Revisit 20 years on: S0164 Horse Show House

I mentioned this in my RetroReview of this pub - my first, and until now, only visit here was a few weeks before my 18th birthday, when they served me while I was wearing my school uniform. 

During the Young Scientist which was being held across the road, so the area was *full* of teenagers.

That said, I've been the same (abnormally tall for Ireland) height since I was about 13, I've been able to grow a beard if I wanted to since about the same time; so the sum total of places that refused me service underage is one (Pravda, now the Grand Social)

There's two bits of context that are probably more important in why they didn't even think I was that young - with the jumper off, my secondary schools uniform looked like a bank clerk uniform; and AIB's HQ was next door to the pub at the time. And I'd ordered food.

So I'm letting them off for not checking my ID in 2005; and I'm pretty certain there's a statute of limitations on the offences!

Unlike the first of these long-term revisit writeups, this pub has changed quite a lot - internally and externally - with modern and well appointed outdoor areas (uncommon as early as 9 months after the smoking ban when I first visited) and a recent interior refit also.

Revisit 20 years on: S0018 Bowes

My previous post her set out an intent to try revisit some pubs that I'd last been to over 18 years ago; or least where the last time I can remember was that long ago.

In the case of Bowes, I cannot recall being in here since meeting someone to watch a football match in 2005. I wrote the RetroReview in 2020 when there was planning being attempted to merge the pub through the former Irish Yeast Company building behind; and thankfully this plan seems to be dead.

As you'd expect with a pub with a Victorian interior, very little has changed in the 20 years since my last visit. The TVs are newer, and there's various craft beers on the taps and in the fridges; and a lot of the smaller distilleries they have whiskey from didn't exist in 2005 - but the fundamentals are still the same. 

This is a nice pub in a very central location. I'm not sure why I wasn't in here in the past 20 years; but I'll try make sure I get back in before 2045. 

Aged Visits - revisiting pubs last visited >=18 years ago

As I'm all but out of places to tick off - and entirely out of conventional pubs until some open or reopen - I've decided that I should try figure out which pubs I've not been to for the longest and potentially revisit those, to update what are often extremely outdated "RetroReview" postings here.

I don't have dates and times for visits prior to starting the blog a bit over 9 years ago, and recording my re-visits from late 2019, so there's nearly 15 years and just under 100 pubs that haven't been recorded as visited on here, other than the RetroReview

Rather than post the full list here, and tie myself to actually visiting them all, I'm going to list a few places I know are approaching, at or beyond the 20 year mark since my last visit; and which I'll vaguely try to get to at some point in the next few years or so. I am deliberately leaving out ticketed venues (race tracks, theatres, cinemas)

* Hoxton Hotel (former Central Hotel) - I believe I was last here in 2004. It's reopening soon, which is a good excuse to visit
* The Bridge 1859 - 2005
* Horse Show House - 2005

These three above were all last drunk in before I was 18, so definitely deserve a legal revisit! The rest below are all a bit later; but still last visited so long ago, that someone born on the day would now be old enough to drink:

* Bowes, Fleet Street - circa 2005
* Fagans, Drumcondra - circa 2005/6
* Kennedys, Drumconda - circa 2005/6
* The Old Storehouse - circa 2005, when it was Eamon Dorans
* Quinns, Drumcondra - 2006. Also reopening soon
* IFI, Eustace Street - not sure I've been here since 2006. Yes, this is a cinema, but the restaurant and bar are open to all
* West County Hotel, Chapelizod - circa 2006
* The Old Boro, Swords - not been here since 2006, well before it was Wetherspooned
* The Betsy, Swords - 2006, as the Slaughtered Lamb
* Intercontinental Hotel - 2006, as the Four Seasons
* Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan - 2006, as the Stillorgan Park Hotel
* Mulligans, Abbey Street - 2007, as Madigans
* Madigans, North Earl Street - 2007
* The Grattan, Grattan Crescent - ~2007, as the Village Inn

N1205 Abbey Theatre

The "Serious Theatre" stage of ticking off had already begun a few months ago in Smock Alley, and has now continued to our National Theatre. 

