Tom B.
Yelp
The flyer implies that you will be visiting three bars and listening to the different musicians playing different styles of Irish music there.
The tour starts in a private room above one pub. Many of the fifty or sixty participants had their dinner there then went to the room. There were two musicians - a woman on the fiddle and a man on the guitar. We were there about fifteen minutes and the musicians played one tune.
Then, we were led to a second bar where we went to a private room with a bar above the pub. The same musicians were there. There was very little music played - a lot of banter and lots of time wasted telling us about how someone will bring a guitar to a pub and start playing and soon there's a crowd all having a jolly time. What this had to with Irish music, I have no idea. The musicians played about three or four pieces. With the exception of the song where the guy played the drum, they all sounded the same to me. They told us the difference between a jig and reel, but didn't play any so we could hear the difference.
After an hour, we were led to another bar where we, again, went to a private room with a bar above the pub. They selected three people at random and had them sing. I have no idea what a group from Germany singing about Deutsheland" has to do with Irish music either. They only played about three or four tunes, talking most of the time.
After an hour the male musician led us all down to the street, pointed in a direction and told us to go that way and we'll be back to the start, then disappeared stranding us all at a pub we had no idea where it was at 10:00 pm in the dark.
We started walking and, as it is extremely easy for a visitor to the country to do, we got lost. There are many streets and only a few are identified by signs 15' above the sidewalk and a lot are not on the tourist map so it is extremely difficult to find where you are and get where you want. Street names also change frequently so you might be on the right road, but don't know it. It is very easy to get lost in the daytime and worse at night. Thanks to several Dubliners who gave us directions, we found our hotel in only an hour.
We NEVER entered any of the pubs we visited, nor hear any of the bands playing, only the two musicians that led us. At each pub, we were in private rooms with bars If we were all just going to be in a private room with two musicians, why did they take us to three pubs when it could all have been done at one?.
The only reason that makes sense is the tour company brings a large group of people to the pubs to buy beer, and I would not be surprised if the tour operators got a good cut of beer sales
It's a scam and ripoff. If you want to hear Irish music at a pub, just walk up and down the streets of Temple Bar listening to the music at each and going into one you like and it's free.