Phillip Ryan's Pub

Phillip Ryan's Pub in Nenagh, County Tipperary, is a traditional Irish pub in the market town associated with Shane MacGowan's family roots in Tipperary. MacGowan, frontman of The Pogues and writer of 'Fairytale of New York', had strong family connections to the Nenagh area; his mother's family was from Tipperary, and he spent formative periods of his childhood in the area during school holidays, absorbing the traditional music, storytelling, and pub culture that would saturate his songwriting. Nenagh and its surroundings are the Irish world that MacGowan carried to London and into The Pogues' music.

Nenagh is a typical Irish county town of around 10,000 people -- a market square, a Norman castle, Catholic churches, and a main street of pubs and shops that has changed in its particulars but not its character since MacGowan was a boy. The pub culture of towns like Nenagh -- the sessions, the singing, the late nights of stories and music -- is the direct ancestor of what The Pogues turned into rock and roll. MacGowan has said repeatedly that his music is Irish traditional music played at rock and roll speed, and towns like Nenagh are what that tradition sounds like.

Phillip Ryan's is a traditional bar in Nenagh's town centre. The area around Nenagh is also associated with the St. Mary of the Rosary Church, which has its own connection to MacGowan. For fans of The Pogues making a Tipperary pilgrimage, Nenagh is the essential stop.