N1193 Silver Granite

I would usually be quite on top of planning proposals for pub and hotel sites (and when these converge, such as the proposal for N0198 The Cobblestone), but in this case, I initially missed the proposal to knock the existing building and replace with 50 apartments atop a smaller pub.

Suburban pubs with carparks are all significantly tempting redevelopment sites, with supermarkets and apartment having replaced many in the past two decades. Proposing to keep the pub is rare, and it actually being kept is rarer; but we must assume the proposal is legitimate - it is by the existing owners, who also operate other pubs and have decades of experience in the trade.

I was intending to go here soon anyway, but when looking to see if it was open - there's virtually no info online - I found the news articles about the development; which hastened my visit.

I still wasn't sure if the pub was open, and on approaching it from the Kennelsfort Road, it didn't look like it was. However, much recent signage (one way systems) and outdoor drinking pods it was obvious that it has been trading in the modern world; and if you followed the signs you would get to the rear door on the side of the pub - which brings you in to a small back bar which was open when I visited.

The total premises is very large, with multiple spaces, and similar to many suburban pubs of its era - the first reference I can find to it easily is in 1964, but I think it may be late 1950s - when there were quite limited opportunities to open pubs in the then Dublin County Council area, leading to those that were built needing to serve a large area. 

As the only pub in the area - well, there is one in Palmerstown Village but its a decent walk, and a hill on the way back - the usual community connections are visible, with local lotto results and a cabinet displaying memorabilia (match pennants mostly) from Glenville FC adorning the walls of the bar. 

While its not somewhere I'll probably have reason to go again, I expect the pub will be much missed during the redevelopment - and hoping that the plans to reinstate a pub in the new development do proceed.