Happy-Hour Hit list: Irish Pubs

Round-trip airline tickets from Kansas City to Dublin can run north of $1,000. Instead of visiting the Emerald Isle, you can always head to one of these authentic Irish pubs, where the craic is guaranteed.• O’Malley’s 1842 Pub (500 Welt in Weston, 816-640-5235). About 30 minutes north of KCI, this brewery-bar-restaurant complex offers its own Emerald Lager, Irish Style Bitter Ale and the O’Malley (a concoction of Irish stout, vodka and Tabasco) for $4 apiece. Stay for the limericks and ballads of Bob Reeder from 3 to 9 p.m.• Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant (170 East 14th Street, 816-994-9700). The Power & Light District’s largest establishment has Irish dancers, shepherd’s pie, $5.50 pints of Guinness and an awesome $6 Irish coffee made with caramel Bailey’s and topped with house-made whipped cream.• O’Dowd’s Little Dublin (4742 Pennsylvania, 816-561-2700). This K.C. Hopps, Ltd.-owned Irish ale house and pub offers 1.5-ounce pours of Tullamore Dew for $6 and Tullamore Dew 12-Year-Old Special Reserve for $8. Things get more Irish when Eddie Delahunt performs from 8:30 p.m. to midnight. — Berry Anderson

Sun., Aug. 9, 2009