According to Seamus O’Hara in O’Hara’s bar in Thomastown the most unusual drink he’s ever had to pour was a long-iced tea, a favourite of a local bookmaker. Making this perfect tipple by shaking half a shot each of light white rum, Plymouth gin, Ketel One Vodka, Sauza Horitos tequila and Cointreau, along with a shot of freshly squeezed lime juice and a half shot of gomme syrup, and finally putting it into an ice-filled glass and topping it off with Coca Cola, there is probably only two people in Thomastown who could possibly afford such an expensive drink: the bookmaker, or any bookmaker for that matter in this economic climate, and the local man who dreamt a couple of weeks ago that he’d won millions in the National Lottery. It’s not often you hear the one about the man who walked into a bar to tell the one about his millionaire winnings. Such was the amazement from the locals that the bar poets got together and wrote the ballad of The Savage Dream in his honour. As an appetiser it begins:
The Savage Dream
In O’Hara’s Bar after 14 pints of stout I relayed a dream I had last night
I’d won the lotto, what at thrill, 95 million, I’m shaking still
I paid my debts to all I owed, I never thought it could be done
I thought of all who helped me out and really dished the lolly about
My friends, my pals I treated well
How much I spent, I could not tell
I even cleared the parish debt and swore I’d never have another bet …
Drop into O Hara’s bar in Thomastown to rest your laurels by a blazing fire and to hear the rest of the poem that, while not exactly a contender for the Nobel Prize for literature, is indeed a savage dream.
