First – the food part of today’s World Secret. Raglan Road is THE place to go for Irish food and entertainment in the Downtown Disney area. The menu comes complete with Bangers and Mash (that’s a fancy Irish name for sausage and mashed potatoes) – but did you know you will also find some of the absolute BEST burgers on property here? It’s true.
Photo credit: nutfreefam.blogspot.com
You can enjoy all that Raglan Road offers from a comfy table – or if you prefer – belly up to their 130 year old bar. It’s imported all the way from Ireland!
Cooke’s of Dublin is a quick service restaurant located right next to Raglan Road, and it offers a selection of the exact same food that Raglan Road serves – at a much lower price! The secret (inside the secret) of Cooke’s – is the “Doh-Bars” which are donut battered Snickers and Mars bars.
Yeah.
It’s enough to make me want to move to Ireland. But, don’t worry, one can cancel out the calories from your Doh-Bar with a healthy salad, because Cooke’s has those too.
Before you enter Raglan Road, look for a replica bronze statue of the famous Irish poet, Patrick Kavanagh, sitting on his bronze park bench.
Regarded as one of the foremost poets of the 20th century, Patrick Kavanagh’s best known works include the novel Tarry Flynn and of course the poem Raglan Road.
Folks in Dublin often saw Patrick relaxing alone on a park bench by the Grand canal. When he passed away in 1967 after a long struggle with lung cancer, he was commemorated with the original statue in Ireland. To this day, after every St. Patrick’s Day parade you’ll find his friends gathering at that bench.
Here is the actual statue in Ireland. Photo credit Flickr.com
Raglan Road pub’s replica of this statue is the only one you will find outside of Ireland. This version has a shorter bench, so there is no room to sit next to poor old Patrick, and perhaps he would prefer it that way. I think it is rather fitting, and symbolic of his original poem. I have added a copy here so you can decide for yourself.
Read carefully and you will see that he explains how, despite his best judgement, he fell for a girl that he knew would break his heart.
On Raglan Road
“On Raglan Road on an autumn day I met her first and knew
That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might one day rue;
I saw the danger, yet I walked along the enchanted way,
And I said, let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day.
On Grafton Street in November we tripped lightly along the ledge
Of the deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion’s pledge,
The Queen of Hearts still making tarts and I not making hay –
O I loved too much and by such and such is happiness thrown away.
I gave her gifts of the mind I gave her the secret sign that’s known
To the artists who have known the true gods of sound and stone
And word and tint. I did not stint for I gave her poems to say.
With her own name there and her own dark hair like clouds over fields of May
On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly my reason must allow
That I had wooed not as I should a creature made of clay –
When the angel woos the clay he’d lose his wings at the dawn of day.”
~Patrick Kavanagh
Disneyways 