My specific visit was to see a play on the smaller, subterranean Peacock stage. This features a small bar area which sells wine and bottled beers/ciders, primarily from independent Irish producers. The ticket check is after the bar area, so you could probably get away with ticking this one off without actually buying a ticket... but don't say I suggested that! You will not get in to the actual play without a ticket, however.

In terms of the grand old Dublin theatres and their history, the Abbey is a relative newcomer; having been opened in 1904; however it opened in the space of the former Mechanics Theatre - itself about a hundred years older. Only the Gate, founded 1928, is newer amongst the long-standing operations.

That old building was significantly damaged by fire in 1951, causing the Abbey to move to Pearse Street for a decade and a half, before returning to a then striking Michael Scott designed building on the original site in 1966.

Unfortunately, this building is now increasingly unsuitable for modern expectations. For instance, the Luas, which opened over 20 years ago, can be heard passing while inside the Peacock - as the room was not built with sufficient sound or vibration isolation to cope with trams that wouldn't arrive for almost 40 years; and which have got longer and more frequent even since.

A replacement building has been discussed since the 1990s; with a larger plot around the existing building being slowly assembled - this explaining the empty and derelict state of many of the buildings reaching from the theatre to the quays. Recent public progress on the new plans have been effectively non-existent, but the theatres 2025-2030 strategy does still plan for a new building. If this goes ahead, expect the Abbey to drop off any lists of licences for a number of years.

I still have double digit figures of theatres left to visit - attending plays had never been my thing, only certain venues amongst the serious/grand theatres also do music or comedy performances; and a lot of the suburban theatres (each County Council having at least one) are rather inaccessible without driving. So theatres make up the single largest grouping in my outstanding visits, and will obviously make up much of my future reports.

Revenue register update, September 2025

I still have no further writeups to post, so another routine posts gets moved to being a scheduled post! 

Reasonably large update to process this month, albeit a lot of it is just renewals of extant premises. However, there's still a few changes of note:

New:

1022169 Lane7, Chatham Street - already visited
1022390 CitizenM Hotel, Bride Street - already visited

Renumbered: 

1021887 Plunkets, Middle Abbey Street - formerly N1939

Removals:

1009401 Citywest Hotel, Citywest - this hotel has been purchased by the State and is extremely unlikely to ever reopen

Revisited pubs, August 2025

With a current pub writeup backlog of zero - everywhere I've been since 2005 is written up, as far as I know - the revisit post for August is being promoted to the status of being a regular scheduled post for the first time in many years. 

N0097 Underdog - a regular that needs no explanation

S3103 Christchurch Inn - one stop of a few on a Sunday afternoon wander around the city

1014121 John O'Dwyers - and another

S0198 Cassidys - and another

N0082 McGraths - another regular

S0106 Tapped - with two hours to kill before a work event in the next-but-one entry, I had time to visit a few places in Dublin 2...

1007394 Davy Byrnes ...some of which were less busy than all their also famed neighbours on a sunny Thursday evening, presumably due to a North-facing outdoor area

1019597 Hyde - this was where said work event was.

1017882 IMC Cinema Santry

Another cinema, part of the same chain as my other recent visit, but without anywhere near the history of the Savoy. 

And it was another surprisingly cheap pint, of Heineken - the only beer they offer. 

There is a tiny bit of history here, though. The cinema itself is an early 90s multiplex, minimally modified but that has been kept in serviceable condition; however that alone isn't particularly interesting. 

The previous use of the site, as McCairns Motors Vauxhall and Chevrolet assembly plant is more interesting, at least to me. I have been in to the admin areas of the centre in a previous job, and there is a photo of the media launch of the shopping centre development in the early 90s, with a helicopter dropping someone off in the ruins of the car plant.

There's also a quirk with it's name. As the cinema element of the Omni Park shopping centre, this was the cinema that gave the Omniplex chain it's name - but it isn't part of that chain. IMC and Omniplex were two seperate chains that mostly operated as one - Ward Anderson - but split over ten years ago, and despite this being the source of the Omniplex name; that name went to the other side of the split.