As far as the free booze is concerned, the forecast is looking good.

It might not feel like it with the weather we’ve had this week, but this coming Monday, May 1, is the official start of the summer. In countries with a more temperate climate than Ireland, the start of the summer is the cue to don more seasonal clothing, break out the barbeque and hit the beach, but alas, conditions that allow that behaviour tend to be rare but wonderful in these parts. To lighten the mood ahead of what is promised to be a mixed bag of a weekend on the weather front, McNamee’s Bar in Loughrea is promising free drinks for customers in the event that it rains this Monday. To get on the guest list, those who want to attend on the day are asked to like and share the post on McNamee’s Facebook page and tag three friends while they’re at it; at the time of writing, the post has only been up for about an hour and it’s already getting a big response. It’s early days to be predicting the weather for the Bank Holiday Monday, but Met Éireann are forecasting a “showery” day, which might come as sad news to most of us, but will be music to the ears of McNamee’s customers. If you are heading along, please drink responsibly and for more info, check out McNamee’s on Facebook. Cheers to Andrew Finnerty for sending this our way.