Wexford town drinks well. For a place this compact — a single long Main Street curling along the Slaney estuary, with the Bull Ring at its heart — the depth of the pub scene is genuinely disproportionate. You have pubs that have barely changed since the 1770s, a working brewery and smokehouse turning out award-winning food and its own beer, a Bull Ring institution that still doubles as the town’s undertaker, a fine-wine cellar to rival anything in the south-east, and the live-music venues that have soundtracked Opera Festival nights for decades. This is our guide to all fifteen worth your time, with links to the full write-up for each.
The Historic Ones
Mary’s Bar on John’s Gate Street is the oldest pub on this list and the one most worth crossing the town for. Trading since 1775, it has changed almost nothing in two and a half centuries — no television, walls thick with memorabilia, and old-world signage that tells you everything before you’ve stepped inside. It is small, snug and entirely the real thing. Time your visit for a Saturday or Bank Holiday Sunday when the live music is on.
Con Macken’s, The Cape of Good Hope in the Bull Ring is the most characterful pub in Wexford. Known to everyone as Macken’s — or “The Undertaker” — it is a pub, a grocer and a funeral home under one roof, a genuine survival of how Irish town life used to work. It has kept things simple and traditional, the welcome is unforced, and the music nights are a highlight. There is nowhere else quite like it.
Thomas Moore Tavern in the Cornmarket is one of the oldest pubs in the town, named for the poet whose mother was a Wexford woman. Low ceilings, old timber and a genuinely settled atmosphere make it a heritage pub in the truest sense, and its acclaimed “Trad Tuesdays” are among the best traditional sessions in Wexford.
Bugler Doyles on South Main Street has been serving since the 1850s and looks the part: elegant wood panelling, long leather banquettes, and a sizeable covered beer garden that works in any weather. Live traditional music runs on Saturdays, and there are guest rooms above the bar — a handsome old Wexford pub that has resisted the urge to modernise away its own character.
Brewery, Wine and Serious Drinks
Simon Lambert & Sons on South Main Street is the most ambitious pub in Wexford. A family business dating to the early 19th century, it now runs its own brewery — the home of YellowBelly Beer — alongside a smokehouse turning out genuinely good barbecue. It was voted Wexford Pub of the Year in 2017. First stop for anyone who cares what’s in the glass and on the plate.
The Sky and the Ground at 112 South Main Street is a Wexford institution and the town’s strongest all-rounder. The wood-panelled interior, the mural-painted beer garden and one of the best craft-beer and stout selections in the county make it reliable at any hour, and the live-music standard is consistently high — traditional sessions on Tuesdays among them.
Greenacres on Selskar Street is Wexford’s most serious destination for wine — a fine-wine merchant, deli, bakery-café, art gallery and restaurant spread over several floors, with a world-class cellar to drink in or take home. For anyone who treats a glass of wine with the same care as a pint of stout, this is the address in town.
The Thirsty Monk is Wexford’s craft-beer corner — a small, focused bar with a properly kept list of independent and local brews rather than the standard line-up. Short on frills, long on what’s on tap. If you’ve worked your way through the YellowBelly range and want to keep going, this is where to do it.
The Classic Wexford Locals
T. Morris is one of the most traditional pubs in town and very nearly wasn’t — it came close to closing in 2020 before new owners stepped in and saved it. They kept it exactly as it should be: an old, characterful room with a covered beer garden, live trad on Saturdays and seasonal Friday sessions through the summer, with a well-judged cocktail list added alongside.
Maggie May’s on Monck Street is the busy, sociable local done right — a log fire for the winter, an award-winning beer garden for the summer, a programme of live music and cocktails, and the darts, sports and fundraiser nights that keep a neighbourhood crowd coming back. Reliable in every season.
Kellys on the Corner at 101 South Main Street is Wexford’s casual sports-and-pizza pub: well-placed screens for the match, wood-fired pizzas coming out of the kitchen, and an unfussy atmosphere that suits a long afternoon. Not trying to be anything other than a good time, and it succeeds.
Jim McGee’s is a traditional Wexford-town bar steeped in historic charm — and, usefully, a place you can stay the night, with en-suite guest rooms, a guest lounge and a sunny terrace. A good pint in good company, and a practical base for a trip built around the town’s pubs.
Live Music and Late Nights
The Centenary Stores — “the Stores” to everyone in Wexford — is the town’s great all-in-one venue: a traditional bar by day, a serious live-music room by night, and a late venue when the night demands it. Trad sessions, full bands and DJ nights all feature, and the kitchen does proper pub food. If a Wexford night out has a centre of gravity, this is usually it.
The Crown Bar on Monck Street is the town’s most contemporary operation, recently renovated into several distinct spaces under one roof — a craft-beer bar, a cocktail bar, and a colourful garden bar strung with globe lanterns. There is food and a fireplace for the quiet end of the week and the room to spread out on the busy end. The most polished pour in Wexford.
And finally The Mocking Monck, a small Monck Street local that does exactly what a small city-centre pub should: an easy welcome, a good pint, and no fuss. The right call when you want one quiet drink in the middle of town rather than a night of them.
Fifteen bars, one small town that drinks far above its size. Wexford’s pub culture is older, deeper and more characterful than its footprint suggests — a 1775 survivor, a pub-and-undertaker on the Bull Ring, a working brewery on Main Street, a world-class wine cellar off Selskar, and a live-music scene that comes into its own every October. Click through to any of the entries above for the full write-up, and walk the length of Main Street to see why.
