Dere's more to Ireland dan dis
Irish pubs are a very strange phenomenon. They can either be the friendliest of places or a stay on hostile territory. Irish pubs attract all sorts – Irish, British, locals, general tourists and locals who love Ireland, Britain, the Brits and the Irish. They offer womb-like security to the English speaker lost in a non English-speaking country. Their main attraction being Sky Sports and its ability to beam sound and vision at us.
Two such pubs of note in Berlin are The Old Emerald Isle in Kreuzberg and of course the intelligently named Irish Pub Europa Centre in the heart of spend-your-Euro, central Berlin.
The Old Emerald Isle is pure and understated. Good food, tasty barmaids and hungry fellas fill the place nicely. The barman will flirt with the girls and shoot the shit with the lads, king-of-banter style. The cellar area provides a low ceiling to trap in the smoke, perfect for a recluse puffing on a Montecristo and a cognac or, more commonly, a fag and a lager. The perfect place to watch a world cup game as a neutral.
The Irish Pub Europa Centre reminds you why you moved to the mainland. Fat-lads, buzzed and boozed by beer, stare each other out. No one wants to let the side down. One for all and for one place – Booze Britain. During the day, representatives of the binge nation watch football together in one large corner whilst the tourists taste expensive and badly exported Guinness. At night things can get lairy. One-liners are exchanged by fired-up contract workers who grew up watching Auf Wiedersehen Pet. All this happens before the unsuspecting tourists and Berliners. Both are able to exist in harmony like animals on Noah's Ark. The only way to stop a fight from breaking out here during the world cup will be to legalise wacky-backy and pump the beer full of sedatives.