On Wednesday nights, students at SLU-Madrid often find themselves ending up at Dubliners, a bar in the center of Madrid, where €1 shots are offered after 11 p.m.
The Irish pub serves food and screens football games on quieter nights. But on Wednesdays, nostalgic American tunes fill the bar, catering to the wave of U.S. college students who crowd the bar.
(Thea Uhl)
The streets outside the bar are filled with university students, chatting as the €1 deal is an offer too good to pass up. As 11 p.m. approaches, the line to enter stretches down the street, and the noise on the street with it.
For many college students at SLU-Madrid, it has become a way to relax after a long day of classes.
“It’s the only excuse we have to go out on Wednesdays,” Britton Francis, a junior at SLU-Madrid, said.
Dubliners has built a reputation across campus for both visiting and permanent SLU students.
“Dubliners is one of those bars that knows how to attract a crowd and knows what they want–cheap shots,” Lana Clevinger, a senior at SLU-Madrid, said, recounting her experience visiting Dubliners.
For many visiting students, dive bars are their social spots in American college towns. Dubliners serves as a traditional dive bar for those who have longed for a familiar social scene in their college town of Madrid.
The bar becomes a place where study-abroad students and permanent SLU-Madrid students converse easily, linked by one common goal: midweek fun on a budget.
Still, for some students, the allure of the €1 shots has faded, and they are seeking new spots to spend their Wednesday nights.
“It’s lowkey an iconic place because the craziest things happen there. But it’s forever on my no-go list,” Lily Rowe, a sophomore at SLU-Madrid, said.
Stories of overcrowded spaces and disruptive behavior have circulated among students who have spent countless nights at the bar. For some, the cramped interior and packed atmosphere in the bar create an unpredictable and uncomfortable environment.
“Wednesdays are the only night of the week the place gets crowded, and crowded is an understatement,” Clevinger said.
Madrid is known for its pickpockets, and nightlife spots and tourist areas are common targets. The bar’s environment makes Dubliners a pickpocket’s dream. On packed nights, especially on Wednesdays, students juggling drinks, phones, and their bags can become easy victims. Even those who were not holding drinks were victims of this.
“I got my phone stolen there, and I was fully sober. It was just so crowded, and pickpockets know it’s a hotspot,” Rowe said.
The once-fun environment has now become, for some students, a place where disruptive behavior seeps into their social lives. “At first it was really fun, but then it became like a torture-chamber fun house,” Francis said.
Some students say the atmosphere inside Dubliners has contributed to breakups and strained friendships. The combination of the crowded atmosphere and chaotic behavior, students say, often makes a night out less relaxing and more like a gamble.
“I know a lot of people who would be in happy relationships and have their cell phones if they did not attend that function in Dubliners,” Francis said.
These reflections are common among some SLU-Madrid students, many of whom describe the bar with a mix of frustration but also nostalgia. The weekly outing to Dubliners is widely recognized and defines the study abroad experience, some for the worse.
“Everyone you know is there, people running into each other, cheating on each other, dancing on tables. I don’t want to say I regret my time there because I don’t regret anything,” Francis said.
