Friday, 25 July 2025
1010478 Deer Park Golf
Thursday, 24 July 2025
1014505 Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport
Wednesday, 23 July 2025
1015067 ONE Ballsbridge
Two restaurants have failed in rapid succession in this new, pub-licenced unit; so I decided I'd better be quick, lest lightning strike a third time - and then still took nearly six months to get out here.
The first two were run by household names - Dylan McGrath and Richard Corrigan, and this one is run by someone who's probably close to a household name. Oliver Dunne has held a Michelin star and done a fair bit of TV work, and has previously reacted rather badly to a review, but may not be quite as well known as the previous tenants here.
That may be for the best, as premises can get a reputation as "cursed", and attaching another extremely well known name, or promoting a fairly well known name hugely in connection to it could do far more harm than good.
Unlike a lot of pub-licenced-restaurants, where drinkers are either barely catered for, or not catered for at all - the licence being bought to make drinks service and production of cocktails more legally simple than on other classes of licence - there is an actual dedicated bar here; and its big at that. The second floor is a nicely fitted out bar; and there's also terrace seating outside on the ground floor that held the majority of the drinkers during my visit - it was a very nice day; but I'd already been outside, walking between the previous writeups, for long enough in that sunshine.
Its an interesting enough bar, in a premises that will hopefully be third time lucky. Just in case, maybe visit quickly to get the tick!
Tuesday, 22 July 2025
S3437 Radisson Blu St Helens
Monday, 21 July 2025
1021852 Super Social
Sunday, 20 July 2025
(no number yet) Lane7 Dundrum
Unlike the previous Lane7, this is not a small, subterreanian, awkwardly laid out bowling alley - its a large, penthouse, awkwardly laid out bowling alley!
The bar remains expensive, but there's actually some reason to come here for drinks - the bar is large, spacious and has views over Dundrum from two sides. There's slightly more choice of drinks than in the city centre location, but prices remain high.
Rooftop bars aren't much of a thing in Ireland, and Dundrum certainly isn't the most interesting vista to look out over - but it could be worth heading up here. Like all Lane7s, you can just come in to drink without bowling or using the paid arcade games.
Saturday, 19 July 2025
1018537 Donnybrook Fair Dundrum
This is another high end food store using a pub licence to cover various operations within; and another case where I decided that buying and drinking some off-sales inside would probably get me thrown out - so I had to come around when the restaurant was actually open.
At the time of my visit, all they were doing here was breakfast/brunch, with the fairly limited hours that entails; but I managed to haul myself down here early enough - and hungry enough - for a brunch and a bottle of beer. Licence ticked.
The food was decent enough and, despite being fairly close to full, the restaurant is a lot less hectic than eating in many of the Dundrum Town Centre restaurants might be. Later service has been promised for a while and may have actually resumed by now.
Friday, 18 July 2025
N2582 Carlton Hotel Blanchardstown
Thursday, 17 July 2025
N2417 The Paddocks
A very busy and VERY LOUD suburban shopping centre pub that's also a massive pain in the hole to get to, this ended up being done extremely late for a long established premises on the basis that it's basically only really possible to get here from the city and not anywhere else - and it's a long way out on a dead-end.
The lounge was 'wait to be seated', doing food services and appearing to be completely full; and the bar hadn't got any free seats when I arrived, so I ended up standing to drink my pint; possibly looking more like an undercover Garda trying to fit in somewhere than ever before.
The pubs exterior design is one of the strangest of this category of pub that I've ever seen, with the semi standard clocktower at one end, running through what looks like an attempt to make it look like a row of small houses, down to a stone round tower at the other end, literally towering over the main entrance. It is, unfortunately, nowhere near as weirdly decorated inside!
Wednesday, 16 July 2025
1010656 The Green Phonebox
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
1021842 Bewleys
Monday, 14 July 2025
(no number yet) Sandbox VR
A third underground "experience bar" writeup in a row - they were actually across two different days - the main attraction here for those not partaking in the VR setup is the "robot bartender", a pair of robotic arms that can make a range of fairly simple cocktails.
Make them fairly badly, more specifically - they haven't managed to replicate any conventional shaking motion so things aren't as mixed or diluted as you'd expect; but its probably worth doing once for the novelty; and then get your other drinks from the humans at the main bar.
With an interior that feels like the set of a 1980s kids TV show - maybe if Parallel 9 had been made 10 years earlier, on 10 times the budget - the blue lighting and sharp angles may not make this somewhere you want to spend a prolonged period in; but like the other places, you do not need to be doing a VR session to use the bar.
