A pub crawl begins sober; it is not the objective at the end of the night. On Sunday, we started in the afternoon. This fine, renovated spot served us a bottle of Irish lager recommended by a chatty young gent named Darius, after the Persian king. We quit after just one and Rod was pleased to be rid of him. 
The Irish are fond of puns. Check out this one. 
The afternoon pub was several blocks east of Trinity College, which in turn was a few more blocks from our destination, Temple Bar, which is neither, but a street named after Sir William Temple, an Irish philosopher, fittingly associated with public intoxication. 
The pub was covered in tiny white lights, looks like snow, and is probably permanent. Yes, that’s a horse-drawn carriage, but no one seems to be surprised by its appearance, nor concerned about where the horse might leave droppings for inattentive pub crawlers. [No, it’s not. But there are horses here and there.] 
An early start to a pub crawl requires sustenance. If you thought that high cuisine at the bar would be fish and chips, the days of limited, cheap choice disappeared with with the introduction of euro-touting tourists. On the left, an Irish stew with a Guinness sauce; on the right, baked trout over veggies and mashed potatoes. 
Live music is common in at least half of the bars. The singers and bands we heard were excellent. It is a mixture of traditional Irish songs and vintage Rock. 
The Irish celebrate the Fourth of July just as we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, by drinking. Before anyone assumes that this means they want to be American, half the bars hang rainbow flags to celebrate the same sex marriage; the straight guys are not looking to cross over—darn! In fairness, I have not see an intoxicated Dubliner. They like to hang out together and talk rather than watch TV each night, but the current generation is neither neither rowdy nor belligerent. What is great about Ireland is that about half of the patrons stand around outdoors, probably a habit started when Ireland outlawed smoking in public places. Few smoke today.
Sambandar 
Enjoyed reading about your pub crawl.