EPITR: 1019263 Crolly Distillery

This is a first for me - not as distillery tour as I've done many of those before; but a Producers Retail (On) Licence. This newest category of liquor licences was introduced in 2018 as an available add-on to a manufacturers licence; alongside an equivalent Producers Retail (Off) Licence for those who wish to sell off-sales only. 

This licence type can be generated from new, not requiring surrender of an existing pub licence; saving the five figure expense of buying one. The Off licence can even be issued by the District Court, reducing legal costs even further, and they are both cheaper to renew than a pub licence. They are, however, vastly more limiting than a pub licence and hence many busier places will use those instead - hence the Dublin distillery and brewery premises I have written about before with full pub licences like Rascals, Teelings and so on.

There are only about 30 of these licences - both types combined - in existence, and only a single one in Dublin which I have yet to visit. Donegal is very heavily represented in them, with both Sliabh Liag sites (the distillery and the bottling plant), Baoilleach Distillery and Kinnegar Brewing also having licences.

The On licence allows for daytime (7pm latest) on-sales of products to those who have undergone a tour of the facility - but this tour can be as basic as you want - a joke at the time of introduction was that a brewery could basically go "there's the fermenters, there's the bar" and have satisfied the requirements.

The Crolly tour is at the other end of the scale though, being quite in-depth; and up close - as the stills were cold, with the days run planned for later, I was brought right up to them; and brought to the - but not across - the threshold of their on site bonded warehouse.

The tour includes a tasting of their new make, unaged spirit; as well as at least one of their released whiskeys (these may still be contract products - "matured and bottled on site" is specified on the retail packaging). I also had a tasting of their soon to be released Oloroso cask product, which was definitely distilled on site. You can upgrade all the way to a €150 tour, but this seemed a bit excessive!

The bar area at the end is quite nice, and large enough to comfortably cater for a bus tour of visitors; but not ridiculous for when there is just one solo tourist like there was for a brief period after my tour.

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: Bar Anam

Well, I had to go back and see what had been done to Underdog, didn't I.

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(I promise the sky is real, Dublin had some really nice late Spring weather)

The kitchen's open, there's some macros on the taps and it's been painted, with new furniture. But some of the regular customers are still around, there's still a range of craft offerings (some slightly less common) on the taps.

Operated by the same people who run Dudleys, another recent re-writeup oddly enough; there are some similarities in the two pubs, but plenty of difference too. Dudleys offers fairly conventional pub grub, but Bar Anam has Dak offering Korean food to the rear of the pub. Dudleys is quite a lot larger, with a bar and lounge split, and the lounge itself having a mezzanine; and this space allows them to have live music.

Dudleys has TVs, and Bar Anam doens't - yet. I happened to be there while one of the owners was present and had a chat about the pub and their plans; and TVs or a protector for occasional use are under consideration. Underdog would also occasionally use one of its menu screen TVs to show free-to-air sports coverage, so this wouldn't be a change from what went before.

It's not the same as it was, but it is already it's own thing. I'll be back - indeed I have already been back between this first visit and the writeup.

June 2026 Revenue register update

This one's late due to me, not Revenue. There's so little to add that I never got around to it!

New: 1023199 Maldron Hotel Croke Park, Clonliffe Road.

1998 in The Docklands - an Evening Herald pub crawl of sorts

There's nothing more that I like running across in a newspaper or magazine archive that someones documented Dublin pub crawl - except maybe their list of favourite pubs that is.

While looking for an address to confirm somewhere probably wasn't a pub (Wrights of Fishermans Wharf restaurant which I think may have been the two storey unit opposite the Harbourmaster, but I'm still not confident of that); I came across a 1998 pub crawl of Dublin's docklands by Evening Herald journalist Linda Higgins.

While the docklands were significantly less rough and ready than they had been even five years early by 1998, they were not what they are today, and could be a somewhat dodgy place to hang around. The article was written for the first arrival of the Tall Ships Race to Dublin, so there would be large crowds in the area looking for refreshment. It was not a suggestion that people would randomly go to the docklands for pints!

