on Twitter @CuriousTravTV, and on Instagram @CuriousTravelerTV.

(bright music) (dramatic music)