Beefeater Irish ambassador Ciara Farrell

Gin.

Gin.

Ginny gin gin.

Nigel Goggin writes:

Beefeater, the world’s most awarded gin, invites gin fans to register for the chance to attend the most exciting mixologist event in Ireland this year.

Join Beefeater Master Distiller Desmond Payne, Global Brand Ambassador Sebastian Hamilton-Mudge and a host of Ireland’s best bartenders at Fade Street Social [Fade Street, Dublin] on Wednesday September 30 at 6pm for the Irish finals of the Beefeater MIXLDN Global Bartender Cocktail Competition.

To register your name and be in with a chance of winning a ticket for two places at this exclusive event please email Aoife@conwaycommunications.ie

We have FIVE tickets to giveaway PLUS five free BOTTLES  of Beefeater gin to give away to five broadsheet readers. To enter, just complete this sentence.

‘I want gin. Give me gin. Gin makes me feel___________________________’

Lines MUST close at 4.45pm 5.10pm

Remember, if you’re not in you can’t gin.

Beefeater MIXLDN Global Bartender Cocktail Competition

Enny Buono head barber at Barbiere in action

Happy International Men’s Grooming Day to you and yours.

With TWO groomings [shave and cut] for two men at the effortlessly cool Barbiere barber shop on Camden Street, Dublin on offer, we asked you to nominate a friend in urgent need of a nose trim and whatnot.

You answered in your hairy dozens.

Winners:

Mourinho: “Would you ever just give the Barbiere cut and shave to Eoin Murf as he bloody well needs it. When we head out in the city he gets heckled about it. The heckles range from not so bad “Jim!” – Morrison, due to he massive hair – to not so good “Alan!” – the nut job from the Hangover film.”

Caitseye: “Would you ever just give the Barbiere cut and shave to my lovely husband Matt as he is in serious need of a fine grooming experience having spent the last 5 months living out of a suitcase while doing up our new home, being a fantastic daddy to our 11 month old son and travelling across the country every weekend while I’m away cos my dad is sick. He really does deserve it…”

Thanks all.

Barbiere, Camden Street

Previously: Get A Groom You Two

Thanks Ian Collins

Barbiere, Camden Street with head barber Enny Buono and Medavita hair products

Do you have a male friend or relative who needs cleaning up?

Read on.

Karen writes:

On Friday, Camden Street’s coolest barbershop Barbiere, will celebrate International Men’s Grooming Day by offering a free premium Italian styling product worth up to €16 from Medavita with every haircut.

Barbiere The exclusive stockists for Medavita in Ireland, the premium Italian hair fortifying products contain various plant extracts ensuring the maintenance of thick, healthy hair for men.

Each barber in the Barbiere business has been highly trained in the Neopolitan barbering skillset, with finishing and detail being of particular importance.

To celebrate Grooming Friday WE have  TWO (yes just TWO) complimentary Hot Towel Shaves PLUS Haircuts from Barbiere to give away to you and  someone YOU know who might be in urgent need of grooming. To enter, Just complete this sentence:

‘Would you ever just give the Barbiere cut and shave to__________________ as he________________[describe current unkempt state]

Lines MUST close at MIDNIGHT [Tuesday}

Barbiere

With FIVE free pairs of passes to a Dublin Sightseeing open top bus tour of Dublin to give away, we asked.

What’s your favourite Dublin Bus route?

You answered in your tens.

But only five were allowed up top.

GlasnevinGuy:; “My favourite Dublin Bus journey has to be 140, top deck on a sunny day. Slip onto St. James’s Street after work, talk to some of the characters outside Tony’s and maybe get a bag of chips and sit on the step if you’ve time. Hop on the bus and, after rush hour, when I usually get out I feel like a king sweeping up James’s Street; look into Christ Church Cathedral sweeping past with people enjoying the sun on the grass or stooped under the arching trees in rain. Coming through the city centre always wakes me up before heading home; seeing what people are heading to watch in the cinema or meeting friends on O’Connell Street. Many’s a time I’ve made it home only to get the 140 back in, to meet a few friends and hop out a little closer to one of the small pubs tucked away off Dame Street. :)”

