N0594 The Cedar Lounge

 Estate pub. A term which means something very different just a 30 minute flight away from Dublin.

In England, particularly in places near where you can fly quickly (Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, etc), an estate pub is probably a hideous brick barn, with a flat roof, that you should probably avoid. The estates in question are huge housing estates, generally social, which - if they were built around a small village core - might actually have a nice pub or two in the middle but would have had a ring of the flat roof barns too. 

I say would have had, as many of these are long gone; as drinking habits changed in England. Many have been converted to mini supermarkets, apartments or been knocked. They were generally built from the 30s to the 70s and often survived to the 00s.

In Dublin, estate pubs may be of a similar size, but are usually two storey - or at least in a two storey building with something above them - in a row of shops in the middle of an housing development. Sure, these do/did exist in England too - the same linked article references them - but the Dublin examples are, almost without exception, all still here and trading; and without the reputation that estate pubs have in England. We also built them later - the flat roofed era never really invaded here. Many of them were built by property developer and publican Paddy Belton, although others were involved in the trade.

The Cedars is definitely an estate pub. Built in the 1960s as part of a housing estate, and taking up one side of a pair of rows of shops on St Assams Avenue, it is currently joined by a cafe, a wine bar and a unit under renovation, where once stood a more conventional array of shops for a suburban area. The relative closeness to Raheny village has likely killed off that trade; but the pub survives.

Thoms Directory, 1986 - MacMahons survived until very recently

A substantial premises, with a front bar and lounge, some rear lounge areas and an outdoor area, the pub was fairly busy for a Tuesday evening. They don't do food themselves, but as a ghost of the substantial meal era of 2020, there is order-to-table pizza available. I did this, albeit didn't see anyone else doing it, and it was delivered in good condition from Impasto 48 in Kilbarrack.

Despite being busy enough, and having background music playing, this was a pub perfect for quiet conversation. Attentive bar staff provided good table service and the drinks selection includes some from the local Hope brewery.

Overall, quite an agreeable pub. Its not somewhere you'd come across without intending to do so but its in no way isolated and could be worth a visit.