S4082 Clayton Hotel Leopardstown

One of the former Bewleys Hotels that were bought by Dalata and rebranded to Clayton a few years ago; this hotel is in the middle of a business campus adjacent to the M50 - but is quite accessible by public transport due to the Central Park Luas stop nearby.

There is likely to be some trade from the nearby businesses in addition to that generated from the hotel guests; as the bar is quite sizeable. Its unmistakably a hotel bar in look and feel but is still more pub-like than some other business-focused Dalata hotels I've been to.

I'm not sure if you'd ever go out of your way to drink here; but if more apartments are built nearby it will certainly suffice as a local.

N1123 Slatts

You don't usually come across a pub in the middle of a housing estate - well, the ones attached to suburban shops aside. Slatts hasn't even got an adjoining bookies let alone a row of shops to accompany it; and is probably the only pub in the middle of an estate from this era.

And despite its location within the City area, there is more than a slight feel of a rural pub here - both from the outside and from the atmosphere within. The pub stands out, taller than the squat houses surrounding it and with more external lighting

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Winter makes for lots of dark outdoor pics. Slatts is one of the oddest located pubs in Dublin, being half way down a residential street with no other shops or similar adjacent to it. The housing around it provides its regulars and it seems everyone knows everyone else at the bar. #pub #pubs #dublin #dublinpubs #inchicore

A post shared by Cian Duffy (@everypubindublin) on Nov 30, 2019 at 10:32am PST

The lounge was not obviously open from outside, so I went in to the bar. The lounge was, however, open - just with the curtains drawn.

The bar had a limited range of taps, but this included both an Open Gate tap, and one from the local Rascals Brewery. Rascals Taproom / Restaurant back in Inchicore village was where I was heading, for the Beoir Christmas Party; but I had plenty of time to have a second pint here and listen to the locals discussing the former names of pubs in the village - almost as if they had scheduled an appropriate conversion for me to earwig!

N0197 Taproom 47

Formerly The Tap - and named as such due to being a tied house of the Watkins Jameson Pim brewery - this pub was all externally prepped for reopening as Taproom 47 in early 2018, and then nothing happened. For over a year. Local rumour was that there were drainage/sewage issues, and as the pub is split between an older building and the ground floor of a newer apartment block there's good reason to believe this as possible.

But in Mid November, I got indications via boards.ie that it had actually opened, and popped in on an early evening. I was slightly worried that the term "Taproom" was going to be incredibly abused here; but I walked in to a large lounge area with a decent row of Irish craft taps, some foreign products and a good selection of cans and bottles in the fridges - unfortunately no list was available yet for them.

The corner bar of the pub has the standard conventional macro lineup that would be expected in Dublin; and is nearly totally separated from the lounge by a wooden partition.

Prices are pretty reasonable and because it was only just open, it wasn't particularly busy. There's no food on offer (or at least wasn't that soon after opening), so I nipped around to N0192 Bonobo (written up when it was still The Richmond) to get a pizza and came back to have another pint before heading for my tram. Bonobo by comparison was packed - so Taproom 47 could be a good option for when that's the case

I do wish they'd kept the original name, seeing as it was the last active link to the brewery in Dublin; or at least the last that is definitely genuine - the registered address and company name of the producers of Dalkey Mustard is that of Watkins Jameson Pim but I can't find evidence to suggest its actually connected.

Pirate Premises - Radio Stations Based In Hotels or Pubs

My recent writeup of 1001099 Bonnington Hotel reminded me of its important place in Dublin's pirate radio history - and how licenced premises have often had close links to the pirate scene. Nightclubs - or specific club nights - were often the only advertisers on the dance pirates I listened to in the early 2000s; and when we go back to the "super pirate" era many of the major players were based out of hotels. In many cases, particularly for the medium wave stations, their entire setup including transmission was at the site of a suitably located hotel; but some of these are only studio locations.

On the linked pages, extensively on dxarchive.com, you will notice many of the major names of Irish radio of recent decades including Ian Dempsey and the late Tony Fenton as working at these stations.

This is an attempt to be exhaustive; but absolutely can't be - I didn't live through much of the pirate era and despite working in radio I don't know everything that came before!

The Bonnington was the Crofton Airport Hotel back then, and was home to ARD - Alternative Radio Dublin as mentioned in that writeup; but the one I was always more aware of was the base at the Portmarnock N0318 White Sands Hotel for Sunshine Radio - unconnected to the current station of that name. Southside Radio's longest standing base was at the Hotel Victor - now S0787 Rochestown Lodge Hotel

Radio Nova's setup was possibly the most complicated, with the station actually taking over the Green Acres Country Club and operating it as "Nova Park". This location in the foothills of the Dublin Mountains was their transmission site and a commercial enterprise but not their studio location, which was on Herbert Street in the city centre. Treble TR also used to broadcast from the same site. I had actually been unsure if this was a pub until today, when a specific archive dig found reference to it for sale with a standard (7 day) publicans licence. Many country clubs/golf clubs are members clubs and aren't in my normal scope.

An odd aside to this was a brief attempt at a pirate television station - Channel D - initially broadcast from the now demolished Camelot Hotel on the Malahide Road.

The introduction of Independent Radio in 1989 reduced the number of stations onair in an area and marginalised the remaining pirate operators, however it did not die out entirely - Phantom broadcast from S0120 Whelans during their pirate era, with their spiritual successor online/temporary licenced station 8Radio having done so also until moving to offices attached to S3175 Mercantile Hotel.

While outside of Dublin, one other example I am aware of is the licenced station for Cavan - Northern Sound - used to have studios at the Cavan Crystal Hotel until destroyed by a fire in 2003.

And finally, we have a seasonally appropriate ending to this, the temporary licenced Christmas FM has broadcast from a hotel for its entire operational life - initially the now demolished S1388 Clyde Court Hotel before moving to the adjacent D4 Hotels complex, then the S3883 Alexander Hotel and returning to the then renamed S0775 Ballsbridge Hotel, where was based until that hotels closure in 2021. It moved to 1013363 Clayton Hotel Liffey Valley for its 2022 season.


Update May 2020
As an aside to some other research, I landed on a reference to ABC Radio Dublin operating from the "Ivy Rooms" - now known as N0906 The Gate Hotel - or Fibbers to most people.

Update November 2020

Another case of running in to something after the original article - Double R Radio is referenced as to having operated from the Waldorf Hotel (now N1195 Clifton Court Hotel) and later N1133 Lucan Spa Hotel in 1981/82

Update June 2023

Despite working in broadcasting of various kinds for the guts of a decade over the years, I was never aware that there had been an actual radio station (as opposed to unscheduled broadcasts) prior to Radio Éireann 2RN - but there was, and it broadcast from a licenced premises. 2BP broadcast in 1923 from S0311 Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire

1001099 Bonnington Hotel

This hotel has been renamed at least twice over its lifespan, most recently from The Regency Airport Hotel after a gangland murder - connected only to the hotel by circumstance. Its previous guise as the Crofton Airport Hotel was as notable in its own era for its importance as a music venue (including early U2 gigs) and as the radio studio location for Alternative Radio Dublin / ARD during the "super pirate" era in the 1980s

The hotel looks more than a bit messy from the road - you have a modern single story extension containing a convenience store and the entrance to the bar; the original hotel building with what almost looks like a growth of an extension out the roof (itself festooned with external fire escapes, masts, plumbing etc); followed by a ~70s extension and then a ~90s extension. There is planning in to tidy quite a bit of the front up with a new block, though.

The most recent rebrand coincided with some renovation works, and the signage adjoining the road has been equipped with a covered fourth star, presumably expecting an upgrade from the existing 3. Part of this involved a total refit of the two separate bar facilities, which are now marketed as "McGettigans D9" and "The Croft" respectively. Its all one licence, and McGettigans is closer to the road, so this is where I went

What you get is the modern identikit Dublin bar - metalwork, leather, fancy lighting, lots of cocktails on offer. It'd be fancy by the standards of the area, and would be quite normal if dropped in to the city centre. I think the era of people travelling outside their area to another suburb to go to a "fancy" pub is over, though.

