Revisited pubs, April 2023

For the small number of people who always read this (based on Blogger stats) - I didn't actually re-visit any pubs in Dublin in March, hence no post for it - the month was taken up with trips to each end of the country (Donegal and then Cork) rather than much activity in Dublin.

But I did plenty in April, so here they are:

S3908 The Well - regular meeting venue

1018821 Meaghers - I said it needed more than the 15 minute visit I gave it last time, so I revisited. It still stands up.

N0053 Graingers - regular train gap filler

N0084 The Black Sheep - it was convenient when waiting for the next pub to open!

N0060 The Legal Eagle (as Underdog 2.0) - getting a visit to the pop-up in residence on its last day before it moves to a permanent premises

S1467 Tom Kennedys - craft pubs don't usually show football

S0117 The Lord Edward - craft pubs don't usually show football, second half

S1527 Brady's

A busier pub than all the others so far, quite possibly just because it had got late enough to hit dinner time for many. I managed to get quite a nice, albeit small, table and spent the entire time there waiting to either be asked or volunteer to move - this wasn't required, though.

This review is from many, many weeks ago and roughly coincided with the implementation of Diageo's price increase; leading to the oddity of seeing all the Heineken group taps taped over with a warning that they were premium priced, referencing their extremely unpopular price increase of a few months prior; but which the other macro breweries have mostly or entirely matched since. 

The taping over actually made it look like the taps were turned off; but a quick chat with the senior staff member (owner? manager? I didn't actually ask) who was pulling my pint confirmed that they had made the decision that they would sell them to those willing to pay rather than whipping the lines entirely as some other publicans did. Unfortunately, many of said publicans replaced them with C&C lines, just trading one macro for another...

As as relatively standard large suburban pub with a focus on food, you may prefer somewhere else for just drinking - S0248 Vaughns across the road-ish for instance; but this still seems like a decent pub.

S0248 Vaughn's Eagle House

The last of the three Eagle House pubs that Dublin had until recently - with Glasthules one now being the Greedy Eagle and Dundrums becoming Pye since my visits to both. Whether this means that this Eagle will be renamed, or gain a prefix, due to my brief presence I don't know! 

Of course, Eagle is an oddly common bit of a pub name in Dublin - there being a Bald and a Legal also - so it isn't that odd that two pubs with it have have re-openings in the past while. But back to the this remaining Eagle House

A pub of many levels - not quite as baffling as the insides of N2307 O'Connells for instance; and its clearly due to being built on a mild hill, but it may be a tad hard to navigate this pub after a skinful.

There was a turned off, formerly backlit Beamish sign advertising its comparative cheapness - well, it is fairly cheap; but they have actually backed away from this marketing tack recently. Regardless, this was the cheapest of the pubs I visited in this area, from memory.

James Joyce's mother was born on this site, which gives this pub a stronger Joycean connection than many that actually push that as a thing; albeit I don't think you will find it particularly easy to drag tourists out here on a Joycean Pub Tour.

S1760 Terenure Inn

Erm. I left this rather too long to write it up; and it wasn't terribly memorable. Which, as mentioned before, is usually a good thing.

Pub's interior is quite swanky, I seem to remember it was all macro but with Lagunitas, which I'll buy off a Heineken heavy macro list. Food seems to be the most important offering here; as is often the case in suburbia.

Pub ticked off the list, but made no strong memories.

1004353 Lysters

Until relatively recently, this pub was called McGarrys - and once inside, it may as well still be! Plenty of stuff around the place still shows this name, from internal advertising to tableware of various kinds. 

A former Sean Quinn pub, I think this one was the only one he rebranded in his own name - Quinns in Drumcondra being already called that; but it was disposed of before his downfall. After that sale, it became Crossbar - a bit of a pun too for for a sports bar in Harolds Cross - and then McGarrys.

Lysters has been the name since its post-COVID reopening - the interior being in decent nick is probably at least part of why every last mention of the former name hasn't yet been excised.

Offering food within the realms of being made by a barman (soup and sandwiches) in lieu of a full kitchen service on this, previously mentioned, somewhat odd Bank Holiday Monday; the reduced service reflected a fairly low customer count at the time I arrived - maybe sticking to normal Monday hours when there's no sports on actually would be the better idea.

