On the N68 at Lissycasey, Fanny O’Dea’s has welcomed travellers for more than three centuries. Tradition holds that a small inn opened here in 1695, later officially licensed in 1790. Remarkably, it remains family-run through eight generations, and is among the very few thatched pubs still trading in Ireland.

The present pub occupies the site of an earlier mud-walled cabin associated with the locally remembered Fanny O’Dea, from whom the house takes its name.Over time the modest stop became a recognised coaching-house on the road between Kilrush and Ennis, its thatch and low eaves a constant even as the roads modernised.

Local lore warns it is unlucky to pass Fanny O’Dea’s without going in. The cautionary tale dates to the nineteenth century – an innocent man, convicted on circumstantial evidence after a murder in Kilrush, was being taken to Ennis for execution. Offered a last drink at Fanny O’Dea’s, he refused. As the party pressed on, the real killer confessed in Kilrush. A rider galloped for Ennis with the reprieve—but arrived too late. Ever since, the saying goes, had they stopped at Fanny’s, the delay might have saved a life. So, for luck, travellers step inside.