2017 Summary

2017 was the first full year of this project,

As well as populating and maintaining the map (1350+ past and present pubs, all manually placed), I have visited 101 premises for the first time. December was the busiest month for this - 18 new premises; with January being the quietest with only 1.

This has had a net impact of only 88 on the target figure, due to changes in the total number of pubs; with 286 of 1004 licences listed having been visited as of today.

On the licencing side, there's been 24 additions - a few of which were existing pubs missing from the list but the bulk of which are actually new pubs; with 11 removals - most of which had been closed for years. In terms of actually open pubs, there is a small increase from closed premises reopening outweighing existing premises closing without licence cancellation.

I've visited everything from tiny pubs to huge venues, semi private bars (with public licences, of course) to transit locations with millions passing. Pubs visited go as far West as the Springfield Hotel, South as the Blue Light and North as, well, the airport - North County Dublin is in next years plans!

I've spent probably more time on this not actually in pubs - between trawling newspaper archives, Thoms Directories, the Dublin City Archive and other sources researching for the map, articles posted on the blog and other future projects.

Next years plans include the previously mentioned focus on North County Dublin - I have substantially completed the North city centre now yet have little done in NCD except for some premises in Swords (last visited in 2006). I intend to start taking photos some places to break up the text-only format and to start writing more on the history of pubs and licencing.

Pub #300 isn't too far away and I'll be trying to select somewhere important enough for it. #200 was the Blue Light and #250 the Long Hall so somewhere with history is essential.