N0313 Kealys

Situated along the old Swords Road, and with very little in the way of residential development anywhere near it, I had always wondered what kind of business Kealys was doing. The answer - enough that there were no seats available on a Saturday afternoon!

Due to the aforementioned lack of anyone living anywhere nearby; the pub has a strong carvery trade and party bookings where transport can be arranged to get people there. You can get the bus there, as I did, but I'd imagine the bulk of trade is food related.

I didn't have the food, having had some in N0800 Forty Four Main Street fairly recently beforehand, but it looked decent for a carvery venue.

N2783 The Old Schoolhouse

The name here describes what you're getting - a former school building, converted in to a nicely chaotic layout of a pub, that focuses heavily on a food trade. They have an adjoining modern build music venue (Chalk Bar) on the same licence which allows them to capture a wider range of trade than the main pub would get on its own

Even the way in here doesn't really make sense - the obvious front door opens to a outdoor area with what appears to be a locked gate. There are two ways in at the ends, neither of which is obvious. But it doesn't seem to stop people getting in, as despite it being early afternoon on a Saturday there weren't a huge amount of seats left free.

This was too early in the day for Chalk to be open, let alone see how busy it gets itself, so all the trade I saw was mainly family meal traffic - so not somewhere obvious for either a quiet pint or a lively night out; but its probably safe to assume the latter is on offer in Chalk

N0800 Forty Four Main Street

Wahey! Its somewhere I actually liked finally! Its a hotel bar, though, so not the most likely place to go for atmosphere - but the food is good.

This is a small hotel located on the Main Street in Swords, and has been in operation since at least the 1980s, originally as the Hawthorn Hotel.The bar makes up the majority of the ground floor and seems to do a solid food trade. Its comfortable and the food menu is a bit more varied than a normal pub menu - I had a goats cheese soup, which sounds like it could go horribly wrong but was executed perfectly.

A lot of hotel bar visits end up either having a dry carvery or sitting at a perch in a lobby bar that really doesn't want outside visitors (or advertises to them, but makes it impractical to use) so this was a nice change - and rare enough for a hotel substantially outside the city centre. The town centre location probably provides the business for them to operate more like a pub, and as the hotel isn't huge I'd guess it would provide a decent proportion of their income.

N0307 The Pound

This is the third pub in a row with a negative writeup - I didn't plan this, they just happened to get visited in this order!

There was an extensive boil water notice affecting a substantial area of and around Dublin recently - well, two of them actually. One thing you could not do with unboiled water was make ice; as this doesn't kill bacteria and they'll still be there.

The barman in The Pound was fully aware of this, but probably not aware that I could hear him (how I don't know - the bar isn't big) when discussing with other customers that they were just asking people if they wanted ice and assuming they knew it was made with unboiled water. I initially assumed they were actually telling people it was unboiled, but a customer who entered after me and asked for ice wasn't told.


If you're going to be that dodgy with food safety, maybe don't talk about it that loudly!

N1116 Clearys

Someone was shot here in 2003, and I vaguely felt it might happen again during my visit - as a relatively aggressive, extremely drunk man was haranguing some regulars (who all left) and then the barman. Eventually it was just the barman, him and me in the entire pub; which was my cue to drink up and get out.

I didn't hear any news of the barmans demise thankfully, so I may have been over-reacting...


The pub was built about 1850 to serve the growing community of Inchicore developing around the railway Inchicore Works, and still carries the name "GREAT SOUTHERN AND WESTERN RAILWAY HOUSE" along the pediment of the building. Significantly less people work in Inchicore Works now, although it is still a substantial operation, and this may be why the pub was incredibly quiet for a Friday evening... or everyone else knew about the drunken twat already.

Its clear that a decent amount of money has been spent on fitout here, probably quite recently too - the exterior of the pub was renovated and painted about 2017 going on Google Streetview anyway. If the volume of patrons when I visited is indicative of the norm I don't see how they'll ever recover that outlay.

N1115 Timothy Crough

This is a rebuilt/replacement premises for an older pub; and is the ground floor of an apartment block. It suffers from this, as its quite larger and a rather odd shape which seemed to have trouble holding an atmosphere.

I was particularly intrigued by repeated signage around the room along the lines of "all drinks ordered at 9pm will be served at 9pm", which suggests there's daytime and nighttime pricing in operation - completely legal but something I haven't seen outside of Temple Bar recently.

There's quite a few pubs in a relatively small area here - all of which I visited before the blog, repeatedly in the case of N1111 Black Lion and N1109 McDowells - and honestly all of which I'd visit again in preference to Croughs. There was nothing strikingly wrong with the place; but the other pubs are just nicer - and the Black Lion does decent grub. My trips to Inchicore are usually football related and often begin in the Black Lion and end in McDowells; but in a previous era when I worked for a CIE contractor, lunch in the Black Lion was also a thing.

N1110 The Glen of Aherlow

I had a few hours to kill on a Friday evening and figured out that hitting the remaining pubs in Inchicore I hadn't been to might be the quickest thing to do - as they're relatively close to the buses back home, and if I did them rapidly enough I could get the last Xpresso service (that run down the Chapelizod Bypass) back rather than have to switch in Lucan.... I ended up switching in Lucan!

The Glen of Aherlow - or Donoghues as most of the external signage says - is the first of the pubs along Emmet Road and despite attending many games in Richmond Park, I had never gone in - N1109 McDowells or occasionally N1124 Tom Taveys getting my business instead normally. 

Externally, the pub looks like it could be in some rural village - a set of rusting petrol pumps wouldn't look out of place on the path as there is more than a little of the look of a garage to it with the curved elements to the roof

What you get inside is an old-fashioned Dublin boozer, not in a bad way however - and not the country pub/grocer/undertaker that the outside might suggest! Cheap pints and a good atmosphere for what was relatively early in the evening made for a decent place to spend some time. 

N1121 Palmerstown House

I've fallen a bit behind in the pub write ups, with an entire page of unfinished stubs in the correct order awaiting me to fill them in, because I couldn't think of anything to write here. So its back to the shorter writeups from a few years ago.

Large suburban pub, part of the Louis Fitzgerald group and as far as I know, housing their head office. Its extremely generic. If you've been in any other Fitzgerald pub it'll be very familar - lots of wood, standard pub knick knacks on the walls, furniture that's all seen better times, sub-par off licence attached. 

December 2019 licence update

Only two changes of note this month

Addition
1015855 - Marlin Hotel, Bow Lane West

Reapperance
S3908 - The Well, Stephens Green West. Formerly Dandelion and off register for many years.

N1245 Cottage Inn

I've never made myself leave a pub due to the smell of food before; but there's a first time for everything. Now, I've been put off by smells before, but normally of something else - and normally negative

In this case, the smell was that of pepper sauce coming from that days lunch special, which smelled so delicious I needed to ensure I was as far away as possible lest I end up having a second, and then third lunch. I think it was a beef pie, but I would have just taken a bucket of the sauce based on how good it smelled.

Back to the pub itself - this pub feels like it could be out in the countryside, and indeed it sort-of was when it was built. This was the edge of the city, but the fields beyond were developed for industry by the 1960s and the small cottages that sit surrounded by industrial and retail warehouses now look quite out of places.

There's basically one room here, without any attempt to divide it in to a bar and lounge. This is what I'm used to in pubs outside of Dublin moreso than inside the M50, which is where most of the country feel comes from. It's also a single storey building, a rare enough occurrence even for suburban standalone pubs in the city.

Some day I'm in the area and I haven't already had a massive lunch at a previous pub I must drop back in and see if the "special" is actually a regular on the menu.

