Ireland has never been awfully keen on beer gardens. Too Little England by half. Warm pints on the veranda, sunshine and duckponds, the acrid fragrance of bruised grass - it all seems to reek of stultifying Home Counties ineffectuality. We prefer to sup in the dark. Wouldn't do to let all that fresh air and natural light get in the way of the real business at hand; i.e. downing as many pints in as short a time as possible. Besides, it's al- ways raining here - so what's the point anyway?
Our beer gardens traditionally tended towards the perfunctory then. In truth they were rather drab affairs - usually consisting of too much concrete and flagstone and not enough actual garden. The past few summers, however, have been marked by a gradual drift towards outdoor drinking. Many pubs, especially those in the suburbs and by the sea - where scenic coastal views provide an added enticement - are opening beer gardens while others, which had allowed theirs to languish in a state of dishevelment, have begun to clean up on their act. The poor old beer garden is in terrible danger of becoming fashionable before the summer gives out on us. Nobody knows how many beer gardens there are in Ireland, the definition of "beer garden" being rather woolly anyway.
The two publican representative bodies, the Licensed Vintners Association and the Vintners Federation of Ireland, claim ignorance on the question. But the British-based Campaign for Real Ale has noted the steady, if slow, spread of openair facilities.
"There's really nothing better on a hot summer's day than to sit outside and watch the world go by, and more of us seem to be realising this. So we see a gradual, though admittedly slow, increase in beer gardens," says Northern Ireland CMRA chairman Philip Hernberg.
"But they will never catch on to the extent they have in Britain. They were always part and parcel of the old English pub. We just don't have the same traditions here."
That Dublin is not particularly well-endowed on the beer garden front is perhaps a little surprising, given the present fad for Parisian-style sidewalk drinking.
The Coal Porter in Rathmines, features one of the city's better known, a straightforward if thoroughly unspectacular job thankfully low on cracked paving stones and high on greenery. The view is far from breathtaking - a side road crammed with parked vans - but the seating is comfortable and a small fountain adds a smidgen of elegance.
Less subtle is the The Quays pub. Well it would be, being at the epicentre of Temple Bar. Although the beer garden is a basic stone-and-latticework prospect, it is a good spot to meet and mix; the churning atmosphere being strongly redolent of big match day in a provincial town.
Be warned, however, on sunny days it can be very full. Close by, The Brazen Head, on Bridge Street - which claims to be Ireland's oldest pub - sports a delightful front yard theatrically hemmed in with stern medieval walls. Again, strictly elbow-to-elbow stuff on balmy summer nights but so heady is the antediluvian charm, the cramped conditions scarcely seems to matter.
The Barge in Ranelagh doesn't have a beer garden as such, but the nearby Grand Canal bank has become popular with patrons in summer. There's nothing quite like a slow pint by the waterside - if it wasn't for the omnipresent white-noise of traffic you could almost pretend you were in the country. Beyond the city centre, Howth's The Bloody Stream is an easily reached highlight located at the end of the Dart line. Once there, you will find an unassuming, appealingly cluttered beer garden, all benches, barrels and old-world allure. The pub's resident sheepdog provides a gentle companion on lazy afternoons.
Miles away in Leopardstown, The Leopardstown Inn restaurant/ bar complex boasts a large, scenic porch with all the standard attachments and rather more room than is usual. More distant still, The Queens in Dalkey has an elegent veranda and exudes a breezy, sand-between-your-toes, seaside feel. A good place to stop after a day at the beach.
In Cork, The Western Star is equipped with an extensive outdoor area which bears more resemblance to a concrete-carpeted football pitch than to the furtive little patches of green which usually pass for beer gardens in this country. Located next to UCC, it is a major student haunt during the academic year, though an older crowd usually moves in over the summer. Hard to beat, if only for sheer scale.
The city-centre Franciscan Well Brewery is an altogether different prospect. Leading the micro-brewery charge down south, it offers a compact, paved yard which, while it could do with a tad more ornamentation, is nevertheless perfectly acceptable.
This is only an arbitrary list, of course; the number of pubs with beer gardens is growing all the time. But if you want to try one out, you'd better get at it soon. There's bound to be a spell of drizzle around the corner.