Fluffybiscuits: “My favourite bus journey? Probably the 76 as it held so many memories for college. I went to college in Tallaght. All my friends lived in Clondalkin at the time and during the summer we would get it up to Tallaght to connect with the 65, so we could get to Blessington. There was a bus driver called Brian I think it was. He was a small grey-haired old man who would always smile and, even in the pouring rain, always made sure there was room on the bus. And if there wasn’t, he’d explain why there wasn’t. Tallaght college holds a ton of happy memories for me. I failed my course but it was not about that as the people I met 15 years ago now remain my best friends in the world and I call them family. I remember bringing a girl I knew called Lisa on a date to The Square [Tallaght] and, being a broke student, I could only afford a cinema ticket and a Happy Meal, needless to say that one date was fairly awkward (I’m a backdoor bandit but was only coming to terms with it at the time, lol!) . The bus brought me to work in Dunnes Stores in [The Mill Shopping Centre] Clondalkin, a job which I loathed and a shopping centre I still loathe to this day! Sitting on top with the lads on the 76 shouting into my phone ‘Yer getting the boat to England, I’m not the father!!, it was one night!’…everyone would earwig and then I would shout “I don’t care even if you are my sister”. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I’m all nostalgic now…”

Gooch: “My favourite was on a open-top tour bus about 7 years ago. I went on it with a few American friends. Driver was gas and a great singer. Best part was when we passed Heuston Station and he informed us that it was named after the American singer Whitney Heuston. His delivery was excellent and he didn’t let on he was joking, nor did I tell them he was. Still laugh when I think about it.”

Alan:: “My favourite was the 747 to pick up the guy I’m dating, when he came home from the States. Sadly he’ll be leaving the country again soon so what was an especially happy journey will also become a sad one…”

Song Boy Ste: “I used to take the old 46 bus home every Tuesday and Thursday after school, from Stillorgan to Shankill. These were the days when school finished at 4pm and not 3.20pm, how I’d love to work those hours now! And yet the day felt so long back than. The 46 was always a single decker bus, and always had the same regular drivers. Guaranteed a giggle to hear the shrieks of the BOI workers heading towards Cabinteely when a replacement driver would take the wrong turn away from Ballybrack towards Killiney, leaving them stranded somewhere in between. Many’s the day I’d stand with the driver to tell him which route the bus followed…we could have taken that bus anywhere! Nobody ever took the 46, it always felt like it was “our” bus, our very own chariot to carry us away from the humdrum of school and delivering us home earlier than the half past three No. 84 we would get on other days. Home just in time for Da’s burger and chips…cos he was working late that day :)”

Thanks all.

All winners will be notified by Dublin Bus today.

You may get about three emails at once.

Giggle.

Dublin Bus Sightseeing

Yesterday: Room For Five More

Previously: I’d Love To Do That

Dublin Bus Driver Hall of Fame

With a free day at the Galway Races followed by a ‘slap-up’ meal at the newly-opened McGettigan’s Bar, Prospect Hill, Galway on the ‘cards’ WE asked:

What was your most memorable Galway Races experience?

One preferably not involving a tent.

Runners up:

Smashmouth: “My Most memorable Galway Races experience involved a shetland Pony, a bottle of Jack Daniels and an ill tempered steward.”

Christy: “My most memorable Galway Races experience involved my whole family. I was 8 my brother was 7. We both picked a number for a horse which my mother backed. She gave me my brothers ticket and my brother mine. My brothers horse won. Woo hoo i had his ticket. This led to a massive fight but luckily my father and grandfather intervened. All was sorted with ice cream for both of us and a go on the carousel. Ah happy days.”

STP: “My most memorable Galway Races experience involved not going.”

The Old Boy: “My most memorable Galway Races experience involved a chance meeting with an old acquaintance in a West London bar, strategy meetings in smoky back-rooms, a man disguised as a labourer with the Department of Posts and Telegraphs committing an act of sabotage, a portmanteau filled with neatly bundled fifty-pound notes, and several unsuspecting turf accountants.”

Winner:

Clampers Outside:‘My Most memorable Galway Races experience involved working a few weeks of the summer (of 1992/93 I think) in the Corrib Great Southern Hotel as a bar man and silver service waiter…. I got to see ‘Woman’s Heart’ play three nights in a row… which was not as bad as it sounds, in fairness… but best of all were the tips from jockeys and trainers at the hotel. I arrived home on the Thursday early afternoon having completed the morning shift and the first two races were already over. I checked my bit of paper with my tips and saw the first two tips were the first two winners. Myself and my three dole friends headed to the bookies and by evening we each had IR£70 to IR£80 each on a IR£5 punt.”

