By Caitlin Miller

When traveling to Ireland, grabbing a drink at a local pub is a must. But knowing how to act properly in Irish bars not only makes the bartenders happy but also the locals. How do you order drinks? How do you pay? Should you order the Irish Car Bomb when you’re in Ireland? The questions could go on and on.

Trinity Bar bartender, Darragh Hennedry, 34, of Dublin, explained to us that as a bartender you really have to have craic, or have enjoyable conversation, with the customers because Irish bars are more about having fun.

Hennedry says, “Irish bars can be quite different to bars in the continent in the fact that their servers would be more there serving people, whereas Irish bars are … trying to have a bit of fun with customers and trying to stay on the same level as them.”

A big no-no when at an Irish bar is paying via separate tabs. If there is a group of three to five people, one person pays for rounds until everyone has paid. Also, when ordering drinks, it is best to order all the drinks together. For example, two Guinness, two Heineken and three Coors. This is common courtesy to the bartenders as well as the people who are out drinking with you.

“Never order the Guinness last; doesn’t matter what the drinks are.”

Hennedry explains, “Never order the Guinness last; doesn’t matter what the drinks are. [That’s] Because Guinness takes over 90 seconds to pour, and you have to leave it sit there, whereas the rest of the drinks you can just pour.”

Sean Shevlan, 75, a frequent customer at a Belfast bar, explains that there are four main things you should do when you are at an Irish Bar.

“Don’t dance on the bar, don’t ask too many questions, don’t fight and most importantly don’t talk politics!” Shevlan said.

Shevlan said that everyone who is at the bar with you just wants to have a good time, so everyone should just enjoy himself or herself.

University of Pittsburgh student Mariah Callas, 21, spent approximately a month in Ireland. Callas explains that you shouldn’t order “girly” drinks when you are in an Irish bar.

“Everyone wants to see you drinking pints! I got a margarita one night, and literally everyone who walked past was like, ‘What the hell is she drinking?’ ” Callas said.

Callas also said that Irish bars are full of live music, and everyone there is just there to have a great time. One tradition she mentioned was almost every night they sing “Whiskey in the Jar” and “Seven Drunken Nights.”

The Duke of York remembers the Troubles with a framed photo on the wall of a car bomb that went of in front of their bar in 1973.

The big question for me heading to Ireland was, “Should you order an Irish Car Bomb when you are in Ireland, or is that rude?”

Shevlan and Hennedry both explained that they really have never heard of anyone ordering one before. Hennedry, as a bartender, described ordering an Irish Car Bomb as a tourist thing and says that it wouldn’t be rude or impolite if someone ordered one in his bar. But it could be considered offensive in Belfast because of the Troubles, a violent conflict in Belfast 30-40 years ago between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, during which explosions ran rampant.