Saturday, 12 July 2025
1021725 Pitch Golf
The second of the "experience bars", as I think they're best called, that I needed to visit - I don't have to go to Flight Club as it is the same licence, down to the serial number, as when it was Samsara/Sam's. This time, its publicans liquor licence was already confirmed in advance of my visit, so I wasn't risking spending a lot on a pint and it turning out to be a rules-bend on a restaurant licence or similar.
I just ended up spending a lot on a pint anyway...
Like the previous post, this is also an underground venue. Unlike the previous post, the bar is a lot more bar like,sort of a normal sports bar that happens to be surrounded by the virtual golf pods. The venues website heavily promotes the bar as something you can just drop in to, with DJs and cocktails being less commonly pushed as features of a sports bar.
It wasn't particularly busy when I visited, so this could actually be a useful place to remember if looking to watch a match in the South city centre.
Friday, 11 July 2025
Revisited pubs, June 2025
Forgot to take notes on this one, so hopefully it's complete... I was also away for a substantial amount of the month, so this can't be too long
S0027 The Lombard - I now work closer to Pearse Station, so the pubs around there will get more visits
S0048 Kennedys - Remember what I said about Pearse Station one line ago?
1017216 Dockers - I also work close to here, and sometimes my wallet doesn't scream at me for considering it...
N0006 Brew Dock - Connolly continues to get some use, and I continue to need dinner
N1620 Boco - Regular-ish meeting location
N0097 Underdog - across the road from same, and it'd be rude not to pop ine
(no number yet) Lane7 Chatham Street
A few months (by the time this scheduled post goes out) ago, I wrote about the weird trend of the majority of new bar openings in Dublin being some form of "experience" rather than a conventional bar. This is the first of those I visited, assuming it would have a pub licence on the register in time - there's some writeups that have waited over a year for the licence to surface, so I'm holding with that assumption for now.
Set in the basement of the building with all the watch shops in it (replacing a number of more interesting buildings that housed multiple restaurants etc), this is an awkwardly laid out bowling alley and arcade, with a very expensive bar. It was exceptionally busy with an after-work crowd when I visited, and while you can go in and just get a drink; I don't see why you *would* - go here for the bowling not the beer, realistically.
Thursday, 10 July 2025
1014544 The Ivy
Wednesday, 9 July 2025
N0039 Noctors
You* can all stop asking now.
Claimed by many to be the roughest pub in Dublin, and potentially with a little bit of basis in fact; I worked around the corner from Noctors for a number of years. I was doing this blog/mission, but I never went in.
Part of this was because I assumed it might eventually close down, and another part was that there was a Garda car sat at the corner of Oriel Street effectively monitoring the pub during opening hours, this being months after a mistaken identity murder outside the pub.
But the pub never closed down, and with very few remaining premises to go to, I had to tick it off eventually.
The pub is a single room setup straight out of the 1980s, with a limited selection of beer - more limited even than the illuminated tap heads suggest, as some things were off. My cash-only pint of Guinness was perfectly drinkable and relatively cheap, and consumed in no danger. Despite apparently looking like an undercover Garda (see prior commentary on this in older writeups), my presence wasn't treated as unwelcome at any stage.
However, it is definitely a local pub for locals - I wouldn't recommend you go out of you way to go here; or even possibly bother going here if you have moved in locally.
*Twitter users when I say that there's very few "rough pubs" left in Dublin
Tuesday, 8 July 2025
1014840 The Devlin Hotel
For a hotel with it's own (small, but public) cinema, the visit here was surprisingly unmemorable - it's another former McKillen venue, so the bar experience is exactly what you get in all of them.
It may be more memorable if you stay here - I believe the rooms range from very small to absolutely tiny.
Monday, 7 July 2025
S0236 The Dunmore
During the time I've been doing this blog, this premises has had a slightly awkward operating history and was closed down on all three times I came through Rathmines to tick previously; initially as Toast but latterly as The Bowery. I believe The Bowery had very irregular opening towards its end too.
Eventually, the pub was reopened as The Dunmore, a branch of sorts of a pub from Dunmore East - The Strand Inn. It is branded as a "bar and restaurant" which can often mean "restaurant that doesn't really want drinkers" - but in here, about half the floorspace is set up as a bar/pub seating rather than dining tables.
This includes a nice mezzanine section above the front door, which could take maybe 12 people. This is good for people watching as well as getting somewhere a little quieter within the pub.
I only tried the drinks options here rather than the food, but these were interesting enough - including a number of beers from Dew Drop Brewhouse in Kill; a brewery operated by a small pub chain who formerly ran S0186 Ashtons
Saturday, 5 July 2025
S0239 Murphys
This pub seems fairly accessible for something so late in my visits - and indeed, it was a nice round number, which I'll get to shortly - but I'd been sort of "keeping" it, intending to visit it with someone specific who lives nearby.
However, they were busy and I needed to get it ticked off, so I'll have to come back with them - for once committing myself to a revisit before I've even written the whole writeup!
Oddly quiet after a series of absolutely rammed carvery spots; they were doing food here too - my next visit wasn't incredibly busy either; so either I'd come after an earlier rush, or the diners of Rathmines eat later.
This turned out to be my 900th, rolling register basis, Dublin licence tick. Considering it's a mix of an older city pub with elements of modernity and suburban pubs to it; it's a fairly apt pub for a "big number visit", even if I never planned it as such.
Friday, 4 July 2025
1001237 The Morgue
I almost baked myself to death in this pub; but had that happened they wouldn't have been able to lay me out on a slab here - not without a time machine at least.
As I mentioned when putting a photo up on Instagram, sometimes pub nicknames stick and owners just roll with it. The Templeogue Inn is never called that anymore, but instead The Morgue - a reference to the use of the pubs cold room for storage of dead bodies under Victorian legislation.
At this stage, with only The Morgue name above the door and on the pubs website, is it even the Templeogue Inn anymore? The name does still appear on the side of the pub, but realistically The Morgue is the name now.
It was a warm day to begin with, but I could swear the heating was on in the front bar of the pub, which was busy enough with racing punters. A Kinnegar Scraggy Bay tap is a rare but welcome sight in a bar like this (common enough in the lounge, of course) and that kept me cool enough during my trip.
Thursday, 3 July 2025
July 2025 Revenue register update
Nothing*, again. Actually the smallest update I've ever processed.
*(well, there's a new liquor licenced boat, for Howth Cliff Cruises, but I'm dropping boats as they completely fail the quack test of being pubs...)
S2261 Spawell / D'Arcy McGees
Wednesday, 2 July 2025
S2636 Penny Black
A large suburban pub with awkward public transport access... however did this end up so close to the end of the list?
If you approach this from the South, you may see the hulk of a building within the Castletymon Shopping Centre which looks like an 70s estate pub. This isn't the Penny Black, this is the former library of all things, which has been replaced by a much more modern building.
The Penny Black is actually from the late 80s, in a more traditional looking building around the side of the shopping centre, complete with a small clock tower - a feature a few pubs from then had. It is also quite traditional inside, albeit with mostly an open plan layout like most "newer" pubs ("newer" meaning "about as old as me" is a bit of a stretch; but when there's so many 100+ year old pubs around, they are newer).
There's a sort-of "museum" snug section near the front, mostly consisting of photos, covers Dublin trams amongst other things - despite this pub not being terribly near either the original or current trams serving Tallaght; and due to that, it was mostly O'Connell Street stuff that I remember seeing!
Tuesday, 1 July 2025
S2818 House Dublin
Another "Cian goes ticking on Sundays" problem venue, as this only opens for brunch on Sundays and I don't think opens on Bank Holidays at all; and the first two times I tried it fell down at this hurdle.
Third time lucky actually worked in this instance, and I was admitted and seated at the bar - albeit I was offered tables, it was middlingly busy and I felt they may want those for diners rather than drinkers.
This isn't really my kind of bar - cocktails and southside partying - but I don't think I'd have fit in during its past era when this was a hotel with a nightclub rather than a hotel with a large bar-restaurant instead.
Monday, 30 June 2025
1015609 'Ohana
Dublin's only tiki bar, and also possibly the conventionally licenced bar with the most restrictive, yet regular, opening hours in the city - being open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from early evening/late afternoon only. I do a lot of my ticking trips on Sundays (for quieter pubs) and usually try end them by about 8, so this evaded me for years as a result.
It doesn't have fake rain, a feature of many tiki bars (provided by anything from lighting effects through to a hose in some places) which is allegedly designed to encourage drinkers to stay longer; but the Irish weather obliged with the real stuff, so I did actually stay for a further cocktail.
In addition the cocktail menu - of the types of cocktails you get in tiki bars, so don't necessarily expect the classics that other cocktail bars do - there's an immense rum selection here. The current claim on the menu is of over 150 different bottles available
Saturday, 28 June 2025
1012980 Irish Whiskey Museum
This independent (as in non distillery owned) whiskey museum opened a number of years ago; but I assumed you had to go on a tour and just hadn't got around to arranging one.
However, when passing to go somewhere else, I noticed a sign suggesting you could come in to watch the rugby - which wasn't actually on that day - and headed up.
