It won’t be long now…the snug in Toner’s awaits, even if Yeats wasn’t a big fan.

It is said that the only pub ever visited by WB Yeats, was Toners on Dublin’s Baggot Street.
A good choice, it being the finest pub on the planet – even if there are quite a few rivals nibbling at its heels.

It was Oliver St John Gogarty who brought the poet to Toners. And, I believe, they sat in the snug where Yeats sipped a sherry before declaring: “I have seen a pub now can I go home?”

He might have been good at the old poetry. But when it came to appreciating pubs, he was clueless.

And so I decided to write the poem he should have written and would have if I’d been there to persuade him to down a few pints of Guinness.

The Pint Isle of Baggot Street.

I will arise and go now, and to Toners it will be

And a nice pint I will drink there, of malt and barley made.

Five good mates will I have there, if there’s room, then another three

And we will drink alone in the quiet snug

And we’ll go on the piss there, we’ll take it nice and slow.

Sipping from a proper glass none of the plastic shite

We’ll order loads of creamy ones until we’ve had our fill

And evening time turns into night

I will arise and go now, I’ve waited for a year

I hear the Guinness flowing into the glass behind the bar

I’ll wait for it to settle ‘til the liquid is pure black

Because life isn’t life without a jar.

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