Thanks all.

McGettigan’s, Galway

Previously: Going To Galway?

Thanks Nicole

Free flat racing!?

Free dinner and wine?!?

Hold your horses.

Nicole writes:

McGettigan’s Bar which officially opened its doors last month in the heart of Galway, just off Eyre Square on Prospect Hill, will sponsor the ‘McGettigan’s Flat Race’ at the Galway Races on Monday July 27 at 8.20pm.

Live bands will play McGettigan’s till 11.30pm every night of the Galway races followed by a DJ. McGettigan’s will host a prosecco reception on Monday 27th at 8.30 pm for any woman* who has a valid race ticket.

For the week of the races McGettigan’s will serve a breakfast buffet -10am till 12pm (€9.95), Gourmet Carvery (5 options)- 12pm till 10pm (€11.95) and Late Night Bites -10pm- till 1am to help race-goers satisfy their appetite.

To celebrate we are giving ONE reader the chance to win a PAIR tickets to the Galway Races on Monday, July 27, PLUS dinner for two in McGettigan’s with a BOTTLE of Wine [red or white].

To enter simply complete this sentence:

My Most memorable Galway Races experience involved_________________________________

Lines MUST close at 4.45pm 5.45pm

McGettigan’s Galway (Facebook)

*FIGHT!

No cash, favours, etc. given for this post

Ahead of Father’s Day on Sunday and with a Gentlemen’s Tea for two at The Morrison Hotel, Dublin on offer we asked: What makes your father a gentleman?

You answered in your tens.

Runners up:

Sam Hickey: “My father Gerry is a Gentleman because he gives compliments sincerely and often and treats my mum like a queen.”

SiJu cat: “My father Peter is a gentleman largely because of 6 years of Swiss finishing school, 4 years of modern tap and 3 years of modern dance. Really though he joined the army as a private when he was 16 and made it all the way to Captain. He served in Lebanon twice and was totally not a hard ass at home. I always said if I turn out half as good as my Da I’ll be doing well. The least I can do is win a competition to win him some food rather than post unwanted gold balls to him again.”

Drogg: “My father is a d**k largely because he f*cked off before i was born and it will be a cold day in hell before i share a beer or amazing piece of rasher with that c**t.”

Theo Kretschmar Schuldorff: “My father Mr. Kretschmar-Schuldorff is a gentleman largely because I will be beaten only lightly if we do not win.”

Daithí: “My father Pat is a gentleman largely because he’s been buying me monthly lunches for the last 4 years and won’t hear of me paying and just once, I’d like to return the favour.”

Winner:

Lughán (7) & Fionn (2): “Our father Colm is a gentleman because when our Mummy was sick, in and out of hospital for the past year, he took her place and every day he made us breakfast, dressed us in clothes that never matched, brought us to school (always on time!) tickled us, told us bedtime stories and gave us never ending hugs and cuddles! He sent our mummy pictures of us every day to make her smile and we think he’s the best Daddy in the world!”

Thanks all.

Previously:  I Love You Dad

UPDATE: Drogg wins the second Gentleman’s tea. Sorry for confusion.

Gentlemen’s tea.

At the Morrison Hotel, Dublin.

Bond with the old man over some chutney.

Karen writes:

Experimental Head Chef Sushil Kumar has created a tasty Gentlemen’s Tea in The Morrison Hotel that will have stomachs rumbling at the menu offering.

Instead of petite egg and cress sandwiches delicately cut, think smoked rasher and hearty cheese with apple chutney. Instead of intricate cakes and clotted cream think paprika chips and instead of a cup of breakfast tea, The Gentlemen’s Tea is served with a pint of Wicklow Wolf beer.

With Father’s Day just around the corner too, you and your Dad can kick back while enjoying some quality time together sampling Dublin’s first Gentleman’s Tea with a twist!

For just €23 per person you can sample tastes of sumptuous steak sandwiches with whiskey chocolate salted caramel treats to finish.

To celebrate we have TWO teas for two readers to bring their dads to gentlemen’s tea at the Morrison Hotel, to giveaway.

To enter, just complete this sentence:

‘My father_______is a gentleman largely because___________’

Lines MUST close at 4.15pm 5.15pm 6.15pm

If you are currently estranged from your father or he has passed away or you do not know who your father is or you do know who he is but he is the subject of a barring order obtained by your family please feel free to nominate an alternative father ‘figure’.

Morrison Hotel