S3304 Sheldon Park Hotel

If I don't know a hotel well, I usually do a quick check of its website to see how heavily it promotes its bar facilities - some have been very hidden and really residents-only despite having public licences (1014503 Hotel 7 being the most complex so far). The website here suggests that guests "meet the locals" in the bar, so it was clear this would be easily open to the public

There is an absolutely huge bar here, taking up maybe half the entire ground floor of the hotel - which is relatively large. If standalone this would be reliant on its carvery trade as that took up a lot of the space and was on the plates of most of the other customers when I visited.

This area of the city is due for a huge increase in population in the next few years - right next door, a few small cottages have been replaced by a large apartment block that is finishing off construction now; with apartments planned for the Concorde Industrial Estate and Royal Liver Retail Park also. I'd expect at least one new pub in the Royal Liver development; but there's definitely a potential for splitting this in to a carvery and a more modern pub for the additional clientele in a few years.

S3176 Abberley Court Hotel

The "Hotel" in the name here is currently misleading - the hotel accommodation has been converted to a "Family Hub" for emergency accommodation. A number of smaller Dublin hotel have changed to this in recent years; but the Abberley is the only one that has retained its bar facilities.

These are still operating as before, although the nightclub section is gone, permanently, having been converted to more bedrooms.

The remaining pub is a fairly standard larger outer suburban pub; newer than most of the others of that scale that are relics of the old licencing structure but strikingly similar in how it operates. Large bar, uncountable number of TVs showing multiple sports channels at the same times and toilets big enough to let the entire pub in at half-time in a big game.

As an aside, I worked in or near Tallaght for a fairly long time a this was the usual planned location for planned "after work drinks" back then, but they rarely happened - or made if further than S1593 Cuckoos Nest (when in Airton) or S3757 Browns Bar (Citywest era) both of which have since closed! That a similar fate has also befallen the pub underneath the previous offices of that company (S4517 Bennigans in Parkwest) may be an omen of sorts, or just a direct consequence of pubs in/near business parks not really working anymore.

1008408 Glashaus Hotel

The area around The Square in Tallaght was extensively built up towards the end of the Tiger era, with two hotels, an Marks and Spencers and a Captain Americas branch amongst the various things built. Three of those are gone; the area having been hit very hard with closures.

The Glashaus did actually close at the same time and along with the Tallaght Cross Hotel which is to reopen next year, was used for short-term accommodation for a while. But it was bought by the Comer development group and reopened as a hotel in 2014. There are now plans in to add another 24 bedrooms to the hotel.

For a relatively small hotel there is a decent sized bar, that seems to mostly work off food trade. I had lunch here, which was more than acceptable - more traditional than what I had in the nearby N2581 The Brass Fox a few weeks prior, but nothing wrong with that. My pint glass survived the closure and reopening, as it happens; and a complete rebranding of Smithwicks by Diageo in the interim.

N0137 Harry Byrnes

I thought I'd finished the Victorian Pubs Of Dublin set when I did the few out in Ranelagh, I really did. Nearly everyone judges this off the Kearns list, which gives various criteria - and would leave me unfinished due to S0303 Finnegans which I have not yet been to.

Harry Byrnes does not appear on that list however. And, if you trust the pubs website - I have no reason not to - for good reason- that would be because its actually Edwardian; having been rebuilt in 1906 - but many of the stated Victorian pubs are nowhere near as original as this. You'll get a better Victorian experience here in not-Victorian splendour really.

Externally, the pub looks fantastic (I hasn't researched the history before I posted...) and the interior is every level of dark wood, partitions and old advertising signs that you could ever want. I was there on a relatively busy weekend afternoon/evening and you could still find the type of dignified solitude with a pint that's normally only found in a snug of an otherwise dead pub.

I think there may be a more modern bit at the rear of the pub - I didn't go wandering as much as I usually would as I had a train time to head for in my mind - but I know where I'd stay drinking if this was my local.

N0177 Horse & Hound

This is one of those 1950s pub-in-a-row-of-shops premises that turns up occasionally - my last one was N0176 The Watermill and before that 1013317 The Four Provinces. Well, its almost one of those - its actually a nearly standalone building beside a row of shops. But the location, off the main road in the middle of a housing development, is exactly matching the norm.

The layout here is in the single room format that's the norm for that type of pub - one narrow enough, very very long room. There's an elevated section at the back and I think the toilets are in an extension behind the neighbouring barber shop to increase the main floor area.

This was traditionally a relatively rough area of Dublin, but by now absolutely nothing gave me any negative impressions on my visit. There were some dodgy looking kids with pallets for a bonfire on my walk back to the bus - but I've seen this some allegedly posh areas also. The pub seems to have a decent regular custom with a mix of the traditional bar traffic (there is a bookies in the row) and family events. My usual Google of a pub turned up an odd case, but it has nothing to do with the pub itself and doesn't reflect negatively on it.

Of some potential historical interest, this pub has one of the really traditional UK pub names - which we never really had in Ireland; with most pubs known by their operators surnames instead. There is, however, another S0394 Horse & Hound on the southside in a very different "class" of location so it isn't unique in Dublin.

November 2019 licence update

The November file is the Great Reset, when the licencing year moves on and >200 premises drop off for a few months until their renewal is fully settled. So there's no removals listed here as I wouldn't be able to tell for certain!

New licences:
1015162 - Hogs & Heifers, Airside. This was the open daily bar element of the Wright Venue but now has its own licence since the operator split from Jam Park. Conveniently I've drunk in both of them already!
1015887 - Hyatt Centric Hotel, The Coombe

Reappearances:
1004780 - Fleet Street Hotel second licence. Haven't a clue why
S1268 - Rathfarnham House, Main Street Rathfarnham. This won't die, it keeps reappearing after removals despite the pub being closed for a decade and converted to a creche. The licence is still in the name of the owner from then, who has other pubs/clubs/hotels

Renumberings:
1015892 replacing S3217 - River House Hotel, Eustace Street.

N0845 Madigans Kilbarrack

Don't drink in a pub with a flat roof, don't drink in a single-storey pub, don't drink in a pub with no windows, don't drink in a pub in a shopping centre - all bits of advice I've seen (or given) as quick rules of thumb. And I broke every single one of them here.

As Dublin was expanding Northwards in the 1970s, there was often only one pub built in each suburb and that was often built with the main retail development - that was the case with my previous visit, and its the same again here.

They do attempt to make up for the lack of windows internally with backlit stained glass features along the long wall at the top of the pillars making it seem like there is daylight coming through, and it doesn't feel quite as much like a shopping centre pub as the Donaghmede Inn did either, although why is hard to quantify.

This is a large, fairly comfortable suburban pub run by a professional operator - Madigan Group - and doesn't have the negative reputation that some similarly located premises have acquired.

N0869 Donaghmede Inn

The Donaghmede Shopping Centre is a bit of an oddity. It hasn't had much more than a lick of paint on the outside since it was built; but has had multiple internal refits - the late 90s red marble and gold look from last time I was there had been replaced by a light colours and stripped pine look. It has large independent stores serving the roles usually done by chains - book shop, sports store, toy shop. It has generally managed to hold on to a decent range and number of retailers - even though there are some empty stores - when some other outer suburbs have had their original 60s/70s shopping centres demolished due to dereliction. Gay Byrne does their radio ads, decades after he stopped being a mainstream radio personality - though this is possibly due to the connection to Mike Murphy via the centres owners Harcourt.

One part of that oddity is that is still has a pub accessible from the main mall. The main way in to the Donaghmede Inn is via its outside doors though. These are covered in branded contravision currently, and generally make it quite hard to tell if the pub is open or not.

Inside, on the main floor, there is one huge space with a single central bar area. There's various different types of seating areas, including a zone laid out ever so vaguely like a school science lab -  tall tables, stools on one side - in front of the big screen. I think there's a downstairs music bar also, but there doesn't seem to be anything recent about its operation

In what were the outer suburbs at the time of their construction, its normal for bars to be Really Very Large, and this is no exception. This is the only pub in Donaghmede, with significant distances in any direction to the next nearest (due North, although not covering particularly populated areas, has no pubs for nearly four miles!), and its location means there wouldn't be much passing or outside trade at any stage. It isn't the most appealing place to go for a pint; but if you've no other choice...

