What is the most rubbish Irish county?

Basically all of them that aren't Dublin. You heard.

louth for being louth but for sheer pointlessness surely offaly or leitrim. although offaly do have the hurling. so leitrim.

Cavan seems pretty pointless and shit, agreed. Armagh's a bit rubbish as well.

Ed Ian Paisley is not from Dublin. I rest my case.

d.arraghmac is right about Cork and Galway cities, but few good bands ever go to either, and this is kind of my barometer of cool places to live at the mo.

Donegal has got to be the worst. Cut off from the rest of the country, haemorraghing jobs like there's no tomorrow (and there isn't if you live in Donegal), and woe betide you if you fall ill up there. The health services are appalling.

http://www.monaghantourism.com/images/moncountymap.gif

(DV, did not realise that you are *back*, the postcard was wonderful and such a pleasant surprise).

I think the fact that the Booker nominees live in Leitrim says it all. Nothing to see, nothing to do, no will to go outside for fear of the locals = productive writer.

roscommon's of no worth also

bmbx, you're a fuckin liar, you've never been to leitrim!

No-one I know from Monaghan has a good word to say about Monaghan, though, so it's got to be a contender, surely?

I notice no one is defending Carlow.

did we ever decide between carlow and leitrim? am doing a lot of nationwide travel with work at the moment, and for my money lietrim is still the carbuncle on the otherwise pretty nose of connaught.

Sorry, but you all pay way too much attention to Dustin, Leitrim is really beautiful. At least the rest of Ireland is beautiful countryside and actually Ireland. Dublin is just a second rate version of London, as in, just as expensive as London minus good markets, record shops, galleries. It's a pretty piss poor capital overall, if I was a tourist there, I could fill maybe six hours. It beats Brussels for most homogenised European capital. I mean, it's bigger than Helsinki, but have you been to Helsinki? It's cool! It feels like Helsinki! Dublin just feels like a shopping centre with a lot of british high street chains with the odd phil lynott statue. Also, dubliners talk louder than anyone else in the world srsly, the most self-important residents of the most bland city.

IMMA has to be the worst national modern Art museum I have been in, so embarrassing for such a rich country. They just blow their money on not good exhibitions by big names (Lucian Freud, Michael Craig Martin, Howard Hodgkin) once a year and then try to fill the rest of the time with really bland random shows. Kumu in Tallinn is a really good example of how arts funding can really be put to good use, mental architecture and energetic, interesting shows that mix lesser known estonian artists with clever choices of international loans. I mean, collins barracks is like a local heritage site, the thought of it as a national museum is baffling.

Dublin is just a second rate version of London, as in, just as expensive as London minus good markets, record shops, galleries. It's a pretty piss poor capital overall, if I was a tourist there, I could fill maybe six hours. It beats Brussels for most homogenised European capital. I mean, it's bigger than Helsinki, but have you been to Helsinki? It's cool! It feels like Helsinki! Dublin just feels like a shopping centre with a lot of british high street chains with the odd phil lynott statue. Also, dubliners talk louder than anyone else in the world srsly, the most self-important residents of the most bland city.

Says the man in Galway! There's bugger all there except horribly overpriced twee little pubs and shops. Everyone up their own arses about living in out there away from the resented Dublin. Hating what you want to be = neither cool or original.

We also send all the retards who can't get in to one of our fine universities there. I believe Cork does the same.

I'm not so sure about your Brussels point.

Helsinki would be cool because you were on holiday. That would cloud your judgement.

We talk louder to drown out the bleating accents of our country 'cousins'.

The Lucien Freud exhibition was fantastic! IMMA is a wasted space, true enough.

Heritage is history! Of course it should be in a museum!

THIS IS LIKE THE FRY THREAD ALL OVER AGAIN!

Says the man in Galway! There's bugger all there except horribly overpriced twee little pubs and shops. Everyone up their own arses about living in out there away from the resented Dublin. Hating what you want to be = neither cool or original.

We also send all the retards who can't get in to one of our fine universities there. I believe Cork does the same.

ah now, I don't know anyone living in Galway that wants to live in Dublin. Galway is a cool city. Dublin isn't as bad as we like to pretend, but it's no Achill Island.

also -Galway girls (retarded students or otherwise) are extremely, achingly and confusingly attractive.

on the bus into sligo ama. actually, tma

second half of this trip will be letterkenny btw

Oh no

gf is vehemently controverting my valentine's night wish to watch a sligo rovers home game

Not a great night for football. I assume its pissing down in Sligo too

Tipp town getting an awful going over here

https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/s/iiUa0MZfiF

Excellent Houllebecq info in that thread

It's snowing here, which is preferable

it is now snowing thick and sideways

Tipp Town is a hole, Nenagh & Cashel are better

I mentioned just now to my friend John about this thread, and how I’d spent a lot of time in Ireland but not enough to contribute— he’s from Cashel and he volunteers, in Tipperary County’s defense, that Condé Nast recently described it as “the postcard capital of Ireland”. He went on to describe the county as “the richest” and I replied that surely a Dublin-area county was richer and he soured and said “Dublin is a shithole”

Classic bitterness from the angry rural mind.

