A close friend of mine and his college-age son are leaving for Ireland on July 21. They will spend the 22nd & 23rd in Dublin, 24th - 27 in Doolin, and the 28th - 29th in Dublin. Leaving the 30th.
Would love to have your suggestions for favorite places to hear music.
Dan
Are they traveling on their own, or with a bus tour?
Traveling on their own.
What worked perfectly for us was just to go to Ennis;
walk down the main street from about 21:00 onwards, until we heard something we liked;
go in, buy a drink;
and if you’re still enjoying it buy another and stay a bit longer, otherwise move on and repeat.
Worked for us, we heard some wonderful music and had a great evening. We also got locked In a bar until 2am and were then locked out of our hotel, but that’s another story …
http://www.mpbpub.com/ ‘‘The merry Plow Boy’’ has shuttle service in Dublin, but riders must sign up on line before the day they ride. There is more info on their web site. There is a big show upstairs on stage and downstairs there is traditional sessions.
We were in Ireland several weeks ago on a bus tour.
When we rode through small towns on the west and south coasts there was no shortage of pubs with a chalk board sign saying ''session tonight. 
We’re off to Ireland next week, and while we’re in Dublin we’re doing this:
http://www.discoverdublin.ie/musical-pub-crawl/
A bit touristy perhaps, but it looks like fun.
Along the way, I’ll be hand delivering 3 whistles to customers and I’m hoping they can point us to some good music in other locations.