S0083 The Oak

My sister insists I'd been here before. She can even name a date - Friday August 10, 2007 - that it apparently was.

She doesn't normally keep this level of detailed memories; but that was the day that Tony Wilson, founder of Factory Records, died so it's at least a bit more memorable. And I do think we went out that night, but to S0994 Bruxelles.

If I was actually here that night, it was in the modern side of the pub, then called Thomas Reads, more recently briefly The Ivy; and not the beautiful old bar constructed from oak timbers of the RMS Mauretania. This was The Oak the entire time; but this name is now used for the entire premises. The Ivy had to change its name due to a threat of legal action from the owners of The Ivy restaurant chain, which has since opened a branch on Dawson Street (1014544 The Ivy)

Anyway, I hadn't recorded it as visited simply because I couldn't remember actually being here. And aptly enough I was meeting my sister to go to a gig in The Olympia and had some time to kill, which lead me here for a few pints.

The surroundings are both relatively standard early 20th Century pub, and yet almost unique due to the source of the wood panelling - a bar in Bristol was kitted out with some; but as this has recently been a nightclub I don't know what if anything remains.

I could have stayed for longer, but the temptation of the much greater range of beers in Underdog got too much. I'll remember this trip anyway, and probably won't leave it 12 years before coming back.

S4304 Number Twenty Two

This is one of those rare premises that is entirely underground - I can see a listicle on pubs that are entirely under or above ground except for their entrance doors coming on some time I'm short of content - and has a very long and storied history

This was the site of the famed music venue McGonagles, of which much has been written elsewhere; and before that it was the Crystal Ballroom. If you look at the lists of artists which have played there in either incarnation - McGonagles being in the era of better memories so has a decent Setlists.fm entry, with the Crystal having hosted Johnny Cash amongst others - you get a run down of many of the international acts who bothered to grace Dublin with their presence in the days before it became an essential touring stop.

During this period I do not believe it had a full pub licence, but as much of it was before I was born I'll willingly take correction on that!

In the 1990s, the site hosted The System nightclub, which was one of the venues in the early days of the dance music scene in Dublin.

But its days of importance had to come to an end, and the site was physically redeveloped in the early 2000s by Paddy McKillen (Senior, not the Press Up son!), with the basement space used for "Venu Brasserie", backed by Michelin-star winning chef Patrick Guildbaud. This closed in 2011.

There is something illegible on the door in the 2014 Google Streeview pases, and for the few years before reopening as Number Twenty Two it was doing annual service as an "adults Christmas grotto" for a few years and I believe sitting idle in between.

We're now back to a more sensible/sustainable use; and as Number Twenty Two it's open as a decently sized performance space, with a double height stage area with floor and balcony seating and bars.

I was there at a company arranged event so I can only say it was absolutely perfect in every way! Bit is actually decent enough. There aren't many spaces like this left in the city; and any addition should be welcomed.

October 2019 licence update

This is the end of the licencing year list; and in theory every current licence should be on it. Things don't work out that nicely, but we do have 994 licences on it which is close enough - and the highest year in since I've been keeping records.

New additions:
1015498 Penny Lane, Great Strand Street - sister pub to N0191 Pantibar. Already visited.
1015550 The Hendrick Hotel, Hendrick Street. Already visited.
1015607 Roe & Co Distillery Visitor Centre, James Street
1015814 Doolally, South Richmond Street - new Press Up restaurant with a full licence

Reappearances:
N0230 Hanlons Corner
S1427 The Hub, Crumlin - think this is still closed

Removals:
S1268 Rathfarnham House. This reappeared last year but never traded - it's been converted to a creche! Suspect licence was reactivated to sale.


A number of pubs which are definitely, permanently closed - already converted to housing - reappeared on the list but I suspect this is an admin move before the licences are sold elsewhere.

1011267 Zozimus

One of the limited number of pubs in Dublin named after someone who isn't the owner or a former owner - Publin did a feature on these that strangely missed this one out - this pub is Built For Instagram. Or at least the outside of it is - having covered the end of Annes Lane with umbrellas in a manner that should be easy for anyone to photograph well. I didn't - I was trying to catch the rear entrances to the Dawson Street pubs that are now all opening out here; and the weather was abysmal.

The bar is table service driven, which is an absolutely turn off for me. I imagine this is to try best allocate seating for food, which is a core part of the offering here - and has been given both abysmal and glowing reviews by different reviewers. I'd already eaten.

The drinks menu pushes cocktails above all else; and the draught taps are unlabelled - meaning you do have to resort to the menu or ask the staff just to find out what pints are available.

This just isn't my kind of pub, basically.

S3271 Marys

This is another Press Up premises, and features a branch of their burger chain Wowburger in what I imagine used to be the dancefloor - for this is one of Dublins "lost nightclubs", something it served the city as under multiple rapidly changing names - in the five years before it became Marys it was  Basebar, then AKA, then briefly a gay bar called Wilde and then even more briefly Madison. 

But its now branded as a "Bar and Hardware Store", styled on the similar setups that were once extremely common across rural Ireland. This has bene the name above the door for more than five years now, providing a stability that the premises probably hasn't seen since the days when there was the Wicklow Hotel on the site.

The "Hardware Store" part of the name is backed up by a small but baffling range of hardware on the shelves - with an emphasis that it is all for sale, and indeed they are all tagged with Topline Hardware price tags. Presumably these are from wherever they bought them originally as the pub is not listed as an outlet on the Topline website!

The bulk of the pub here is underground - there is a bar and some seating upstairs, but significantly more seating and the large Wowburger area downstairs. It isn't quite the case that "if you've seen one Press Up venue, you've seen them all" - there are a few disparate styles, but this is so similar to some others you will probably feel quite at home.

1014482 Maldron Hotel Kevin Street

This was actually so forgettable I, well, forgot I'd been here - it was visited before the previous entry.

The bar here is advertised from outside the hotel, but does feel VERY strange to use as a non-guest. You must be buzzed in to the toilets by the reception desk (N2007 Academy Plaza Hotel has the same requirement), as they are accessed from the guest lift lobby.

You're across the road from 1011790 The Fourth Corner and also near to 1008283 Fallons so there's really not much point for a non-guest to drink here.

1014121 Lucky Duck

The Press Up Group gets quite a bit of negative media coverage for just how many venues they have opened in Dublin; reaching out across the majority of the city centre - and now the southern suburbs - in a relatively short period of time; and tying it to the wider cultural loss issues in the city.

The most detailed piece of writing on it that I've seen was in the Sunday Business Post - which is paywalled online - so I can't link you to it; but it contained a short statement by a representative for Press Up pointing out that many of their new venues were derelict rather than replacing something else active. And this is the case with The Lucky Duck.

The Aungier House pub on this site operated for over a century; but closed in the late 1990s and rapidly fell in to significant dereliction. Press Up acquired the premises in the late 2010s and announced it was to reopen as "The Dutch Billy", a reference to a type of house construction which was once common on Aungier Street. There was one problem with that name however - this is a Victorian replacement building!

Many Dutch Billys had their distinctive roofs covered or replaced to give the then-fashionable squarer lines - an example of an actual Dutch Billy here shows that - so its an easy enough mistake to make; and one that was corrected before opening. But not before the interior fitout had begun; as a major element of the decoration are "KLM Houses", knick-knacks handed out to business class customers on KLM. These are supplied containing Bols Genever; and according to the barman I spoke to, the ones filling a display window and scattered around the bar are all full.

There is a surprising amount of Victoriana to the interior here; although what is original and what is repro or recovered from elsewhere I don't know. The gents toilets - situated under the street with a skylight in the pavement - are full of what must be original fittings restored to a functional level at least.

The drinks offerings are similar to other Press Up venues; but its both smaller and less forced "Instagram Ready" as their other ones, so even if you dislike those it may be worth a visit.

