1324 Hamilton Ave
Hamilton Twp (Mercer Co)
http://www.thetirnanog.com/
After leaving Fridays on Rt 1 in West Windsor, we headed to Hamilton Twp. to the Tir
na nOg. Although the address is listed as Trenton, technically it is in Hamilton Twp. I
was surprised that it was open on Christmas, but not only was it open, it was packed.
Mary H. lives down the street, so we dropped the car at her house and just walked
down.
At first glance this place looks like your typical local Irish bar. Once you get inside
however, you realize that it is anything but. Most of the patrons in this bar are not only
Irish, but they have the Irish accent. There is a lot of red hair and pasty white skin in
there. Only being half Irish myself, I felt a little out of place. It was then that I noticed
the posters on the walls. They were all militant IRA posters. They had sayings like,
"You can kill the revolutionary, but never the Revolution!" and adorned pictures of Irish
women with rifles. I could be wrong here, but aren't they classified as a terrorist
organization? Aren't these the guys who set off bombs in London and kill innocent
people? Regardless, I was there to drink, not judge, and these people knew how to
drink and then some. I was out of my league when it came to out drinking these
people. Heres a pic I took of one of the posters.
Guiness a lot, but its not like I had that much choice in the matter. They only have a few
beers on tap like Guiness, Harp and Smithwick's. They don't have crappy American
beers like Bud or Miller. After grabbing a pint I headed back near the stage to listen to
the band play. They were an Irish band (obviously), consisting of a banjo player, a
violin and a guitar. The banjo player never removed the cigar from his mouth once,
even when he was singing. This was very impressive. When the band started to play, I
shit you not, people started to dance and do jigs on the chairs and tables. I felt like I
was in a small town pub in Ireland. The music had militant overtones, but it was really
good.
We stayed there until the wee hours of the night drinking with our new Irish friends. We
had a great time and I plan on going back there the next time I'm in the neighborhood.
Good Point about the bar: All these people were buying pints for the guys in the band.
They had too many, so the lead singer gave me one of his pints. This would be free
beer #2 since I've started this site, however this free beer had nothing to do with the site.
Bad Point about the bar: A lot of people were smoking cigars and it got a little hard to
breath after a while.
White trash factor (1-10): 3 - There was some there, but not a lot.
Ratio of girls to guys: 1/2 - Most of the girls that were there were young and attractive
Crowd density: High
Age of the crowd: 20's to 40's
Overall rating: 8 - This bar is just a fun place to go to if you don't want the normal bar
experience. The people there are all about drinking and they know how to have a good
time. When you walk in there, everyone is your friend. The music is great and there is
a back room with dart boards and stuff. If you are in the Trenton area, this is a must
visit. Just make sure that you don't have a British accent. I suppose to be fair, I'm going
to have to visit a bar that's sympathetic to Al Quada next, but luckily I don't think those
people like to drink a lot. Maybe they should drink more, it would probably help their
cause. But I digress.
Here are some pics of some ladies we met in the bar.
