Dublin tour guides have been virtually bringing tourists around pubs as their lockdown hobby flourished into something amazing.
The guys at Cultur agus Craic, Tara, James and Noel, were out of a job when Covid began but they never stopped showcasing some of their favourite places to visit.
Photographer and videographer Tara Morgan, told Dublin Live: “The three of us are all tour guides, so normally we were out on the tour buses with the microphones before the pandemics.
“We’d been bringing tourists around Ireland but it disappeared during Covid. So when we realised tourism wasn’t going to come back anytime soon, we were racking our brains to find something to do.
"We decided to go out and visually show people around Dublin when they couldn’t actually be here.
“The first day we went out to shoot, I’m not going to lie, we’d no idea what we were going to do so we decided to film out and about in town.
“There’s the Irish stereotype there, and I wanted to show what we’re realistically like rather than the i-diddley-i stuff. We want to showcase Dublin and all the characters that are here.”
Tara and the lads spend their time meeting the people of Dublin and having an auld conversation about their lives surrounded by lovely traditional Irish pints, but it actually started among takeaway pints in plastic cups.
She said: “The first episode, the three of us started shooting and we went into town. We got takeaway pints because it was during the pandemic.
“We were outside on the streets because the pubs weren’t even open, we were doing whatever we could. We had the camera equipment with us, had chats and drinks, we started talking about Dublin, our culture and how we are as people.
“We were thinking that we mightn’t even use it, it was just to do something and get the ball rolling. We ended up talking about pubs and then we just focused on that.”
Tara spoke of the people they meet on the job, whether it’s someone working in a museum or a man behind the bar, she said that she learns something new from everyone.
“All the people in our videos have taught us something, the amount I've learned about whiskey at the moment is unreal,” she added.
“I’m making an episode about Irish whiskey and it’s insane the amount that I’ve learned. We speak to experts, as tour guides we know a little bit about everything, but going and speaking to people, they tell us a bit more and we dwell a bit deeper.”
Dublin is drowning in pubs, historical places and elegant restaurants but Tara believes that there’s one thing that beats them all.
She said: “The best thing about Dublin by far is definitely the people, it’s the craic, the atmosphere. What makes Dublin great is all the stuff that you can’t do during the pandemic, it’s going into a pub and talking to a randomer.
“As tour guides it’s something we tell tourists to do when they’re finished their tour. There’s so much rich culture, heritage, history, heart and music, there’s so much.
“Everyone knows about the Guinness Storehouse, so we recommend EPIC Ireland, the Irish Emigration Museum.
“It’s fantastic, it’s a great way to start your trip in Ireland and it gives you a little back story to our history, the people who left Ireland and the impact we’ve had around the world. You can go and trace your history in Ireland there too if you’ve Irish ancestors.”
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