Angry is the last word I’d use to describe John tbh. I just don’t think he likes Dublin much. I love Dublin, me

I visited Rock of Cashel at some point on a suitably grey, foggy medieval day in the late 70's. The best kind of weather to wonder around ancient ruins.

Recall going there with my father as a child and him telling me the story of the Devil’s Bit mountain (which has a gap in it, where the legend is that the devil took a bite out of it and the bite he spat out became the Rock of Cashel). Never actually visited though.

my dad would always tell that story when we drove through, about a million times as we used to visit my grannies in limerick very regularly when i was growing up.

we've seen enough Sligo, off to Carrick-on-Shannon for the day

did eat & drink in an exceptional pub tbf

Why would anyone voluntarily go to Leitrim

carrick-on-shannon, stag-do and hen-do capital of ireland

it's quite well-to-do, never been to Prague, this feels like an acceptable substitute

as for why, well, it seemed like the best of the nearby rail returns. unless we've shat the bed missing out on Longford or something

the vibe here is def the Budapest of Leitrim, the capital that's also on the other side of the culture war to the rest of the place. gay marriage vote specifically in this town probably fine

and look the sun's just come out

Prague is twinned with:
Berlin, Germany
Brussels, Belgium
Chicago, United States
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Hamburg, Germany
Kyoto, Japan
Miami-Dade County, United States
Nuremberg, Germany
Phoenix, United States
Taipei, Taiwan

Carrick-on-Shannon is twinned with Cesson-Sévigné in Brittany, France.

We need a steward’s enquiry into this
https://i.postimg.cc/4NpL7CXj/IMG-9298.jpg

Tbf to Tipp town, the Glen of Aherlow is a short drive away

https://www.discoverireland.ie/glen-of-aherlow

Both nights in Sligo so far I've kind of been amazed that weather can get this bad ngl

It’s the national immune system reaction to your presence

as a born and bred Letterkenny head I'd say, don't bother with Letterkenny

We'll use it as a base to visit Derry from

Torn between Ballyshannon and Donegal for a halfway-house trip today...

I’m assuming ye have a car?

LJ I don’t need your itinerary but like how much time have you got handy and what kind of things are you looking to do

We're bussing it all the way. Plumped for a day in Donegal, having blagged our way onto a Bus Feda by online booking a later bus. Sticking to the bigger towns both out of necessity and because drinking and architecture are the priorities. Mind you the scenery from this bus is already stunning and we've hardly left Sligo

Itinerary is that tomorrow we'll go Derry for my birthday and the day after poke around Letterkenny then back to Knock Airport

Old chap behind us on the bus suddenly asked "are you English" and on receiving an affirmative, observed with a hint of glee that over there is where Mountbatten was dealt with. I assured that despite sharing a name with the man, I felt little affinity

those were the days!

Vibes-wise The Cottage is the best pub in LK. McCafferty's is a good spot too but it's a bit out of town

There's also the Kinnegar brewery a shortish walk from the centre if you're into your craft beers

carrick-on-shannon, stag-do and hen-do capital of ireland

― LocalGarda, Sunday, 15 February 2026 12:23 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Coincidentally I went on a stag weekend in Donegal (don't ask) which ended up with a close encounter with the local Garda in Letterkenny.

I'm in a fish restaurant in Donegal drinking a Kinnegar lager rn, it's *excellent*, will have to visit ty

Old chap behind us on the bus suddenly asked "are you English" and on receiving an affirmative, observed with a hint of glee that over there is where Mountbatten was dealt with. I assured that despite sharing a name with the man, I felt little affinity

This is just what they say before they dump you in a boghole

Mayo, Sligo, and Donegal have enticing names so I wish we had pushed further north, but we were based near Cong and the furthest we reached was Achill Island and Keem beach before heading back South (Dingle, Kerry cliffs, the touristic places). Was also shocked at the country's strong immune system in August... and the Irish said July had been worse.

