Spirit of Samhain Tasting Dinner at Skelly's Bar

What to Expect

Skelly’s Bar in Ballymahon is running a five-course tasting dinner on Wednesday 4 November 2026, from 7.30pm to 10.30pm. Each course is paired with locally produced food and drink, with Irish whiskeys running through the menu and a selection of rare beers alongside them. Local beef and seasonal ingredients are named as the base of the cooking, so the menu is built around what is available in the county in early November rather than around a fixed year-round card.

The evening carries the Samhain theme that runs through the venue’s autumn programme, following the Halloween night market Skelly’s hosts on 30 October. Music accompanies the meal, and part of the setting is the pub’s heated outdoor courtyard, which matters for a November booking. Skelly’s has been a family-run pub on Ballymahon’s Main Street since the 1850s and describes its own room as rustic with a music tradition, so this is a pub dining room rather than a formal restaurant setting. At €100 a head it is a full evening rather than a drop-in, and places are limited to the number of covers the kitchen can serve in one sitting.

Good to Know

• Date and time: Wednesday 4 November 2026, 7.30pm to 10.30pm
• Venue: Skelly’s Bar, 16 Main Street, Ballymahon, Co. Longford
• Price: €100 per person
• Format: five courses, each paired with local food and drink, Irish whiskeys and rare beers
• Local beef and seasonal ingredients feature on the menu
• Live music during the meal, with use of the heated outdoor courtyard
• Booking essential given the limited number of covers, through the venue at skellys.ie or by phone

Getting There

Ballymahon sits in south Longford on the N55 between Athlone and Longford town, about 20km from each. Skelly’s is on Main Street in the town centre. Drivers from Dublin take the M4 to Kinnegad, then the N52 and N55, a run of roughly two hours. There is on-street parking the length of Main Street and on the side streets off it. Bus Eireann services running the Athlone to Longford corridor stop in Ballymahon, though evening times are limited, so a taxi or a designated driver is worth arranging in advance for a dinner with drink pairings.