The release of the documentary “The Irish Pub” last year inspired some Irish entrepreneurs to bring small groups on an intimate tour of the old-school Irish pubs featured in the movie.

“The Irish Pub,” written, produced, directed, and edited by Alex Fegan is a very compelling look into why pubs are the way they are. The film discusses the efforts to keep the Irish pub ‘the way it was,’ the many other uses for pubs (funeral homes, grocery stores, hardware stores to name just a few), and what it is that keeps us going back night after night.

One of those interviewed in the film perfectly explains what is that keeps people coming back: “It’s not the drink; it’s the stories.”

It is this certain “je ne sais pas” that inspired Crafted Ireland’s Managing Director, Crothúr Murphy, to create authentic and intimate pub tours of Ireland featuring many of the pubs from the film. So intimate, in fact, that some of the pubs visited on the tour will be opening exclusively for Crafted Ireland’s groups, outside of their normal business hours.

In an Irish pub, the greatest works of art don’t hang on walls, but rather in the air itself.

You'll be surprised at the wonders that can unfold within one single square room. Doubling as a merchant since the 19th century, Curran's Bar in Dingle, Co. Kerry at one time "sold everything," - literally supplied every business in town from the local chemist and clergymen to the farmers and tailors (and everything in between).

Generations later, pub-owner James Curran still marvels at the archive of billhead receipts safely stored for posterity's sake. He's proud, and quite fond of the history piled on the shelves in that single square room that remains unchanged from the studs to the Valentia slate floor. And it's no trouble at all when those stacks of shirts, boots and hats need to be temporarily tucked away to make room for a lively impromptu sing-a-long or a bevy of thirsty patrons who want to chat for the night.

As James Curran, the pub’s owner says in the trailer above “There’s people come into me for a drink. And I get talking to them. And they’ll stay for the night. To just….to be talking.”

If you really want to understand the Irish way of life, these pubs, some centuries old, are living tradition. Listen to pub patrons spin colourful yarns and soon understand why Irish sweaters have achieved such fame. Or perhaps some fiddle and pipe players, modern-day wandering minstrels, will stop in and fill the room with traditional Irish folk music, leaving no choice but to dance a jig or sing along. In the swirl of this revelry, you’ll understand that here, in an Irish Pub, the greatest works of art don’t hang on walls, but rather in the air itself.

Crafted Ireland’s Irish Pub Tours are a celebration of the pub and the publicans who run them. The journey takes guests on an off-the-beaten-path exploration of Irish culture and immerses them in authentic character and history – delivering more than a perfect, creamy pint of Guinness and stunning landscapes, but also a world with warmth, wit, heart and soul.

For more information visit www.irishpubtours.com. The tours will kick off in May 2015.

To purchase a copy of “The Irish Pub” DVD visit irishpubfilm.com.