Dan Foley’s Pub

The village of Annascaul on the road to Dingle in County Kerry is notable for two distinctive pubs: one was owned by the famous Antarctic explorer Tom Crean; the other, Dan Foley’s, was run by a retired magician. Dan Foley was a member of the Magic Circle and noted magician who died in 1990, since when the pub closed. The pub’s pink, blue and red façade, painted with a gas cylinder and the words “it’s an illusion” as a magician’s hologram, was a staple of the Real Ireland Design postcard series. Dan Foley’s pub can be seen in publications about Ireland across the world. The punchline, of course, is that the most-photographed pub in Kerry was presided over by a man who specialized in sleight-of-hand. Now the magic has worn off: the colors are fading and the “Guinness is good for you” enamel sign is rusting.