I have previously written of my own micro-crawl of the very few remaining pubs on the South Quays, covering how many there once were. By 1998, only some of these still existed; but the Herald covers both sides of the river to give a good number of places. There are also, unfortunately grainy, photos of most of these pubs - some of which were in their final years of operation.

The pubs are not in an order that you could have practically visited them in, particularly with there being two fewer bridges over the Liffey in 1998, but I'll cover them in the order from the paper.

The first premises that Linda writes up is The Funnel at 24 City Quay, which she describes as recently opened. I knew of this more as a music venue, operating from ~1997 to ~2000, but there was a restaurant there too according to the review, which complimented its food. This was an early part of the South Docks to be redeveloped, and I believe this is now an apartment building with TC Mathews Carpets in the location of the pub.

Jumping over the river, the next pub is N1833 Harbourmaster. This still trades, although there were plans afoot to demolish the newer section of the pub to replace it with a hotel. For a second pub in a row, a food menu being "Californian" is mentioned, something I don't quite grasp - I've eaten in the Harbourmaster many times from the 00s onwards and never thought of the food as Californian!

The then Jurys, now N1900 Hilton Garden Inn comes next. This was the first of the now many hotels built or under construction in the North docklands, and has changed significantly since - there was apparently a newsagents and a very seperated pub area to it in 1998. 

Leaping back across the water, the then newly renovated S0153 The Ferryman is next. This also still trades and is a semi regular location for me, it serving as one of the two regular pubs for work events in my current job.

Linda then heads, or writes, back along the quay towards the city to Colombia Mills. This is another place I had known of a music venue first and foremost, but in 1998 it also had Colombia Bar & Grill on the premises; offering very very traditional sounding Irish pub food for the time. Considering I went in to see the Tall Ships and almost certainly got brought to get extremely bland stodgy pub food somewhere, I do wonder whether I did actually get to Colombia Mills; as an unaware 11 year old!

Continuing back Westwards, we then next get to S3132 O'Reillys under Tara Street Station, still trading and still doing food; despite it never having crossed my mind that they would. This is the pub furthest out of the docks covered in the main article.

We then have a neck-snapping return back East on the South docks, to get to Dockers. This both is and isn't the pub currently trading with that name from some rare surviving original buildings - it was half the size and significantly less fancy in 1998; and only survived the wrecking ball by not having been demolished before the Tiger died. Food, not a regular offering, was being added for the duration of the Tall Ships.

We now teleport across the river to Valance & McGrath, of which the building and possibly some of the interior still exists, as the Bottle Boy bar of 1016228 Dean Docklands hotel. This was one of the last traditional Docklands pubs to close - really the last, because The Ferryman only ever briefly closed for a refurb - but did food offerings and hence got listed.

A non-pub, in Quay 63 restaurant, is up next. This is not well documented online, but after much digging I am fairly sure it was in the small red building beside the old British Railways Hotel that was knocked in the mid 2010s for Salesforce. This is followed by another, I believe, non pub in the elusive Wrights in the IFSC.

Two final recommendations for drinking alone are giving - Kellys pub, quite far out in to the South docks, which would not last for much longer after 1998; and Kennedys (now S0022 The Workshop) at Tara Street station - even further in to the city than O'Reillys.

Rather strangely, the photo montage at the top contains two premises which are not written up - Campions, which was knocked to build the Convention Centre (but did not give its licence to it - it has a unique National Convention Centre licence); and the Point Depot. The latter may have been in lieu of Quay 63 which is not photographed, and neither is Wrights.

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: 1021467 Fidelity

So many of the places I do re-writes for have changed utterly in between the time of my initial visit and the revisit. Atmosphere, crowd, and drinks offerings may have been completely upended

In this case, the changes to some of those are less major - but the changes to the physical pub itself are immense.

My initial writeup here was for Dice Bar, a bar known for its music choices, connected (at one point) to a brewery and generally seen as quite cool. It was, however, an absolute dump in terms of physical structure and fittings; deliberately going for a dive bar aesthetic.

Fidelity is known for its music, connected to the Whiplash brewery and generally seen as quite cool. But it has had a high end refit, and now does not sell macro brewery products at all.

Since the demise of Underdog, I've been here more often than I had been prior - but I did come here occasionally anyway. Those who bother looking at my monthly revisit lists will have seen that, and indeed it is having to link to the Dice Bar writeups that has lead me to do this new entry.

The licence number has also changed, from an original system one to a new one. This is almost certainly because the licence has been extended to the unit next door, now operating as Fidelity Studio; an extension of the space with a food offering.

The old Dice Bar interior fittings were claimed to be in storage, awaiting the former operator finding a new space. I haven't heard anything on this since that claim was made in 2020, but things may yet occur.

Every pub in... Clane

Clane is closer to me, but it made sense to go further first and do Clane on the way back.

There are three pubs and a hotel in Clane, and a golf course located not a long way outside the town, that I am going to pretend does not exist. 

 

I also believe the GAA club bar is quite popular, as it has been in a number of previously visited towns (Kilcock, and Leixlips two GAA clubs); indeed it even has a brand name of Tommy Coneffs. A number of GAA clubs in North Kildare have bars run by a single external management company called SMSC, this being one of them. But I never consider sports club bars to be pubs unless they have a pub licence, which is astoundingly rare.

There's only two pubs I haven't been to before, so I'll start with those. 

KDP0062 Breeze

The name and the paint job - its very, very, blue - of this pub imply rural nightclub in the 2000s, but it's a very normal pub; and only called Breeze since 2021 - it was ormerly The Parade Ring and The Corner House.

A normal, friendly outer-suburban or provincial town pub, I believe there's a lounge here that does food but I didn't cross over to that side.

 

The bar is very sports oriented, and had a large number of F1 fans in to watch the sprint race on that afternoon. 

KDP0067 Jones / Fagans

The front door of this pub has Jones above it. The side door has Fagans. Some older references to it will call it the Clane Inn.

 

Quite modern and food focused inside, and at least formerly having a "disco bar", this feels even more like a suburban pub than Breeze does. This pub, like those in Sallins, had quite a number of Leinster fans - but at this stage licking their wounds rather than still watching the match, which had finished,

Already visited:

KDP0180 Manzors Village Inn

Been here before. Don't particularly like it. It's big and its popular though, so I am clearly not in the majority with that viewpoint.

KDP0047 Westgrove Hotel

A slightly rambling, large hotel intertwined with a shopping centre complex. I have drunk here before. It is a conventional outer suburban hotel with nothing particularly notable about it, but also nothing wrong with it.

Ignored:

KDP0038 Millicent Golf Club is just about in Clane. I'm not doing golf clubs on these roundups, because these aren't licence completion attempts.

Long closed:

 

Clane has a closed pub, building still extant and which was still licenced in to the 2010s - but I believe closed in the 2000s if not 1990s. This is KDP0076 Royal Oak, at Mainham just outside the town.

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: S1465 Dudleys

This is one of the latest - in terms of how long ago the changeover happened and how long it's been since I visited the new incarnation - of this series so far; but there will likely be some others where I've just not got around to it.

This pub was formerly Bakers, a locals pub that also got a lot of Guinness tourists, and offered food. Bakers announced in 2020 that they would not be reopening after the pandemic, with Dudleys opening in 2021, one of the first "lost pubs" to come back. 

Dudleys is quite similar, except they now offer a substantial number of craft beers as part of the offering. Unlike many pubs with a stronger craft beer offering, the pub has TVs and sports subscriptions, something I need to remember next time I'm looking for somewhere to watch a match.

The curse of going somewhere frequently meaning I can't give much of a writeup strikes again here. Like mentioned on the previous writeup for Swift; I have spent a lot more time in D8 since the closing of Underdog - and with Third Barrel about to take over The Christchurch Inn (former S3103 Beer Market, and a guaranteed recipient of an entry in this series as it really doesn't have a proper page here anyway) down the road; I will very likely continue to, meaning more visits here.