Irish Pubs in Spain??

The area where I formerly lived in Spain was well known as a cosmopolitan town, with many nationalities living side by side, and many different types of restaurants offering a wide variety of cuisine.
Having now moved to the more Spanish region of Murcia, I have noticed that the bars and restaurants are more traditionally Spanish and likewise the food on offer is very Spanish. There seems to be only one exception to this and that is the Irish Pub.

I have to confess that I thought that the Irish Pub was peculiar to the areas of Spain where many British/Irish lived, a bit like the British Pub with Sky TV, but I found that the Irish Pub seems to crop up in the most unlikely places. One night I went out with one of our Spanish friends Anna, and as she is at the University in Murcia she decided to show us the night life in the Town.
We went into lots of different bars that night but Anna felt that the nicest bar she knew was a bar called the Marathon Bar, and insisted on taking us there. As the name suggests this was not a Spanish Bar and certainly the title had a very English feel.
The bar turned out to be an Irish Bar, and I have to confess that the décor was very Pub like. It was a very dark bar with lots of wood, including the floor. The bar itself was very long and all dark wood. There were cubicles all along two of the walls with wooden benches and tables, and walls were adorned with old signs, and bits of racing memorabilia. On each of the tables there was a beer pump, glass washer and glasses. A very good idea we thought and somewhat of a novelty. A young Spanish girl came to our table to take our drinks order and we gave her €20.00 and as soon as she went back to the bar our pump showed the amount of beer we had, and we just served ourselves.

For me the beauty of this pub was the décor, every inch of the bar looked very authentic and I was impressed by the amount of vision the owners had when they designed it. The idea of a beer pump on the table was also splendid, as it meant we did not have to queue at the bar to be served, and as this was one busy bar it was appreciated.
The only thing that intrigued me was the nationality of the owners, were they actually Irish?? It turns out no they were not, and they had never set foot in Ireland, and no they did not sell Guinness.

I know of other Irish Bars in the locality, one of the most popular is owned by an Argentinean. But by far the best was found in Almeria. Now this bar was again decorated in a very authentic way, and did not sell food, just drinks. On the walls there were plaques which were intended to depict the tales of an old Irish Mariner. They were beautifully done with lovely painted images and writing on wooden plaques. It was only when I started to read them that I realised that they made no sense at all to and English speaker. This is when the penny dropped, yet another Spanish/Irish bar which was confirmed by the lady behind the bar. She was gutted when I told her that none on the writing on the plaques made any sense at all, mostly gibberish.

The Big question that I have is WHY?? In the areas that the British frequent having an Irish bar generally means that you can charge over the top prices for everything you sell, but why would the Spanish follow this theme and then not charge higher prices, where is the benefit to them? And do the Spanish like the idea of being in an Irish themed bar?? I guess the answer to the last question has to be yes, based on the numbers of Spanish that seem to drink there as they all were packed when I visited. Views on this one would be appreciated.