I was in Dublin a couple of weekends ago for a wedding & had been looking forward to trying some decent Guinness (you're right that bad pints are very frequent over here & I tend not to drink Guinness anymore). The wedding was in a hotel (the Four Seasons, Ballsbridge) so I wasn't entirely suprised that the ale wasn't up to much. I then thought I'd better try a pint somewhere else (purely for reasons of research you understand) so I went to O'Donaghues (I was told that was where ther Dubliner's drank so I figured it should be a decent pint) but to be honest I couldn't tell the difference.

I think I'll stick to real stouts & porters from now on - there are many good ones available over here if you know where to go.

Overall though Dublin was great - the people were nearly as friendly as in my favourite city, Glasgow!