Price of a pint in Tully’s of Carlow was ‘Stout’ of order for our Commandos

​FOR our final outing of 2024 Pub Spy decided to take the Commandos to Carlow town for the first time in almost three years.

Following a short trek down the M9 we found ourselves wandering the streets looking for a good boozer to enjoy a few Christmas drinks. It struck us just how many pubs weren’t open or worse, permanently closed.

Each passing week the pub scene gets grimmer in this country, the Old Commando lamented.

We continued to stroll through the town and while there were a few pubs open for business we were hoping to check out somewhere different on this occasion.

We initially walked past Tully’s twice before realising it was, in fact, a pub and following a short consultation among the Commandos we decided to check it out.

“I don’t remember ever being here anyway, that’s for sure,” the Young Commando said as we stepped inside the front door.

“Neither do I, but truthfully I don’t care anymore, it’s freezing outside and I’m parched with the thirst,” the Old Commando jokingly replied.

We were greeted by a young barman who was obviously expecting better weather than we had been experiencing in recent weeks – because he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

He filled our drinks but didn’t stick around in our area for long as he worked alone and served two separate sides of the pub.

There is a vast amount of drinks available on draught such as Murphy’s, O’Hara’s, Fosters, Wicklow Wolf and Wee Bunny – but it was pints of Guinness all round for our troops and they set us back a whopping €5.70 each.

“Within 12-15 months it’ll be €6 for a pint of stout as standard. The price never comes back down, it’s scandalous,” the Old Commando moaned.

The majority of the customers on our side of the pub kept to themselves and most of the hustle and bustle was coming from the opposite side of the bar where it looked like the last remaining college students in town had dropped by for a Christmas drink.

Following a brief walk-through, the Old Commando determined that all the ‘normal’ drinks were available on the other side while all the hipster drinks were on our side.

There was a mixed clientele in the pub and a decent atmosphere too, which was helped by the country and western tunes pumping out over the speakers.

They serve food in Tully’s bar also and the Young Commando helped himself to a Kinder Bueno styled pie to help line his stomach.

The Christmas decorations were very nice and there’s certainly an old school boozer vibe about Tully’s, which is probably why the Old Commando liked it so much.

Some of the leather bench seating was torn in parts and should be reupholstered, while it was also dimly lit throughout the pub which made it that little bit harder to fully inspect.

All the TVs were turned off and there were some very brave souls sitting outside at the back of the pub despite the bitterly cold weather.

“Imagine wanting a chest infection for Christmas,” the Old Commando snarled.

We sent the Young Commando to inspect the toilets and he reported back to us that they were quite spacious and clean with five urinals and two cubicles.

We enjoyed our few pints in Tully’s bar and enjoyed the pints of Guinness too, despite their price.

The barman was a lively character and while we didn’t engage too much with him we did notice he was constantly working and very friendly to the locals and the college students.

We’ll be back.

Rating: Three pints out of Five

One for the road:

Calluna Bar & Grill – Carlow Town

THIS was definitely a first time visit for our Commandos as we’d never laid eyes on this very fancy boozer in Carlow town.

Located off the Main Street beside the college, we came across this pub by a stroke of luck and our Commandos were very impressed, especially our Female Commando.

She spoke very highly of the décor and furnishings in the pub and the considerable effort that has gone in to the Christmas decorations.

There were three staff members working during our stay, all of whom were young and friendly, but most of the customers were dining rather than drinking.

We’d hazard a guess it’s not your typical older male all-day-drinking styled pub but rather more sophisticated.

The toilets are located down two flights of stairs and they were surprisingly very warm which is unusual for a pub. Needless to say, they were spotlessly clean.

The smooth red velvet seats are very comfy and there was a nice relaxing atmosphere.

Rating: Four pints out of Five