A pint of Guinness in Crouch End on a Sunny Monday Afternoon

A pub review of McCafferty's in Crouch End by Ian Ryan, creator of Shit London Guinness.

Born in Cork and based in London, Ian Ryan is the brains behind the massively successful Shit London Guinness and Beautiful Pints social media pages. Charting the best and worst of London pints (as well as further afield), he is an expert in what makes a pub a pub. After one too many pints, Ian seeks comfort from the humble potato pie. 

For my inaugural pub review, I’m visiting McCafferty’s, an Irish pub situated between Crouch End and Hornsey in London. The Irish are deeply rooted in the history of London. Generations before myself came to flee the famine, the recession of the 50s and 80s and the archaic Catholic church, finding work as labourers building the place back up after World War II. London bears an Irish mark from the towering skyscrapers and the Victoria tube line to the Irish butchers and pubs dotted throughout the city. Irish immigrants coming over these days are a lot like myself - young professionals in their 20s and 30s arriving in search of greener pastures from a country where young people don’t seem welcome, only to find out it’s pretty much the same here and the greener pastures are probably down in somewhere like Australia. Nevertheless, we are here now - working for English banks and critiquing pints of Guinness in foreign lands.