S1494 Morriseys

A very run-down locals pub on Cork Street - the only survivor of the significantly higher quantity of pubs this area of Dublin had before road widening and redevelopment destroyed buildings and moved some of the population away. At least five other pubs were on this end of the road, and many survived even until the early 2000s.

The most interesting event on this visit was seeing someone being told they'd had too many; shaking hands with the barman and promptly leaving! There's nowhere else that close by to head to other than here - I even got the bus to the next pub - so presumably they headed home.

N2581 The Brass Fox

I used to work in Tallaght and there were frequent attempts to organise "nights out" in the town - that usually ended up with everyone just going to (the now closed) S1593 The Cuckoos Nest nearer the office and leaving by about 8. The usual intended destinations were either S3176 The Abberley Court Hotel - or Blu Bar. Blu Bar closed down before we ever managed to actually get there, though; and remained closed for a while.

That premises is now The Brass Fox - or at least the bar area is, as they are not operating the nightclub that was the main attraction in the Blu Bar and later Madison eras of the premises.

The Brass Fox started off in Wicklow Town and this is their second premises. Its a food-centric offering, as is now becoming quite common in suburbia; and the food and drink lineup are quite similar to what you'll get elsewhere - 1012552 The Maple Tree in Saggart from a few weeks ago comes to mind.

With the offering being food-led in mind; I headed here for lunch. I actually went for two starters from the menu rather than any of the mains; one of which was voluminous enough to be a main course, if anyone would actually order a goats cheese and pastry concoction as main!

Despite being defeated by the sheer quantity of goats cheese in front of me, I enjoyed it, and the buttermilk chicken strips that were the other order. The tap lineup isn't the most thrilling, but there were Franciscan Well products at least.

S1588 The Dragon Inn

I wonder was there ever much confusion caused here during the years that S3871 Nolita was called The Dragon? People wondering why their taxi ride was taking them in to suburbia or why the bar appeared to have rather more bears and rather less house music than expected for instance.

A restaurant reviewer - which Google is completely failing in finding for me; so it was probably in the Sunday Business Post - has written about confusion between 1014544 The Ivy and N0147 Ivy House before, so I'm sure it must have happened... anyway, back to the still named Dragon.

There's two pubs in the old Tallaght village that predate it becoming the vast outer suburb it is now - the previously mentioned S1589 Molloys. Molloys has expanded to a superpub but The Dragon is still (comparatively) small and seems to have kept more of the community spirit of a village pub. Their Facebook page focuses less on promoting the pub and more on featuring life events of regulars and other community info - including a recent link to a blog entry on a long-gone (1913) pub in Tallaght I had not been aware of.

Molloys was actually marginally cheaper for a pint, which I found a bit odd as usually pubs like this are cheaper - but its still nothing compared to city centre prices.

S1589 Molloys (Foxes Covert)

This is the original core site of the Molloys chain of off-licences (and previously other pubs), which started as the off-sales section of this now giant pub.

Tallaght has a very limited number of pubs originally - there are some newer licences around The Square though - due to the difficulty of opening pubs near existing pubs in "rural" areas, those outside the old Dublin Corporation area effectively. This has ensured that many of the pubs reached the size of barns, with the now demolished S1709 Belgard Inn being claimed to be the largest pub in the country at one stage.

Some of that still remains here, as Molloys is vast. The premises is branded as two separate entities - Molloys and The Station (presumably a reference the former tramway offices that made up part of the site); but they are internally joined. There's a large enough outdoor area enclosed within the building and this is where I sat reading the papers on what was an unseasonably sunny afternoon.

My parents lived nearby here in the early 70s - I forgot to ask my Dad last night if he drank here or S1588 Dragon Inn. That's the next entry to go up so I may remember to ask before I write that!

S1508 Kennys

I grabbed this one sort-of unexpectedly when I was suddenly at a loose end on a late weekday afternoon in this part of the city. I'd done the other pubs this end of James Street on previous visits but hadn't dropped in here before.

This is quite a large pub once you get inside; with a small lounge to the front leading in to a vastly larger one to the rear; and a decent sized smoking area/suntrap out the back.

There seems to be a good mix of locals and hospital staff (St James's is across the road - and the NCH will join it if its ever finished!) as regulars here. Prices are on the surprising side of reasonable, which is always nice.

I think this was closed for a while recently, as it was off the licence register for quite some time; and it was definitely up for sale via Younges, but everything is in full flow again.

The building was the birthplace of WT Cosgrave, with a plaque unveiled by his son in 2013 (as an aside, that genealogy site touches on many Dublin pubs through arms of the covered families; and I really must dig through it properly at some stage)

S1428 Marble Arch

Nice pub, shame about a subset of the customers.

It actually has a lovely fitout inside - traditional enough bar, modern well equipped lounge and so on; but there were customers there I would not want to be in the same pub with for long; so I finished my pint and left.

S1586 Jacobs

A village-style local in the growing suburb of Saggart, Jacobs had a small cohort of locals in the bar when I visited; all on first-name terms with the staff and assisting them in decorating the room for the All Ireland Final (the first go at it anyway) the next day.

Everything was nice enough until I walked in to a haze of smoke in the toilets - someone who wasn't in the bar earlier was drunk enough that they thought they were in the smoking area, having turned right rather than left. This was early afternoon but they were in a state that suggested it had to be a roll-over from the night before; and certainly in no fit state to be served again. I had finished my pint and was leaving when I saw them approaching the bar - but I wasn't there to see if they were served.

There is a lounge area here also; but it was closed for a private event when I visited so I didn't even stick my head in.

1012522 The Maple Tree

A fairly new addition to the village streetscape of Saggart, the high-end fitout and food centric offering here are in stark contrast to most of the pubs in Dublins outer villages. Saggart, however, is being subsumed to the greater mass of Dublin - with the Luas at the lower end of the village and quick access to the N7 it will only continue to become more and more of a suburb and less of a village.

Saggart used to have two pubs before - Jacobs the other, still extant one - but Jack Kavanagh's burnt out in 2008 and still lies derelict awaiting a redevelopment of it and the adjacent empty site approved last year. (Google Streetview actually has a pass of it fire damaged, if you're feeling ghoulish); and I assumed it had stayed so - as this place opened entirely under my radar. I wasn't aware of it until it eventually appeared on the Revenue lists; something that can take many months. Suburban Dublin really doesn't have strong online coverage or attention, so there may well be more new pubs I'm completely unaware of!

So the Maple Tree appears to have opened in late 2016 or early 2017 anyway. I called in on a middlingly quiet Saturday and was able to get a table to grab my lunch and a few McGargles at easily enough; although there weren't many others free.

They brand it as a "Bar & Bistro", and food is definitely the main draw here - they open at 9 daily for breakfast despite not being able to serve alcohol for some hours after that. However, unlike some of the city centre food-centric venues with pub licences; I got the impression that there's no problem dropping in for pints alone here at any stage that they're serving.

The main similarity with many of the new city centre venues is the fitout - it has been designed, executed, and most importantly maintained (as the venue is maybe 3 years open now) to an extremely high standard. Plenty of the fancier pubs in the city could do with dropping out here to see how to keep stuff clean and looking new.

I think I may have read too many Pub Spy editions if I'm starting to get overly concerned with the cleanliness... really must get back to digging through street directories for research instead!

S1509 Old Royal Oak

Third time lucky, due to never remembering to check the opening hours - finally the Old Royal Oak is open when I drop past. I've passed it open on other occasions, either when it was rammed due to a gig in Kilmainham; or I've been driving (usually due to working at a gig in Kilmainham!)

From one side, the pub is a relic of the pubs of Dublin of centuries ago, and from another vantage point - say looking down, or climbing up, the stepped laneway from the River Camac it could be a corner bar in Porto, Tallinn or any other European Old Town.

The pub is a lot younger than it actually appears - it "only" dates to 1839! Its very English name presumably comes from its connection to the original customer base - the staff of the Royal Hospital which has since become IMMA.

