Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: This book was fun, witty, moving and enlightening. It paints a wonderful, true picture of the Irish culture. I laughed out loud too many times to count.
Anyone with a sense of humor and any sort of interest in Ireland at all will love this book.
Not only did I have a great time reading McCarthy's Bar, but it also introduced me to Singapore Noodles. For that I am very grateful.
Rating: 
Summary: Deeper than it seems
Review: This hilarious book is more than a simple travel book; Pete McCarthy is describing his own search for his Irish identity. That he manages to make the reader laugh out loud is a bonus to his descriptions of Irish B + B's, pubs, people, and sights. Ironic, witty, and insightful.
Rating:
Summary: McCarthy's Bar
Review: This is a laugh out loud book with some VERY accurate descriptions of true Irish local residents. The Irish people are by nature a friendly and kind people and Pete's stories are true to their generosity and love of life - especially if your Irish! This book is a great gift, even for the reader who hates to read.
Rating:
Summary: Fun reading!
Review: This is a wonderful book that is easy to read and it will have you chuckling and even breaking out in laughter while reading it. The author provides great insight into the humor of the people of Ireland and captures much of the native charm of several different areas in his quest for an understanding of his roots. I'm reading it again just for the fun of it.
Rating:
Summary: Not a book for the uptight reader
Review: This is an easy hilarious trip by someone who sees life as a joy. Some of the negative reviews are possibly by people who are ultra PC. You know the sort -stiff upper lip or whacko religious types who believe God is watching everything they do! If you have no sense of irony or picking up on the foibles of stereotypes, then go and read the bible, or if you want your travelogue sanitized, go read Bryson.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and accurate.
Review: This is what Ireland and it's people are like - forget the contrived, tear jerking Angela's Ashes. This book captures the humor, dialogue and social atmosphere of my country. The good and bad of a modernising and newly international Ireland are all in here. With small snippets of captured conversation McCarthy brings to life the heart and personality of my country. Makes me want to rent a car and take the trip myself. This is a book written for and about a country that can always laugh at itself and enjoy itself for it's faults (something McCourt lost in his travels and sour grapes). A perfect read. God - I'd love a pint of Guinness.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining tour of Ireland - in place, mind, and heart.
Review: Very entertaining, and sometimes thought-provoking journal of one's trip around the south and west of Ireland in search of pubs with the author's last name, Singapore noodles, adventure, and personal insight. Seems to focus on the bizarre and unseemly in early chapters, but then there are some truly funny scenes and memorable characters, and ultimately it becomes a very personal quest for connection with land and family. Very enjoyable. It was also fun that the author took pretty much the same route as three of us took on our trip to Ireland in 1999, which may have been the same year as the author's travels. (I wonder -- could I be one of the unseemly tourists in the book? Nah..couldn't be -- I hope.)
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, witty and wacky!
Review: We took very much the same route on our last trip. This delightful read brought back so many great memories and we can't wait to go back; we especially want to try and find some of the people and places that Pete brings to life within the pages of a very funny, but realistic view of Ireland. As with our own unforgettable journey home, McCarthy's Bar is unforgettable - we didn't want it to end. An added bonus: it's so well done, that it's worth reading again and again.
Rating:
Summary: Rest in Peace, Mr. McCarthy!
Review: We were living in Scotland when we both read this book. We had been to the re-enactment of the Battle of Ballinamuck in County Longford in 1998 a year before or so. It was where my husband's Grandfather came from and left in 1914. Immediately after reading it, he wanted to go back. Pete McCarthy captures it all too well, especially the genetic memory. One other reviewer stated that Americans go there to get cheap real estate.
I suggest you try it and see that there is NO cheap property going for sale in Ireland anymore!
Pete McCarthy did not use a computer to write. Everything was hand written or typed first before he handed it over to someone. Perhaps that is why we got so little from him in. Also read his other book, The Road to McCarthy. Brilliant, as well. McCarthy's Bar, however, will be the one that we will read for a third time. His passing is a great loss to Britain and Ireland.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: What a find! On a recent trip to Ireland, I saw this book and bought it simply because it looked good. No prior knowledge whatsoever--and it is one of the best non-fiction books ever. Funny, but also thoughtful when it counts.
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