The village of Liscannor in Clare has officially more pubs per head of population than anywhere else in Ireland.The tiny village now boasts an incredible one boozer or hotel for every 26 people in the area. This compares to one pub for every 2,750 for Greystones in Wicklow, which has the lowest density of pubs in Ireland. Indeed, County Clare appears to be a Mecca for towns with a large number of pubs with Feakle, Doonbeg and Ballyvaughan all making the top-10 list. The research, which was carried out web designer, Thomas Biddy, CEO of Reg Point-of-Sale, who compared population figures from the last census with public houses registered with the Companies Registration Office (CRO). Google Maps

Marine Road, Greystones, Co Wicklow

After this initial research, Feakle in East Clare was crowned the overall winner ahead of Liscannor â but a deeper analysis revealed that three of the pubs registered with Feakle as their address were actually located in other nearby towns. Although two pubs registered for Liscannor were deemed to be located in nearby St Bridget's Well, the north Clare town was still found to be top of the list. According to Mr Biddy, the community spirit in small towns lends itself to supporting more local pubs. âWhen I crunched the numbers it looks like Feakle in East Clare had the most pubs per people â but when I looked deeper into it, it became clear that three of the pubs which had addresses in Feakle were actually located in other areas a few miles down the road. "When we took that into account Liscannor was number one,â he said. âI think it has certainly something to do with the tourist trade, but it also, I think, says something about the structure of the community â and people in these towns seeing the pub as a real focal point. "Personally, I look at it as a compliment for the town. Liscannor is the best place to go to for a pint in Ireland in my book.â According to Mary O hÉanaigh, who has just reopened Joe McHugh's famous pub in Liscannor, community spirit is key to her trade â with local people even volunteering to help in the recent refurbishment of the pub to make sure it would be open in time for Christmas. The pub, which was formally owned by Clare hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald, also hosted John Lennon and George Harrison when they visited the nearby Cliffs of Moher in 1964. âThe local people view the pub as the community pub. "The people of Liscannor really wanted the pub to be open for Christmas, so there was a lot of volunteer work from locals over the past few weeks,â said Mary. âThe local people actually came in and gave a hand with construction work. "It was amazing, it wasn't just the builders, we have a whole community who came in and helped us get it open for last weekend. âI was overwhelmed with the help we got. It just shows you haw important the local pub is to the people in places like Liscannor.â Lifford in Donegal was third on the overall list ahead of Waterville in Kerry and Doonbeg in Clare. Castlegregory in Kerry was sixth, ahead of Cong in Mayo, Knocktopher in Kilkenny, Ballyvaughan in Clare and Sneem in Kerry. Greystones in Wicklow had the lowest ratio with just four pubs for more than eleven thousand people.

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