There were actually at least two other pubs named the Royal Oak in Dublin in recent memory - one on the North Road in Finglas, which I believe is still an empty site; and another at Heuston Station which was demolished, replaced by the Sadlers Inn pub/hotel; and is now the First Ireland Insurance offices.

The pub is on the small side, but outside of gig nights you should be able to squeeze in somewhere, and its definitely worth the bit of a trip out of the city centre if that is where you usually limit yourself to.

September 2019 licence update

Only one addition this month, and I don't know what it is:

1015609 - 17 Harcourt Street. There is permission for a pub at 16 Harcourt Street next door but this hasn't commenced as far as I know. The licence holder here is a company controlled by the applicant from what I can see. May have to drop out and take a look!

S1519 Bird Flanagan

This wasn't the original target of my trip to Rialto, but as S1493 Anchor Bar was closed. I'm not sure if its fully closed or not; but there's no Facebook updates since June, and the last one referred to it being temporarily closed so its hard to tell. But I'd have to go here at some point anyway - so rather than waste the trip I popped in.

This is one of the relatively few Dublin pubs named after a person who is not a current or former owner the pub - and one of the less obvious ones at that (Publin's put together a list of these). The escapades of The Bird Flanagan are gone in to over at Come Here To Me!, and to much disappointment I didn't see anyone acting even vaguely similarly in the pub.

This is an average mid-sized suburban pub, doing all the things normal suburban pubs do - the regular pub scene music acts, the regular lunch menu, the regular conservatory tacked on the back... wait, that's something the average mid-sized suburban house has surely? There's one here, though; and its a nice place to sit if the sun manages to get through the clouds as it briefly did when I was there.

My usual search for anything interesting on Google about a pub and its history shows that the conservatory was a non-smoking area of the pub some half a decade before the pub smoking ban came in. It also turned up this, the less said of the better I suspect - and really quite a long time ago now!

S0207 Lower Deck

An odd combo of a traditional Dub-pub on the ground floor and a live music venue in the basement, this is only the second place I've seen an in-pub bookie in Dublin. The other was S1437 Leonards Corner and it may actually have been the same bookie, set up with a laptop and a lock box for cash on a table beside the bar.

I only visited the upstairs, mainly because it was the daytime and nothing was on downstairs. It's all as you'd expect, albeit maybe a little more like a pub in the Liberties than one specifically located where it is.

The nautical name here reflects that the pub looks out over Portobello Harbour, or what was. The harbour was filled in in the 1940s and is now a neat public square. The area is going to have quite a significant change soon, as the graffittied remains of the former Portobello College (merged and moved to the Dublin Business School sites some years ago) and the Ever Ready battery factory that make up the eastern side of the square are to be replaced with a hotel - the standard outcome for any site left empty for long enough!

S0210 Portobello Hotel

I really liked this place - to the point that I was seriously considering a vaguely Hobbit like 'second lunch' (it works better as a reference when it's breakfast) to lengthen the time spent there, but I'd already had a large lunch in S4500 Brickyard not particularly long beforehand and had promised to be home for a normal dinner time for once.

This is the large bar of a small hotel on the corner of Charlemont Mall and South Richmond Street. South Richmond Street has three good pubs in a row more or less, each with their own qualities and own reasons for why you might want to be there - although there are some similarities to S0209 O'Connells here.

A wood-heavy traditional bar fitout contributes heavily to the atmosphere here; although some of the reason for finding it quite so cosy was the weather outside - occasional blasts of sideways rain and severe gusts really making it feel like another season entirely.

Drink prices here are bordering on cheap for the location, although the range wasn't fantastic. Acquiring a table looking over the canal and under the shelves of books that I presume aren't solely for decoration is probably your target here if its busier; but it is a fairly expansive space with multiple areas.

Reopenings, Replacements and Renovations

When is a pub a new pub, and when is it just a reopening or a renovation? This is something that's come up a bit recently with people asking me if I've visited N0192 Bonobo - formerly N0192 The Richmond which I popped in to in October 2017, back when I wrote slightly shorter posts for each pub.

I'll inevitably go there at some stage - craft bar in an accessible location - but it raises the wider question. Recently The Well opened on Stephens Green West, in the location of S3908 Dandelion, which I visited before starting the blog (as it was already closed when I started the blog it'd have been hard to have done it since!). This hasn't reappeared on the register yet, but even turning up with a new number does not mean it is actually a new licence, because renumberings happen all the time.

The same question has arisen when 1014760 The Richmond Gastropub in Inchicore - I visited this when it was N1113 The Village Inn many, many years ago - 2007 or 2008. Its the same building, with quite a different pub inside it now. Maybe not as different as the change from the (other) Richmond to Bonobo, or converting a nightclub to a cafebar as with Dandelion -> The Well, but I'm not sure where to draw the line. Bonobo is really just a renovation as the pub wasn't closed for long, but The Well and The Richmond Gastropub reopened long-closed premises.

Currently I'm deeming anything that reopens in the same premises as being the "same pub"; but there will soon be cases of hotel bars appearing on former pub/theatre licence sites. Amongst those I visited as pubs or clubs were S0039 The Long Stone, N0018 The Big Tree, S2957 Tivoli Theatre (may times from 2005 until December 2018) and 1009202 Hangar/Andrews Lane Theatre. Do these visits count, whether the licence number changes or not?

I set my own "rules" here, as there's no actual challenge as such, seeing as at least two people are known to have already visited every pub in Dublin (Mac Moloney and Yuya Abe); so I'm going to wait to decide on the hotel front. I suspect the replacement for the Long Stone is going to be completely unrecognisable from the original and require a re-visit; but the hotel on the Big Tree site is retaining the older corner buildings and the plan is for the bar to be in the same area and still called the Big Tree - not providing much justification at all to require a re-visit.

1015110 Clayton Hotel Charlemont

A new 4* hotel built on the site of the Charlemont Clinic and hence the important St Ultan's Hospital which was there prior to it. This is a bit odd for me as I had many customers in the Clinic in a previous job and spent many hours/days working here.

The main building of St Ultans has been restored to a high standard; and there is a glass-covered entranceway from Charlemont Street in to the hotel, bringing you in to the side of the large lobby area.

The bar offering here is a very conventional hotel lobby setup inside the main doors on Charlemont Mall; however non-residents are definitely welcomed. Compared to how busy some nearby pubs can get (see previous post), this should be an oasis of calm in contrast

Everything is executed to a very high standard here from renovation of the old building through the interior fitout to the waiter service to the tables. With the number of small hotels and aparthotels going up it is useful to see that there are some larger conventional hotels going in on infill sites that weren't either originally planned to be apartments or require demolishing an entertainment venue.

S0202 The Barge

People flock here on warm workday evenings, with cases of vast quantities of people covering any available space outside being well known. The pub however request that patrons do not go beyond the footpath seating area outside, with multiple signs up - but when that many people want a pint its probably hard to say no!

So when did I decide to visit? On a damp, windy Saturday when there were many sporting events on in the city to draw crowds away from the area of course. The full pub was open but without any outdoor drinkers; and a wide choice of seats on the many levels inside.

The first thing I noticed here was the range of JW Sweetman offerings on draught - these are not seen that widely outside of S0005 JW Sweetman's itself; but there is or was shared ownership here; as with N0146 Cat & Cage where I've previously enjoyed them. However, the one I wanted was actually out so a pint of Chieftain was obtained instead.

I chose to sit in the upstairs corner seating area, which was mostly marked as reserved - a decent choice of a place for a group, as it is a little secluded yet still close to a bar and has the view of the canal. There is a large screen here though, so don't expect it to remain quiet when there's a more important match on TV.

A previous (Northside) employer always picked Southside venues for work nights out, and one of the few I ever missed was a BBQ night here - however, it was during a heatwave and on a payday Friday evening so I'm not sure how close to the food it would have been possible to get. Its probably sensible to do a visit like this at a quieter time; but maybe a worknight of moderate heat could have got more of the normal atmosphere.

S3576 Citi Hotel / Trinity Bar & Venue

Don't eat anywhere with pictures of the food on a menu outside the door - advice I give to anyone visiting European tourist centres - Amsterdam in particular. Its not something I'd seen too much in Ireland, until here.

However, it was dinner time and I needed to eat, so I ignored my own advice. The food is fine and the service isn't the oppressive pushy type that usually comes with the picture-book menus abroad. The surroundings are really not my type of pub, so its fairly obvious why this was the last place on Dame Street to get visited.

This premises has changed quite substantially over the past few years. It was heavily promoted as an after-work venue and had a basement nightclub (where the 2014-2016 world record for longest continuous DJ set was achieved); however it now a more traditional hotel bar and seems to be going for the tourist market. The basement is restaurant seating now, with trad and pub rock appearing to be the only live music now offered.

The days of the expensive late bar with pop/commercial dance DJ do seem to have died out; but I'd be of the opinion that there are too many identikit trad-and-stew pubs in the city now. However that does seem to be what tourists are willingly coming here to spend huge amounts of money to experience

1000743 Castle Hotel / Waltons Hotel

The bar here is buried deep inside, and under, the hotel; in the actual vaulted structures holding the hotel up. A previous attempt to actually find it had been hampered by the hotel being full of Communion parties and screeching children - although I'm sure I would still have been served, it would have been an entirely suboptimal time to visit and review!

This is definitely one of the more interesting looking places to get a pint in Dublin - despite the hotel branding it as a restaurant, you can definitely pop in for drinks. There's also no phone signal of any description, so if you want to go for a pint where you are forced to talk to other humans - this is your place.

There's an abnormally high density of hotels and an absence of regular pubs in this area of the city. I've now been to most of them, and while the bar of the next to be written up was more sociable and accessible; this was more interesting.

N2698 Maldron Hotel Parnell Square

This building replaced the original Wax Museum, with its crawl tunnels through the back of the horror zone, and other things unlikely to get replicated in Dublin. I quite liked that era of the Wax Museum...

The old building was actually an 1830s church, which had been first converted to a cinema (and re-skinned) before becoming the museum. The presence of parts of the original church inside what seemed to be an ugly 60s structure did slightly delay the redevelopment plans; but the Comfort Inn as-was opened in the mid-late 00s

The bar/cafe in the lobby is really there to serve guests; but they have a public licence and do not prevent outsiders from coming in. It may be a quieter place to get a pint after a Croke Park match; but I suspect they wouldn't be too happy with fans in colours coming in.

1003271 Long Island Bar

Don't judge a book by its cover - or a pub by its incredibly run down facade.

This was the second of the pubs in this area I'd been sort-of avoiding; but after no problems in the first (The Auld Triangle), I decided to go to the second.

This is quite an old pub; and part of the poor public presentation of it comes from the building it is in having been truncated quite significantly, presumably due to past structural issues. As you can see from the photo, it has also had its New York related name for some time - although it has had other names in the intervening period. So the name is not part of the recent drive to name absolutely everything after NY!

There is actually quite a well presented traditional pub behind that facade, and quite large too - it goes back a fair distance from the street, including a large glass roofed section. There was a security guard sitting at the bar (rather than blocking the door); which may be down to some past incidents, but this didn't detract from the experience.

On the same side of the road as this, there are two quite nicely decorated pubs. One of them was so amazingly interesting it got a two-line writeup. This was vastly more worth going to

N0017 Auld Triangle

This pub has a bit of a reputation; and I'd sort-of avoided it for some time due to that (you'll see that again in the next review, with similar enough results). Sure, there are idolatry murals outside, and pictures inside of hunger strikers on the wall - but I even stayed for a second drink. To see the end of a match, admittedly; but if somewhere is very dodgy the pint is necked and I'm out.

Its a traditional city centre locals pub inside, with nothing you wouldn't expect to see - beyond that already mentioned - and everything you'd expect to.

There are pubs I vastly prefer in the area, so there is effectively no chance I'll go back here - but I wouldn't refuse to.

N0025 James Gill / Corner House

This pub only opens on weekends - something that N0018 The Big Tree did in its later years, before going to matchday-only prior to its redevelopment. I'm not predicting the same trajectory here; mainly because this is not on such a large prime site.

I visited on a match day - and I presume (and hope) that this is the reason the pub basically had no furniture. A one-way system is in operation in the main bar, which featured about 5 seats along one wall; and a "lounge" of sorts to the rear featured absolutely none. Maximising standing space and providing a pint-ledge around the walls was the name of the game here.

The pub is extensively decorated with GAA memorabilia; primarily match programmes but also photographs. I did look to see if there was anything from the IRFU and FAI tenancy era - which certainly delivered good business at the time, including mid week evenings, but didn't see any - however, there is such an expanse of content on the walls there is no way to say with confidence that they are ignoring it

With some furniture, this would probably be quite a cosy local - without it; it is a hyper-efficient beer shed. It was also relatively competitively priced for drink - I saw a sandwich board promoting live music and apparent offer prices in 1012782 The Hideout nearby which were actually dearer!

The Pub Spy Chronicles

I've accumulated the historical info for the map from a vast range of sources. The initial base map of current pubs came from the Revenue lists; and Revenue kindly provided me on request with lists back to the 2010/11 licencing year, the first to be covered by Brendan Howlin's open data initiative and hence easily obtainable.

I've added hundreds of closed pubs and old names from sounds like old tour guides, trade directories and newspaper articles - the latter giving huge amounts of info, usually backed up against the trade directories to be certain of names and locations. The City Libraries photo archives was also a huge source; but the newspapers have come out on top.

I have standing access to the Irish Times archive, and I've paid for a few months of Irish News Archives access to get the Independent and Press - leaving just one publication that could contribute something missing. The Sunday World

One of the newer newspapers, this mass-market tabloid was founded in 1973 and was for a time the most popular Sunday paper in the country. And it has a weekly "Pub Spy" column - running since '73 - reviewing pubs from across the country - but mostly Dublin. This should be gold-dust for me, and I waited for someone like the Irish News Archives to get the World uploaded. And waited, and waited, and eventually gave up on the idea

I found out this week that the British Newspaper Archive actually uploaded nearly 900 editions of the paper, from 1987-2006 with some gaps, in January 2019. This completely passed me by, as they were not a provider I expected to have access. One months subscription was paid for and I dived in. I have now read every entry found by the search engine from 1987-1998; with a list of missing weeks to go back and check manually.

Did I find a cache of pubs I had never known of before? No. If anything, it seems that the Pub Spy author(s) seemed to pick pubs of staying power - there are very few which are closed down at all, and as yet I haven't picked up a single 'new' premises from it.

Did I find a pile of gossipy content about pubs I already knew of? Yes - and of incredible depth. Topless barmaids (The Castle, Finglas in 1990); constant accusations of pubs being popular with Furstenberg-drinking yuppies - or even worse in the eyes of Pub Spy, students; suggestions of the best places to find women - or men, as one of the regular "commandos" as they were referred to was female; and so on

Pub Spy usually used a pint-rating system in place of a star-rating system; but like many reviewers rarely uses either end of the scale. So far, the only zero-pint rating I have found was given to N0583 Shamrock Lodge, Finglas for refusing to serve women in the bar in 1988; and the only five-pint rating given to John M Keatings on Mary Street in 1996 - shortly before it was obliterated for a McDonalds.

Pub Spy also rated the student bars in Trinity, the Dail visitors bar, the Enterprise train and the bar on the Irish Ferries St. Patrick II, none of which would count as pubs to me. He also travelled to review the occasional Irish bar abroad - frequently for the Guinness backed Irish Pub Company - which I am more than willing to do for suitable expenses! Christmas 1998 saw him review the Irish bar in Rovaniemi - the capital of Lapland and destination for most Santa flights; which would be one of the more obscure places to have a theme bar.

Because the archive only starts in 1987 at the moment, we only get treated to mentions of the era when Pub Spy was more of a campaign for quality than reviews. Reviews all the way to the current day frequently give a lot of time to the condition of the toilets - something Irish pubs were not known for for years; and there are frequent references to "Slopsmasters". This was a term used for bars which were accused of serving the contents of slops trays (and sometimes the dregs of unfinished pints!) as drinks to unsuspecting customers. There's plenty of discussion of this practice online; but the World made grand claims for their 25th birthday that Pub Spy effectively stopped it...

2021 Update

I've now signed up for another month of the archives and worked through a list of missing dates from 87-98; and also read every review from 1999 until the end of the current archive in 2006. 

There's much of the same - some old names of pubs, some interesting gossip and a few landmarks. Only a few months after the 1993 decriminalisation, Pub Spy visit S0092 The George and give it a positive three pint review. There is a particular focus on picking up new pubs when they open and on revisiting places after significant refurbishment - I do the former, but not the latter - and far more non-Dublin pubs, presumably as the well was becoming quite dry.

Reviews get significantly longer in 1997, and in 2002 turn in to a full page with generally one main review and three smaller ones, local to the main; plus some general commentary on the pub industry. 

Some of the old campaigning spirit returned in 2003, with a specific push for pubs to clean their toilets and people sending in pubs they wanted to receive scathing reviews for this purpose.

The frequency of five-pinters significantly increases - I've found them for S0242 The 108 in Rathgar, 1008645 Molloys on Talbot Street, S0165 Merrion Inn (although, reading the review text, I suspect this was meant to be four!), S1475 Brazen Head, N0089 The Temple and the original Tenters in Blackpitts. 

There was also another zero pinter, not in Dublin, but in Cavan. Its worth mentioning for it getting zero pints *twice* in two years for filth and dereliction. This is still a very limited number of 0 or 5 awards out of about 800 reviews, not counting some occasions where they did an area writeup and gave every pub five - in this case I know all the pubs well, and they're not all fives!

By the time I could do it, there were only six pubs left on Arranmore and even then I've not tried do the lot in one day. Mainly because the hills are awful to walk between them. But Pub Spy did all seven in '97 pic.twitter.com/q1Ga68Oi96

— Cian Duffy (@cian_duffy) March 8, 2021

A particular objection during the early 00s time period is a dislike of CCTV in pubs - the reason why is not given; but it specifically reduces the score of a number of pubs. 

N0013 The Blind Ref

Unless I've managed to get the location entirely wrong, this is what was Collins in the 1990s; and was dramatically blown up in a failed (or far too successful!) arson attack. The pub was modernised to a hideous external design some time prior to 1980; but was restored to a traditional look after the explosion.

That bit of historical interest aside, the pub is part-owned by the 2018/19 Lord Mayor, Nial Ring; who became notable for going through two allocations of free beer from Diageo and then spending €28k on further beer after this ran out. This lead to both criticism and some borderline adulation from certain parts - news website comment sections provide both if you want to look it up!

The pub isn't that great. Its better than N0051 Lowrys; but not by much - and it's also dearer, by the same not much.

N0051 Lowrys

"CASH ONLY" scream the countless hand-written dayglo stars adorning the bar, like the signs used by regional supermarkets to announce offers until the 1990s. Because this pub is going to have a lot of outsiders today, who may not be aware of this restriction. Come to think of it, I didn't notice a card reader in any of the other pubs in the area, nor an equivalent sign - the staff may get exasperated quicker here.

This pub is fairly rough and really doens't have a lot going for it. I'll agree entirely with the viewpoint of The Other People Doing The Same Thing (Dublin By Pub) that The Bridge is entirely superior to this.

1000937 The Bridge Tavern

I visited a number of pubs that get incredibly busy on matchdays due to their proximity to Croke Park - the next few posts will cover the lot of them. This was the only one that felt like it probably had a solid locals trade to cover the rest of the year.

Its relatively big for a pub in the area - the low building its in may make it look tiny, but there's a normal enough bar and a decent sized lounge out the back. The entire external wall area of the pub has been used as a canvas for a Dublin GAA mural and makes it one of the more frequently photographed pubs in the area - my attempt to show that the mural had been updated to add the Ladies team only managed to catch the different script and not the different design to the players heads though!

The lounge in particularly is decorated with memorabilia of local sporting achievements - I noticed more boxing than anything else. This is in stark contrast to some of the barely decorated pubs that will be written up in the next few days. There's comfortable enough seating (again, the others don't have this) and it all adds up to a proper community feeling (again...)

They've Dyson dryers in the toilets. Which is a bit of an oddity for a relatively rough and ready pub, and probably not worth mentioning - but it did stand out.

N0009 Lloyds

Lloyds is almost triangular in shape, situated as it is on the junction of Amiens Street and Foley Street, where they meet at an acute angle. This proved very useful on the bakingly hot day I visited, as doors on both long sides, and the snubbed off "point" of the triangle, were opened to generate a crossdraught.

A traditional city centre local with all you'd expect from those. There's relatively cheap drink and friendly staff, and not much else in the way of facilities - or pretentions either.

I dropped in on a match day, when the pub was liable to be busy - but as its just that little bit further from Croke Park, people had started to filter away towards the stadium; leaving mainly locals and a few without tickets to watch the game in the stadium.

I don't write as much about the people I see or meet in the pubs as other pub bloggers do - I'm rarely as good a story teller as required to do so. But the sight to behold here was sufficiently memorable to recount.

Tyrone were playing an U20 match that afternoon. They lost - but that would likely be only the second worst thing to happen to the poor Tyroneman who was in Lloyds. A white GAA jersey and grey tracksuit bottoms do not provide much cover to the staining caused by someone having tipped a pint or a darker coloured beer over you (elsewhere, I must add!). It may only have been the third worst thing if he thought the match was on in Croke Park - it was in Tullamore.

August 2019 Licence Update

Few changes this month, notably two removals for a reason which is rare in Ireland but endemic in the UK

Additions

1015219 Dublin Liberties Distillery Visitor Centre, Mill Street

Removals

DG0496 Black Raven, Skerries - converted to housing
N0096 Hill Street Sports Bar (Stoneys), Hill Street - converted to housing

Renumbering

1015469 Urban Brewing, CHQ Building - renumbered from 1013149

1015550 The Hendrick

A small new hotel on a slim in-fill site (formerly a fish wholesaler and a printers, going on old Streetview) in Smithfield, with a public bar; providing a relatively limited range of drinks options - and no food options as far as I could see.

Its not really somewhere you're likely to be passing - but if you've been told there's a wait for tables in 1013114 Token, this is likely to be quieter than N0213 Frank Ryans or N0215 Dice Bar and a bit more modern than N0214 McGettigans

This is the first of the "Opening Summer '19" hotel builds for Dublin, and possibly the only one that actually did open on time. I'm going to do a post on the recent openings and the upcoming that I'm aware of next, as it was starting to get too messy for this one

N1090 Hacienda Bar

As far as I know, there's only two pubs in Dublin where you need to be buzzed in - this and 1004033 Vintage Cocktail Club in Temple Bar. The doors remain closed here and it can be quite hard to tell if it is actually open or not - and it was actually closed for a few weeks recently for filming.

There's a large black and white CCTV monitor beside the bar, from where the staff can decide if you are going to be let in or not - or come out to you if you're standing outside wondering if its actually open before pressing the buzzer, as happened to us.

The pub has an - accurate - reputation as somewhere you may run in to a celebrity or two; but it manages this without being like Lillies in the Tiger era. Its not expensive by any definition, for starters. You may have to run in to a political birthday party, or whoever else famous is passing through - Jack Gleeson being the most recent mentioned on their Facebook.

The walls of the bar are covered in photos of the owner with these various celebs; which could make for a way to pass the time if you were somehow in here and bored. That's not likely to be the case, as the bar is likely to be quite busy - and there's small sized pool tables anyway