McCarthy's Bar Quotes

“I like reading in a pub rather than a library or study, as it's generally much easier to get a drink.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“I reckon if I can't spend the day sleeping, the next best thing is to spend it reading and drinking.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“If you've had the right kind of education, it's amazing how many things you can find to feel guilty about.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“But once you cross the Shannon - even though geographically you have only come a short distance - different rules of time apply, and most people still understand the crucial secret of human happiness: that it's better to do a few things slowly, than a lot of things fast.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“That guy in the corner. Never tells the truth, as a matter of principle. Why answer a question, he says, if you can tell a good story instead?”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“We had found nothing, and had been lost several times already in one morning, so this was shaping up into a top travel experience.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“If life is a book, then read it while you can.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“I will go outside, wander about aimlessly, and see what happens.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“Immediately across the road is a ruined abbey and cemetery. As I haven't visited one since late yesterday afternoon, I decide to take a look. On the whole, it's fair to say that, if you're travelling round the west of Ireland, an interest in ruined abbeys, however slight, will stand you in better stead than a passion for rollerblading, say or a penchant for showbiz gossip.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“It’s no coincidence that the style of writing known as stream of consciousness was pioneered by Irish authors. Critics have missed the point, however, in regarding it as a radical, experimental reaction against literary convention. For many Irish people, the avant-garde monologue is the most commonplace form of everyday speech; and a very liberating thing it is too. Like the best kind of journey, it’s always liable to veer off in entirely unexpected directions and lead you to destinations you might never otherwise have considered.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland

“Is it possible to have some kind of genetic memory of a place where you've never lived, but your ancestors have? Or am I just a sentimental fool, my judgement fuddled by nostalgia, Guinness, and the romance of the diaspora?”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“Never pass a bar with your name on it”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“I use the pay phone to call my friend Noel. The last time I was here he took me up a mountainside in Connemara with a seventy-eight-year-old poteen-maker who’d learned his craft as a teenager from his father. We spent the day watching him double-distill brown bog water in two oil drums over a turf fire into something that tasted like the finest malt. Noel acted as interpreter, as the old man spoke no English. Perhaps he’ll have another adventure in store for me this time.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland

“The harp player had just fallen off the stage and cracked his head on an Italian tourist’s pint. There was a big cheer, and Con the barman rang a bell on the counter. St Patrick’s Day, and McCarthy’s Bar was heaving.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland

“She's in leggings, like the pregnant twenty-year-old in the tie-dyed vest next to her. Leggings. Bloody hell. Imagined by fatties everywhere to create a slimming effect, they make the average body look like a sack full of hammers.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery In Ireland

“The old stuffs for overseas. The new stuff’s for Ireland. Dublin mostly. Things are changing. Traditional design is synonymous with the past. They want to sit at glass tables now, with weird chairs, and good-looking women.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland

“If life is a book, then read it while you can. Don’t save up any pages for later, because there might not be one.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland

“There’s a man at the gate, watching me. ‘Have ya fallen and hurt yourself, or are ye just afraid of the cow?”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland

“I find my grandfather, buried with Great-Aunt Hannah and Uncle Jack. His surname is spelled ‘MacCarthy’, with an extra ‘a’; like many names here, it’s a translation from the Irish, so the ‘a’ is optional, and may appear and disappear with the generations.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland

“The harp player had just fallen off the stage and cracked his head on an Italian tourist’s pint. There was a big cheer, and Con the barman rang a bell on the counter.”
― Pete McCarthy, McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland