The Old Ground hotel is a wonderful old establishment in the centre of the attractive town of Ennis. It is also within easy rage of the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher.
Having spent a couple of energetic hours at the Cliffs of Moher and on the Burren, we arrived in Ennis at about 3pm on a Saturday afternoon in December. Christmas shopping was in full swing, and even the heroic statue of O’Connell had decorations spiraling up his pillar to help him get in the festive spirit. The Old Ground Hotel is on O’Connell Street, in the heart of Ennis’ shopping area, and was an excellent spot to stop for a long, lazy lunch.
The Poets’ Corner is the pub in the Old Ground Hotel where we enjoyed our lunch. It was cozy and warm, full of wood panelling and with a large bar counter in the middle of the room. We ordered a couple of Guinness’s, a pint and a "glass" (half a pint), and settled around a comfortable table next to the bar. Our neighbours had their Christmas shopping with them, and their husbands were watching rugby on the TV above the bar. We recognised a couple of poets (Oscar Wilde, GB Shaw) on the wall and pretended to recognise a few others (Joyce, Yeats, and the rest of the bunch).
The food served in the Poets’ Corner comes from the main hotel kitchen. We had just missed the weekend lunch menu (served from 12:30 until 2:30pm), so we tucked into the "all day" (2:30 to 9pm) hot menu. Tina went for a couple of starters, seafood bisque and stuffed mushrooms, and enjoyed both. The soup came with Irish soda bread, which Tina pronounced to be as good as the stuff she made in her high school cookery class.
For my lunch, I had a beef burger (with no bun) covered with onion sauce. It came with green salad, potato salad, and french fries-the whole thing was delicious (10€). It was very filling and tasted particularly good with the Guinness. Andrea went for the chicken-and-ham vol-au-vent (with french fries and potato salad (8.50€)) and enjoyed it. We rounded off the meal with a cheesecake and a huge pot of tea. We paid with our VISA card.
A great thing about the Poets’ Corner–and all Irish pubs–is the relatively new no-smoking rule. There was not a hint of a cigarette in the pub, and the clean air made the whole afternoon in the pub so much more pleasant. I had no idea what a difference no smoke makes. Excellent.
We highly recommend the Poets’ Corner. It is truly a local pub (Christmas shoppers, rugby fans, and wedding guests in penguin suits and fancy hats), the food is delicious, the location is great, and we had a very pleasant afternoon there.