In The Cottage right now, it's excellent yes. Went to the McCafferty's in Donegal earlier. Letterkenny itself? It's a place

yeah it's a decent base if you're driving but I would never recommend it as a place to visit in and of itself

Donegal is difficult without a car though

Ulster was a funny one in the altogether. Donegal Town was lovely but it wasn't High Ulster, unlike Letterkenny, when as my Wexfordian girlfriend observed, the style of window blinds falls hard towards office-style vertical slats - there's a sudden and dramatic stylistic austerity. Even the Catholic cathedral in Derry itself, while pleasant enough, is probably the most low-key Catholic cathedral I've ever visited.

Derry had a spectacularly good cafe in the Free Derry part, and a bunch of pubs I'd consider well below Irish standards throughout the rest (I'm being kind). We eventually found a half-decent one to eat in (the one with the Derry Girls mural). One heavily-fortified park in the Protestant area that we stumbled into while trying to work our way down to the railway museum (which turned out to be shut anyway) had a couple of genuinely wonderful public sculptures of elongated metal tennis and basketball players in it. Free Derry itself was an extremely powerful experience with the murals and museum and living-history feel to it. The walls, which we walked all the way around, were a fine experience, and there was a decent little modern art gallery beside them. The Guildhall is obviously iconic, and both bridges were a good cross (although to get from one to the other did mean sauntering through the misery of the Prodtastic east bank).

What was notable throughout Ulster was that everyone in a service capacity was incredibly friendly. I'd say this is the biggest draw of the region, even as its architecture is probably the biggest drawback. There was a young chap ranting about needing to keep yourself armed (with guns) on the phone to his mate on the bus back to Letterkenny afterwards, but I figure that the region's freaks have simply been conditioned to be freaks of this exact nature by recent history. And speaking of which, obviously there's a lot of deprivation still in Derry and throughout Ulster, but considering the crimes of 'my' people still resound from living memory and underpin much of this deprivation now, it feels like this friendliness is a defiant first resort and part of the pride of the city. The rioter who sold me his t-shirt and posed with us in front of his mural obviously has a business to run, but he was also pleased that an obviously-sympathetic Englishman had shown up as in his words 'the English need to be told what their government and armed forces did, they covered it up there'. They still do for the most part.

My girlfriend's take on Ulster was much simpler: "it's basically Scotland".

We stopped off in Sligo again on the way back to the airport. It's a lovely town really

I enjoyed this writeup, glad your kneecaps are intact. One of my best friends keeps trying to get me to go to Belfast so she can do a black taxi tour with me, definitely very intrigued by the possibility. I have tons of family up there (including one member who was shot during the troubles) but I’ve never spent much time on that side of the border at all.

I can't emphasise enough how the crimes of the unionists extend to architecture. Afterwards we did a little Google Street View venture through Newbuildings after reading about how it was essentially a carte-blanche Prod settlement. Christ alive what misery. That said, factoring in Letterkenny and the other towns we passed through on the bus in Donegal, I also think Ulster is possibly an identity that's distinct from both UK and Ireland? I gather there's a fringe independence movement even. Perhaps in Ireland's bosom it will heal.

I do still intend to visit Belfast though, of course. There's a gallery there which my gf says is one of the 10 buildings in the entire world she's most interested in

Just as long as they don't build that bridge to Scotland.

xp did you see any painted pavement slabs? Hilarious

Oh you best believe that in the Prod part of Derry they've painted the kerb slabs and lampposts in French colours. I assume French, that's what they looked like anyway

Yeah, I was surprised by the friendliness in Derry. Like it was notable. The first and only time I was there was back in 2013. There was little bit of tension there as it was in August and it as the first time the Fleadh Cheoil was ever held there. When I say tension, I mean maybe a lot more police around than seemed warranted.

Myself and my girlfriend and the time were staying in Letterkenny at the time and drove from there to Derry. I'll never forgot the smalltown we drove through on the way there (I cant remember the name of it) and the place was ridiculous. All decked out like a Great Britain theme park, flags and bunting everywhere, paving stones coloured red blue and white. It was a bit unnerving tbh. I wasn't going to stop for petrol there for sure. I mean Im sure its not like that every day! Some reaction to what was happening in Derry at the time perhaps. I dunno, it was fucking weird though.

If you went via Strabane, that would indeed have been the aforementioned Newbuildings lol. Unless it was just Strabane itself (didn't see, can't judge)

It was more of a village really so not Strabane

Well yeah, the finger is pointing the way of Newbuildings. My coach went via Nixon's Corner as the only pre-Derry village, but that wasn't really a village so much as two or three houses, so doubt it was that