Guinness Toucan sign at Sean’s Bar, Athlone (1990’s)

A fine hand-painted sign situated above the entrance door of Sean’s Pub in Main Street, Athlone.

The pub as it is today, is the result of extensive redecoration carried out in the early 1990’s that gives an Irish old-world feel to it, all very touristy. It is reputed to be the oldest pub in Ireland, if not Europe, supposedly dating back to c.900AD but if one thinks about that, that’s highly improbable. 900AD! – it conjures up images of a Viking pub nestling on the banks of the Shannon to serve as a convenient stop-over for marauding Scandinavians, particularly after a hard-day’s plundering in near-by Clonmacnoise! Really!

But seriously though, it’s likely to be the oldest pub in Athlone having an establishment on the same site for some centuries. The current building appears to be 19th century and today it’s tucked away in the old quarter of picturesque Athlone, across from the castle. The area was not always as quiet, before the 1840’s Athlone’s Main Street was the main thoroughfare and crossing point between the East and West of Ireland. The old bridge that linked Main Street with the East side was built in 1566 and the only crossing point over the wide Shannon for many miles either way. Unfortunately, the old bridge is completely gone and only the name 'Bridge Street' on the opposite side of the river with it’s large stone pier and steps are all that hints to it’s past existence. The replacement bridge was built a bit upstream and opened to traffic in 1844 as part of the new harbour’s infrastructure.

Here’s three related links:
www.irelandlogue.com/best-of/seans-bar-athlone-oldest-pub...

www.flickr.com/photos/ceganfeely/2431166430/

www.flickr.com/photos/ceganfeely/2430352221/in/photostream/

Thank you for reading.
Stuart.

Taken in: Ireland / Westmeath / Athlone (show map)

Taken on: November 15, 2009

Tags:

Three Blackamoor Heads

Sean’s Pub

Westmeath

County Westmeath

oldest pub

Main Street

Guinness

Guinness Toucan

pub signs « less

Sets appears in: • Athlone, Westmeath, Ireland

Groups appears in: • Signs of theTimes ©®™ (Sign Pictures)

Camera: Fujifilm FinePix A400, f/5.0, 1/70 sec, 14.6mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Fujifilm FinePix A400
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.014 sec (1/70)
Focal Length:	14.6mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	On, Fired
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Digital Camera FinePix A400 Ver1.01
Show full info

Stats: 1,716 views / 2 comments

go back

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder