"Stolen" Dublin Pubs

As Lockdown continues, so do the historic articles - and this one is breaching my 1902 "floor", as I find it rather interesting considering county boundaries have formed part of Lockdown restrictions at various times - at various times allowing me in to a pub for as long as I wanted (2m+ spacing) without buying food, and restricting me from visiting pubs in Dublin at all.

County boundaries often seem like something set since time immemorial, and are often heavily defended if there are any suggestions of altering them - such as the proposals to give Limerick City some areas currently in Clare; or Waterford City some from Kilkenny.

But the boundaries are "recent" invention compared to what many may think; and were significantly finessed in 1898 when the predecessor of our current system of local government came in. On the list of changes provided by Shane Wilson, you may note that a portion of Bray, Co Wicklow was actually Little Bray, Co Dublin prior to this. This would be the areas of the town north of the River Dargle.

So how many extra pubs in Dublin has this denied us?

Four. One is long, long gone; one has been closed for quite some time as far as I can tell, and they all may not be pre-1898 anyway.

The Sunnybank, burnt down in 2000, was located where the large gym/office/apartment complex is on the Dublin Road. An ad from 2006 for retail units here stated the pub licence was still available, so I would assume the Costcutter that was there originally may have used it for off-sales.

The Dargle Tavern, which I believe has not traded in some time, is at the junction of the Upper and Lower Dargle Roads.

The Coach Inn, Dublin Road and O'Sullivans, Castle Street are the final two - both are still extant so there is less information online about them than a pub that has closed might have! O'Sullivans website is currently offline but The Coach appears to be open for food takeout.

Interestingly, a 2002 Pub Spy review didn't agree with the 1898 changes!

Sunday World, 5th May 2002

There is another, even rarer, form of pubs disappearing from Dublin but trading elsewhere - the wholesale shipment of the interior of the pub away from Dublin. The only confirmed case I'm aware of of this is documented on Come Here To Me! and is that of the bar of the original Jurys Hotel, now in Zurich. However, an article on the work of the Irish Pub Company, who have often used salvaged interiors, claims that the branch of the US pub chain Fadó in Chicago has a "South of Dublin" pub interior.