S1524 McGowans (Harolds Cross)

This pub-ticking trip was done on a Bank Holiday Monday - more specifically, one of those rare Bank Holidays that is not also a BH in England and hence had no massive increase in the amount of TV sport on offer. This lead to many pubs operating their normal Monday opening hours - and not, as is often the case, opening at the same time as they normally would on a weekend day. 

This lead to my first target pub being closed; and going straight to my second - which was open, and serving food (something else that many places were not in a position to offer at the time). However, it appeared that only one small section of the pub was open due to limited staff, and indeed customer, numbers - I don't know if this was the case, but nobody was going anywhere else!

Most of the crowd that were in seemed to be locals and indeed almost seemed to have their "own" seats, which did give a little bit of a feeling of being in the wrong place - the table I got was an odd high table in the middle of the floor too. Just a perception thing and probably not valid for a more normal day of trading!

N0230 Hanlons Corner

First impressions and all that - they were crap here.

Walked in the door, having to navigate through various smokers, and directly inside the pub there were two gambling machines. Questionably legal at the best of times, and more reminiscent of a UK pub, these are not what I want to see in a pub.

The large lounge was closed for a private party - but not signed as such, so I was politely directly back to the entirely full bar. The tap lineup did have a single craft offering - rare on the day trip I was on, but as it was Wicklow Wolf Arcadia lager, not a beer type I normally drink.

So, I knocked my pint at the bar, and left. I later returned, after having gone to the more convivial atmosphere of N0211 Clarkes City Arms, to try go in to the off-licence at Hanlons Corner.

Nobody answered my ring on the doorbell - before 9pm, let alone close to 10pm - but looking through the window, you were out of luck if you wanted anything other than the main few brands of cans. There's a Lidl behind here with a better offering.

The staff seemed fine, but my overall impression here was poor - and this is not an area without a lot of other pubs available, all of which I prefer. Maybe a revisit would be totally different - but if I already prefer the City Arms, why would I bother?

N0237 The Homestead

The second of the remaining 1940s pubs of Cabra, the Homestead presents a far fancier image to the street; with a large neon sign on its corner portico, which also features some stained glass - but not the beer brands of that at McGraths previously.

I would have said a "far grander image", except it could have come across as too much of a pun - this pub sits almost next door to what is now Jack Potts Bingo but was once the Cabra Grand Cinema and latterly music venue. Being on what is basically a residential road, it is strange to find a a venue of this scale. During its peak period as a concert venue, bands such as the Ramones, Duran Duran and Hawkwind played to large audiences in suburbia; at what were presumably "dry" gigs as I have never located a liquor licence for the cinema! 

Presumably The Homestead would have been exceptionally busy on these nights; and indeed it was relatively busy the night I dropped in - but not too busy to get a table. 

I also ate dinner here, having been in the previous pubs that did food too early in the day; and suspecting that my next target(s) might not actually do food. There is a relatively large menu here - all the traditional pub classics - and they promote their food offerings quite extensively on social media. What I had was done well.

I quite liked this place - it felt like the kind of pub I'd be quite happy to have as my local. It'll be practically backing on to the Cabra train station, should that ever get built, so I doubt I'll be able to afford what house prices here will become though!

N0239 McGraths (Cabra)

One of the 1940s pubs built to serve the then rapidly growing Cabra area, McGraths is now one of only two left going - and my next visit was to the other. 

The pub has a large frontage with a slightly foreboding entrance; albeit with windows unlike its former near neighbour the Cabra House/Oasis - stained glass windows that promise pints not to found inside such as Harp and Bass at that; and indeed is quite large - very deep - inside. 

It was busy enough when I visited, but there were still tables available, and fairly cheap pints to enjoy at them. 

The pub has the feel of being a proper Dublin local, but didn't feel vaguely unsafe, as was the reputation of the two closed pubs (Oasis and Matts).

Duck Test - removing aerodrome licences from list

I've previously mulled over "What is a Pub?" and listed off the types of licence I consider as counting for the purposes of map completion.

I've since decided that I'm going to drop Aerodrome licences from that list; and hence from my map and my own completion stats. There are a number of reasons for this:

1: More and more of them are failing the Duck Test - these no longer look and act like pubs. Yes, The Gate Clock out at the 300 gates in Dublin Airport looks and acts like a pub. 1001987 The Oak bar in T2 arrivals looks and acts like a pub. But The Loop Collections Desk in T1 (licence 1008888, required to let you collect bottles of spirits) does not, nor do the three Burger Kings which have a Budweiser tap.

