I’m on a mission to visit every Irish pub in the world. I’ve been to 94 so far. These are the best, the worst and the weirdest (including one that serves the ‘Frankenstein’… half Guinness and half Heineken)

‘I went to an Irish pub in Corsica and it was called Loch Ness Irish pub.’

Traveler Colm Dalton tells MailOnline Travel about his mission to visit every Irish pub in the world – and reveals one of the stranger locations he’s ticked off after being asked if there’s a minimum level of ‘Irishness’ required for an Irish pub.

Are there people who don’t have the right to call themselves an Irish pub?

“There are certainly some who are borderline,” he says. ‘Loch Ness for example – famously not in Ireland.’

So, what are the criteria for the perfect Irish pub?

Colm Dalton is on a mission to visit all the Irish pubs in the world. He is pictured above outside Kelly’s Irish pub in Austin, Texas, which he describes as “authentic” and “the real deal.”

Colm recommends Patrick Foley’s in Ghent (pictured above) – ‘a beautiful canalside pub with a huge mural of Celtic art in the beer garden’

Colm considers the Loch Ness pub in Corsica (pictured above) to be ‘borderline’ Irish. “Loch Ness – famously not in Ireland,” he says

Colm, from County Kerry, explains: ‘The first way to judge is the name. If it’s named after an Irish family, like Quinn’s or Keane’s, you know it’s going to be good because it’s probably named after the person who founded it. At the other end of the scale, if it’s called Shamrock Pub or Guinness Pub, it’s not going to be good.”

The specialist adds that ‘live music is a really big sign as a good Irish pub will have good live music’. Pubgoers will also want to watch some ‘aspects of Irish culture’, such as Irish sport, on TV in an authentic pub.

But the real key to knowing you’ve found a gem is the staff.

Colm says: ‘The bar staff in an Irish pub are usually great. They can take twenty orders at a time and tap beers with their elbows. They are very friendly, but they are also very good at their job. You can usually tell when the staff have been trained by an Irish owner to pour a pint. When the staff says, “What do you want to drink? We’ll put it on your table.” That’s the Rolls-Royce valet parking service of an Irish pub. That’s stylish. The welcome is important and that’s what you would expect in an Irish pub.’

Colm usually orders a Guinness in every pub ‘in the spirit of experimentation’. LEFT: Colm in Bologna. RIGHT: Colm at O’Caine’s Irish pub in California

The avid traveler has ticked off 94 pubs in 45 countries so far, but where are the best watering holes?

He recommends Patrick Foley’s in Ghent, ‘a beautiful pub on the canal with a huge mural of Celtic art in the beer garden’. Colm also likes Kelly’s in Austin, Texas. He says, “It’s in a strip mall, but it looks like an Irish cottage. It’s authentic. It’s the real deal.’

Colm adds: ‘Atmosphere is important because it can be dead and that completely changes your perception. I was at one in Lisbon on a Wednesday night called O’GIllins and it was packed with a live band and everyone was singing. It was the perfect mix of Portuguese nightlife, but in an Irish pub.’

In Britain he likes London’s Auld Shillelagh in Stoke Newington because it’s ‘a really nice balance between quite hipster and yet quite Irish’. And Mc & sonswhich has a ‘couple of beautiful wooden pubs serving classic Irish pub-Thai food’ in Vauxhall and Borough.

And quality Irish pubs can be found in the most surprising places.

Colm says: ‘In Jakarta, Indonesia, I was in a tuk-tuk for two hours and then I was dropped off outside a shopping centre. There was a shoe shop and a hairdresser and then there was a little door and inside was a really good Irish pub.”

Colm’s record is nine pubs in one day during a holiday to Rome. LEFT: Outside The Fiddler’s Elbow pub in Rome. RIGHT: Outside Molly Malone’s in California. Colm says this is the most common name for an Irish pub

Colm pictured outside Duffy’s Irish Bar in Krakow

‘Minas Tirith’, a Lord of the Rings-themed Irish pub in a ‘crumbly back street in Palermo’ is also on the list of pleasantly surprising locations.

Are there any Irish pubs that travelers should leave off their to-do list?

Perhaps surprisingly not the Corsican Loch Ness, which was basically a ‘nice pub, just confused’. However, he explains that travelers will want to avoid the Irish Gecko pub in Belgrade. Colm says: ‘There’s a lizard on the surf and it says, “Have you ever been to Ireland? There are no lizards.” It also had a pirate theme, so they confused being Irish with being a pirate. There was rigging on the walls.”

But the only Irish pub Colm has ever ‘walked out’ of is the Guinness Pub in Sarajevo. He explains: ‘There was no one there, there were no staff and we sat in a room for twenty minutes thinking, “What’s going on?” And an employee was standing just outside smoking a cigarette. They didn’t care.’

Colm usually orders a Guinness on his visits ‘in the spirit of experimentation’, but remembers a time when he had to do without a unique variation on the black stuff. He says: ‘In Bilbao the locals drank a drink called Frankenstein, which is half Guinness and half Heineken. And it’s a little dark on top and yellow-green on the bottom. I couldn’t bring myself to drink that.’

According to Colm, what makes Irish pubs so popular around the world?

He explains: ‘In many countries you have cafes and clubs, but no third space. And I think an Irish pub fits that bill. In some cities, the Irish pub is the alternative pub you go to when you want to feel like a frustrated poet. Then there is certainly an imitation process in which someone sees a nice pub and thinks he has to recreate it.’

The most common name for an Irish pub? Molly Malone’s, says Colm, is “particularly popular” in South East Asia. James Joyce, however, is another top choice, perhaps because of the Irish author’s “really cool side profile,” Colm suggests.

The Irish Pubs Global Federation estimates there are more than 6,500 Irish pubs in the world, but Colm is ‘optimistic’ about his goal of visiting them all.

Colm takes his partner with him on his missions. LEFT: They are pictured at The Tipperary Irish Pub in London. RIGHT: Colm at The Drunken Poet in Singapore

His record is nine pubs in one day during a holiday to Rome, where he went from ‘museum to pub to museum to pub’. The pub lover usually takes his partner along on his mission, saying she has ‘become something of a connoisseur herself’ and ‘developed a taste for Guinness’.

So which pubs are next on the expert’s wish list?

Colm says: ‘There’s one in Namche Bazaar in the foothills of the Himalayas which looks really good and I think it’s the highest Irish pub.

“There’s another one in Kampala, Uganda, called Bubbles O’Leary, and it was moved brick by brick from Ireland to Uganda.

“And recently, I don’t know how feasible this is, I discovered on Google that there is an Irish pub in Guantanamo Bay. I don’t know the logistics of getting there, but it would certainly be interesting to see if it’s possible.”

To follow Colm’s journey, visit his Instagram at @publicanemy or website publicanemy.com.