Temple Bar is a trendy area that has developed and boomed in the last few years. We found a pub with a traditional Irish band and loads of locals – not tourists – inside. I noticed many more men than women and everywhere I looked men smoked cigarettes, supplying a thick haze almost a foot deep at ceiling level. Still, this did not stop us from enjoying Irish stew, corned beef, cabbage and Harp lager. Two gentlemen at our round table joined the conversation. We talked about the Irish economy, the increasing number of Irish people returning from abroad to make money in their homeland and great Irish beers. (Both men lived in New York earlier in their lives; they were around 50 years old).