2: Licence numbers change constantly depending on who is operating the premises. If I left a red pin for every defunct licence at the airport, the map would be a sea of red as the operator of some premises has changed three times in the period I am covering.

3: More and more of the licences are airside, and require you to have a ticket (and possibly even a specific ticket type and destination, for the lounges) to get to them.

4: There is the teeniest chance of a conflict of interest relating to my employment, that does not apply to any other type of licence.

This has led me to remove 12 Aerodrome licences (11 at Dublin, plus one at Weston) from the list; most of which I had already visited. This, plus a cleanup of closed licences, has brought my completed pubs number back under 650 - and the total licence list to under 1000 for the first time in years. But it provides a more realistic picture of what is left to be done, and does not require me to pay in to the East Lounge, or drink a bottle of wine bought from the Wrights shop in the carpark structure.

N0238 Cumiskeys

I jokingly texted my partner that I would have trouble remembering this pub if I didn't write it up quickly - so I've started writing it up almost immediately lest I do forget.

Cumiskeys is a large suburban pub, and has many of the elements you'd expect in a large suburban pub - it's a bit of a barn, is heavily based around its food offering and has quite a bland tap lineup. But, based on the crowd in when I visited, it is very popular with locals. 

There is a a separate restaurant - Shangrila - upstairs, but the pub itself seems to shift huge amounts of food. There's a variety of different areas within the pub if you want to see, or avoid, various sports on TVs; and a large central bar with a very. very boring macro tap offering.

I had also joked on WhatsApp that I'd probably only remember that the pub had odd, tiny, but very effective hand dryers in the toilets. Well, it does. They're about the size of a hardback book, but are better than all but the highest end high power ones I've seen elsewhere.

Master List <-> Current comparison removals

Sometimes, pubs just seem to vanish off the register between years, rather than between months (it resets every October); and as such I miss that they have closed. I do this comparison a few times a year and decide if something needs to be removed from my Master list and hence completion stats. So here's the latest removals:

1015892 River House Hotel - both bars closed since March 2020 or before, hotel website offline and last reviews March 2020. Not licenced since 2020.

1010310 Napper Tandys, Merrion Row - closed since March 2020 and looking rather derelict. Up for sale recently. Not licenced since 2020.

ARP0667 Blue Gardenia, Brittas - Closed since 2020. Not licenced since 2021.

N1114 Bridge Inn, Chapelizod - Closed since 2020. One of its tills is now behind the bar in Brew Dock!

N1420 SSP, Dublin Airport - likely been a licence re-organisation here again

N1898 Dorset Lounge, Dorset Street - bar has been converted in to more bedrooms in this former hotel.

N1958 Becketts, Leixlip (Dublin side of river) - had been in financial trouble since 2016, I believe this very very briefly reopened in Summer 2020 but hasn't since.

N2051 Garden Terrace, Dublin Airport - there are constant licence changes here depending on who operates what. This bar is still open.

N2528 Jack O'Neills, Tyrrelstown - long closed. Brief reappearance on register may have been to keep licence alive, or sell it off.

N2588 Ely, CHQ - Closed since 2020. 

S0228 Castle Inn, Rathfarnham - closed since 2019 as far as I can tell

S0775 Ballsbridge Hotel, Ballsbridge - closed since 2020, to be demolished

S1431 Old County Bar, Crumlin - closed since 2020, planning in to demolish

S1594 Mortons, Firhouse - closed, planning in to demolish

S2278 Baron Johns, Crumlin S/C - closed for decades but the licence was retained for an off-licence. This has now closed too.

S3699 South William, South William Street - this is now a set of Spanish restaurants, the licence may still be there but it has not shown up recently.

S4354 - TGI Fridays/Dantes Dundrum. Have not reopened since 2020, location deleted from both brands sites

April 2022 register update

Been an exceptionally quiet period for new licences, with none again this month.

Removals:

N0091 Mayes, Dorset Street - this venerable pub has been converted to a Centra who have presumably decided to conver the licence too (the annual fees are cheaper)

Renumbering

1019912 Boars Head, Capel Street - renumbered from N1069