The shop in my local railway station was open - which it does not normally do on weekends, but does if there's matches on. And there were two - in Croke Park and in Lansdowne Road - which meant that the city was likely to be very busy; as would the train as it got in closer.
So I bailed out at Navan Road Parkway to change to the bus; and decided to hit a cluster of places I hadn't been to yet in the Ashtown/Cabra area, starting with the one closest to the road - the Breffni Inn.
The Breff, as the branded shirts the barmen are wearing call it, is a perfectly acceptable suburban locals pub in a 1960s estate. In Ireland, 30s-70s suburban developments often included a pub amongst a set of shops and they have nearly always avoided the horror of the English "estate pub" stereotype. That they generally have two floors and a pitched roof helps, I imagine.
The bar was a bit noisy with, I think, four different sports screens on with sound (football, golf, horses x2); and with a slightly unusual tap lineup - all macro, but some of the secondary options like Beamish and Tuborg; but there was also a lounge as a quieter option.
Many of the English "estate pubs" are gone; whereas nearly all the Irish semi-equivalents are still there. Long may they continue.
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