(Almost) Every Pub In Maynooth

There's an (Almost) on this - because I'm not particularly in the mood to wait until I've justified spending the money required to go to the Michelin starred restaurant in KDP0052 Carton House to tick off its licence. But otherwise, I completed the set of Maynooths pubs over 20 years ago, and then picked up the only addition since. 

KDP0215 O'Neills

My local, so I need to be nice about it!

A mid 2000s new build, replacing in part the owners former butchers store - the shopfront of same has been preserved and is used as the access to the keg/plant room from the smoking area. Heavily food based trade, but consistently busy enough. Not particularly student friendly or popular, which is a good thing when you're getting old and decrepit and don't want the noise, or the constant reminders that you're ancient.

KDP0088 The Roost

A Louis Fitzgerald pub I no longer darken the door of. I've made my opinions on Fitzgerald pubs clear on other writeups.

KDP0145 McMahons

The sister pub to the McMahons in Celbridge I mentioned, I sometimes call this my "backup local" - my local does not open on Mondays and can sometimes be either exceptionally busy, or exceptionally noisy - there are occasions where there are different live musicians inside and out. McMahons does not (often) do this.

Massively refurbed in my teens from a fairly run down pub in to something high end, it has held up well and is still a good condition and well run premises.

KDP0151 Bradys

Literally next door to McMahons, everyone who watched Virgin Media News during the pandemic will know Bradys, as the owner was one of the four or five pub owners continually interviewed as representatives of the industry - helped heavily by one of the Virgin reporters living in the town!

1010273 Donatellos / Oak Alley Cocktail Bar

Maynooth has a Pubstaurant. Or more specifically, a restaurant with an occasionally separately open cocktail bar, with a full pub licence. Ironically, the restaurant down the road with a bar that is much more commonly open is not legally a pub...

KDP0073 Glenroyal Hotel (and formerly Happy Out / The Fizz / The Fitzgerald / Club G nightclubs)

A sprawling hotel complex, which started as quite a small hotel but has had more extensions than I can count, this is where everyones 21st was. Also the hotel bar was briefly very popular in the mid 00s, and the nightclub was inexplicably popular up until three pubs grew music bars (The Roost, Bradys,  briefly O'Neills), and then it fell off a cliff. 

The nightclub is now a cafe, and the bar very sedate in the evenings. But it is still public.

Newtown Inn

Maynooth also has an estate pub, which doesn't seem to have renewed its licence yet this year; and I don't retain all the old files for the rest of the country. But it is open.

Last time I was in here was a good few years ago, and the pub was exactly the same as it had been when I was drinking there underage in 2003/4. A very high end fitout for the early 00s - honeyed wood, white leather, chromed metal - all basically pristine, because the pub was never particularly busy.

I believe it has been extensively modernised since, but as it's in an estate on the other side of the town, I basically forget it exists. I do sometimes drop in to its surprisingly good off-licence though.

Closed:

The Red Door / The Duke & Coachmen / Cathedral / Mantra / The Leinster Arms

Possibly the oldest pub in the town, this late 18th Century coaching inn continued to operate as a small hotel in to the mid 1990s; but during my youth the Leinster Arms was mainly known as quite a rough pub with quite a rough nightclub. Didn't stop me going there, occasionally.

Mantra was a Celtic Tiger horror show, and Cathedral and the Duke & Coachmen both attempts to round off the edges after the inevitable financial failures. The Red Door was a temporary COVID era opening to allow The Roost to overspill. 

The bulk of the premises has been converted to student accommodation now, but the bar is still physically there, and retains planning permission to open as a "licenced restaurant". 

Dowdstown Hotel

This had a few minorly different names over its surprisingly short life. Built by the family of some classmates in school, I never actually went here; and now it's a nursing home.

Moyglare Manor Hotel

I *think* this had a public licence. Closed in the 00s, bought to become a branch of The Priory rehab clinics (or so the local mythos went), and now a high end self-catering venue. It's also Maynooth, Co. Meath rather than Maynooth, Co. Kildare; but it's closer to Maynooth than anywhere else.

Every Pub In Celbridge

It should be clear that I've mostly run out of topics here, having finished off "normal" pubs in August 2025 and only having new openings, reopenings and edge-case mop-ups left to actually visit.

So I need to find something else to do. I actually live in Kildare, and have done so for this entire time; but Every Pub In Kildare would need a driver and some exceptionally long trips to the South of the county. It's never going to happen.

But I may as well sweep up the towns around me. I had already drunk in *some* of the pubs in Kildare, and I revisit one on this trip just to confirm what I thought about it, but one other previously visited place did not need another so quickly. 

edit: On further digging through the licence file, I have found that the Lyons Demense in sort-of Celbridge also has a full publicans licence, 1010946. I have not been here.

So here are the pubs in Celbridge, closest to Dublin to furthest:

KDP0077 McNamees Abbey Lodge

Really worryingly quiet, in the bar at least, with a small crowd in intently watching the Liverpool game. I assume it gets busier at other times. This pub has a large car park, which used to be leased to the council; and has used this to develop a (food) cafe and coffee shop business since the pandemic. But the bar itself might need a bit of work - in particular, the door to the street is shut up and you need to enter through the car park. Or maybe it's going just as well as they want

KDP0175 Village Inn

I have eaten in, or picked up takeout from the restaurant upstairs here (an absolutely fantastic Indian, formerly located above the old Quinnsworth - I've been going there that long) so many times I couldn't even try to count. But I've never actually gone in downstairs before today.

The lounge was rammed. The bar was little better, but I found a table which had limited view of either the racing or football screens - hence why nobody was sitting there. 

KDP0093 O'Connors / Kildrought Lounge

I had been to O'Connors before, in 2005 before going to see a school friends band play in The Mill across the road. 

I had also been to the Kildrought Lounge before, many times in fact, as a common location for fundraisers and other events. The function room upstairs here also performs as a small theatre, used by the local Insight amateur theatre group.

What I wanted to do was confirm that the small O'Connors, on the main street and in a traditional building, actually linked through to the modern Kildrought on the side street behind it. 

They do.

O'Connors is a nice, small, and fairly cheap old fashioned pub; and at least last time I visited, the Kildrought is a fairly standard big suburban pub.

The name comes from a different anglicisation / corruption of the original Irish name of Celbridge - Cill Droichead - than is accepted on.

KDP0161 Castletown Inn / Speaker Bar

Another twin setup with the bar having its own distinct name, but in this case, the Speaker Bar is beside the Castletown Inn rather than in front of it.

I have had food in the Castletown Inn before, but not drunk there. I headed in to the Speaker, rather than the main section and had a decent quiet pint here.

The bar name here references the same person as S2493 The Speaker Connolly in Tallaght, a rare enough case in my remit of two completely distinct pubs being named after the same person.

KDP0128 McMahons 

A branch, kinda, of one of my local pubs in Maynooth - or are they all branches of the NYC chain that provided the money to set up the Kildare pubs? Difficult to say.

This is the former Celbridge House and latterly Henry Grattan - Celbridge loves pubs named after 18th Century MPs - pub, an exceptionally UK style premises; being an octagonal-ish premises in a housing estate.

I was here recently enough - winning a fundraiser table quiz for the Catherine Connolly election campaign - that I didn't bother revisiting today. I'm not a fan, I prefer the "original" Maynooth pub. 

Closed premises:

KDP0132 Feehans / The Riverside / The Whistling Pig / The Duck / The Mucky Duck 

The pub with a million names... I've eaten here, a lot actually - they did a damn good breakfast during the Riverside and Feehans era - but I can't recall drinking here. Currently for let.

Celbridge Manor Hotel / Setanta Hotel

I've drunk here. It isn't open.

Every Pub In Lexlip

Some of Leixlip is in Dublin, so I have already been to its pub, airport bar and hotels, current and former.

edit: it turns out that 1019230 Leixlip Manor Hotel has a public licence. I will drop back to this at some point.

Most of it is not, and I had mostly not drunk there. Lets fix that:

KDP0170 Riverforest Hotel

A 2* hotel in a shopping centre - sounds enticing I'm sure - but the bar here is the main attraction for me and likely creates most of its trade. Indeed the door to reception was closed and told people to go to the bar.

It's a large single room bar and lounge in one, with a small - but not separated - secondary bar area that is vaguely nautical themed. We are on Captains Hill, after all, assuming I've understood the reason why they have portholes and ship steering wheels here. 

A hotel in a shopping centre is a *very* odd choice, but it appears to work for them - this is its 35th year open. The bar was very busy too.

KDP0018 TOWN Leixlip

A part of the RHK group, who run relatively fancy pubs in suburban areas; this is a relatively fancy pub in a suburban area.

As I walked up, the doorman on a pub - I don't like pubs having bouncers during the day, but let this one run out - moved to open the door in front of me. 

This reminded me that I'm fairly certain I was once refused entry here in a previous incarnation (and previous ownership) for not meeting the dresscode, and the pub was much less fancy then. 

I wear basically the same clothes I've worn since I was 18. Fashion has changed, not me!

They were seating people at specific tables here when I was in, but they offered me options for just drinks - high tables or the bar. I went to the bar, which does seem to specialise in cocktails, but also has a solid range of Irish independently brewed beers too. I'm not entirely sure its my kind of bar, decor wise; but I'd have no problems popping back in for beers anyway.

KDP0120 The Middle Shop

I went in to the fairly tiny bar section here, but there is a larger lounge. Very much a racing bar, at least when I dropped in.

Previously visited:

Courtyard Hotel

A boomtime hotel development which includes the site of the original Guinness brewery (or does it? This stuff is so difficult to nail down properly, argue amongst yourselves in the comments).

The licence does not appear on the renewals list yet this year, and I don't hold archived Kildare records at hand, but it is open.

The bar here was weirdly popular with people from around the county in the time after it opened, so I ended up drinking here quite a lot. But I have only eaten breakfast here a few times in the past ~20 years.

Closed venues: 

Leixlip has more long term closed or completely gone pubs than the other surrounding towns. The Hitching Post, a famed music venue, was replaced by a Lidl, and Aldi did for the Ryevale Tavern / Ozone nightclub. 

The Leixlip House Hotel may have had a public bar, but was not commonly used as a bar by the locals, as far as I know.

It should be noted that Leixlip has two GAA clubs and I believe both bars are very popular, with one effectively serving as the pub-substitute (pubstitute?) for a huge area of 50s-80s housing developments to one side of the town. It even looks like a provincial town pub from the outside.

Revisited pubs, February 2026

A month of no new visits, as is now normal; and quite a bit of revisiting.

N1194 West County Hotel, Chapelizod - I was so unsure as to whether I'd actually had a drink here, and that it was approaching if not over 20 years ago anyway that I decided to make sure

N1114 Sean Bar, Chapelizod - last visited as the Bridge Inn, when run by Carrig Brewing

N0215 Fidelty, Queen Street

N0213 Frank Ryans, Queen Street - back within weeks, but mainly because nowhere nearby or that I was planning to go to does food otherwise.

S1472 Liffey Saint, Ushers Quay - last in this when it was Pifko 

S1470 Swift, Thomas Street - last visited as the entirely different, insane, Agnes Brownes. No Clubland 2 CD this time

S1465 Dudleys, Thomas Street - last written up as Bakers, but I have been here since

S1468 Thomas House, Thomas Street

N0006 Brew Dock, Amiens Street

N0082 McGraths, Drumcondra

Revisit? 20 years on: N1194 West County Hotel

I've been here quite a lot before, as I mentioned in the tiny RetroReview writeup. But on mature recollection, I'm not sure I'd ever actually drunk here.

With a now deceased elderly relative having been a long term resident of the sheltered accommodation, and then care home, a bit down the road; I was certainly here for plenty of carvery dinners, and even a funeral afters. But I don't think I drank at any of those - they moved there when I was a teenager, so the earlier ones were underage (and with my parents!) and the latter ones were driving. 

What better time to make absolutely sure than go back for a pint now?

The hotel bar is basically the local pub for this end of Chapelizod, and possibly even some of Ballyfermot but those willing to deal with the hill on the way back; but is very much set up as a carvery serving venue rather than a more pub-like setup like some other suburban hotels. It hasn't changed much since my last visit either. The drink selection is quite poor, even for a hotel bar really.

It serves its purposes, basically.

Revisit 20 years on: N0144 Kennedys

My writeup of my ~20 years ago trip here was terse, and this one won't be much longer.

A single (large) room pub of a type common enough in inner suburbs, but not really similar to any others near it, and with an exterior that wouldn't look out of place in London (green tiles); Kennedys is also a guesthouse. And there isn't a huge amount to say about it.

It was somewhat busier than Fagans on the day I visited both of them, and with more drinkers than diners - the reverse of Fagans crowds - but it was a dreary afternoon early in the year.

Revisit 20 years on: N0145 Fagans

When I last visited here, in ~2006ish, there were some oddities with staff attitudes - rather than telling us they simply didn't want to show a lower league football game that was on Sky, they claimed their satellite setup was broken. We returned after watching it in the adjacent pub (which I also revisited on the same day for its 20 years on go), and everything was miraculously working for the Premier League game that was on instead. 

There were some oddities again, with staff seeming disinterested in servicing the bar; and also being oddly protective of tables as if some hordes were about to arrive for food service.

I wasn't asking to see a Brighton game, and indeed they are no longer lower league anyway, so there's far less chance of being lied to about faulty kit (or just told no, or having the channel changed half way through), but I do wonder if something would have come up as a problem if I had!

I don't think much else has changed here in the intervening 20 years, either, except possibly a slight increase in the range of drinks on offer.