The Railway Bar

If you’re coming to Ballybunion (Baile an Bhunneanaibhgh), the Railway would be a must, as most of the locals tend to spend their time in here and they will graciously welcome you to join them in banter and craic.
Ballybunion once had a strange, steam-​powered monorail that linked the town with Listowel. This place gets especially packed during the ‘Listowel Races’ in mid-​September and it is absolutely brilliant!
Here’s a little verse from a tune written by Pecker Dunne about his favorite sea town in Ireland:
«To take a walk down Main Street, and see my friends from home,
Go tell my own true sweetheart, I never more will roam,
Go tell the lads I’m coming back – that’s where I want to be,
in my little Irish home town, Ballybunion by the sea.»

If you’re coming to Ballybunion, or Baile an Bhunneanaibhgh, (which I only heard of previously from an old Irish song: «Ballybunion by the sea»), chances are you’d be coming here either for it’s wide open sandy beaches or maybe to play golf, as President Bill Clinton did in 1999, (a statue of him further down main street still recalls one of Ballybunion’s most memorable days).
I was in this in this small coastal village/​town, (which is 15 km west of Listowel), in 2007 working at the modern hugely impressive, 500 seat ‘Tinteán Theatre’. The place has a very impressive number of pubs too, a great number of them with names appealing to golf mad tourists like The Freeway & The Bunker, and of course The Presidents Bar!
Oh I sampled them all in the week or so I was here, but the one I remember for it’s hospitality & of course good beer, was The Railway. (Ballybunion once had a strange, steam-​powered monorail that linked the town with Listowel).
I’ll never forget it that it was whilst watching the tv in the Railway one evening that I was first introduced to «The Podge & Rodge Show» on RTÉ 2. Not that the tv was allowed to kill the art of conversation, and a grand fella I was working with called Jack impressed us all with his ability to identify all the national county hurling teams from a display of model players.
A good old place for a sing song too, and I heard some jokes about Kerry girls which my undaunted respect for them will not allow me to repeat here!
So you get the idea, I have very harmonious memories of Ballybunion’s Railway Bar, so appropriately I’ll end with with a verse of the song:
«To take a walk down Main Street, and see my friends from home,
Go tell my own true sweetheart, I never more will roam,
Go tell the lads I’m coming back – that’s where I want to be,
in my little Irish home town, Ballybunion by the sea.»