There is a very small bar here that is before the ticket desk, and which you do not need to pay for a ticket to visit. It has even less taps than you might imagine for its diminutive size, but has a huge whiskey list - many of them at exceptionally competitive prices.
I didn't go for anything adventurous, just having a Black Bush for the same price you'd pay for Bushmills (white) anywhere nearby; and this was far from the only good value option there.
I wouldn't try get in here with a crowd - you simply won't fit - but it's definitely worth a look if going as a couple or on your own.
Friday, 27 June 2025
1012867 Temple Bar Inn
Thursday, 26 June 2025
1018953 Fallon and Byrne
Wednesday, 25 June 2025
1019160 Hampton by Hilton, Chancery Street
Tuesday, 24 June 2025
1019365 The Local, UCD
"Wait! Students union bars don't count! You've said that here somewhere before..."
Well, for whatever commercial reason, the new foodhall in UCD Village is run by the Wright group; and they need a liquor licence for that; and have a 7 Day Ordinary like anyone else would. Also, to try drum up trade during quieter periods for students, the foodhall and its bar are advertised to the public.
However, if you're over 25 and go there during the college year (or probably summer when there's language students around either), expect to feel *very* out of place.
The bar itself isn't that big, and is fairly cheap; with the stand out attraction of the foodhall being the burger place, Mikeys; which was really quite good.
Monday, 23 June 2025
S0394 The Horse & Hound
This is the Cabinteely pub, and not the Northside pub of a very similar name. In that writeup, I comment on how "Horse & Hound" is a very English type pub name; and realistically that's one of the most notable things here.
I've repeatedly mentioned about how having little to write about a pub is almost always a good thing - local pubs that are solid parts of their community often don't need anything distinguishing about them.
The pub hasn't got a website, or any active social media and doesn't turn up in media reports for anything happening there (again, this is almost always a good thing - newspapers don't often report on positive events in pubs these days!). Pretty much all you'll find on searching is some local coverage of it reopening in 2021 as pandemic restrictions lifted.
A perfectly functional local pub, one I'll almost certainly never go back to as it's quite difficult to access if you're not a local. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Saturday, 21 June 2025
S0284 Druids Chair
Another awkward pub to get to, up a hill, served by an irregular bus which feels like it's having significant trouble even fitting on the roads.
The pub is laid out as a single room but with some dividers, one of which in particular - glass with what I can best describe as fronds - gives it a very 60s feel. That is high end 60s, not the formica horrors of that era that thankfully rarely remain. I did sort of expect a Connery-era Bond to sidle out from the seats in that area.
All in all this was quite a nice pub, but the difficulty of getting here; and the implausibility that I'd ever be able to afford to live nearby, mean I will probably never be back,
Friday, 20 June 2025
S0307 Haddington House Hotel
Thursday, 19 June 2025
S0962 Hartleys
There's been a series of "lasts" as I come towards the end of the list - last pub or hotel in this chain or that mostly. This instead is the last of a type - this bar operates under a Railway Refreshment Rooms licence.
In theory, these are only meant to serve customers with tickets for a 10 mile distance; but this is effectively neither checked nor enforced; and anyway - any Leap card can become a ticket for this when tagged on (However, when Good Friday drinking was restricted, any Railway Refreshment Rooms that were actually open did check for tickets)
This was, I believe, the final 'refreshment room' actually operated by Irish Rail, under their Network Catering division as Brasserie na Mara; but when Irish Rail ceased doing it's own catering, the restaurant closed with it.
Hartleys opened here in ~2008 and has traded since, with drinkers accommodated on a terrace and diners inside in the Victorian railway dining room. The drinks are exceptionally expensive, even for Dun Laoghaire; but there is often live music and the terrace is an interesting place to sit and view the harbour, so there may still be a reason to go here for some.
Wednesday, 18 June 2025
S3046 The Swallows
Tuesday, 17 June 2025
S4405 The Address Citywest
A week or so before this visit, I had stayed in the Sligo sister hotel of this, also called The Address - and had snarked at the bar/restaurant being called North, as I wouldn't consider Sligo to be particularly Northern.
On arriving here I found that the bar is again called North. They're all called North in this chain, which is from Donegal and has what I'd consider a legitimate claim to the term. All's good.
The hotel here is an old country house with an added bedroom wing; with the bar and restaurant in what I assume are some genuine outbuildings. There's a more restaurant-y bit, but you can drink there; and what seemed to be a bar or function room section that was quite loud. The outdoor area is very nice in the right weather, even if the plastic sheep are a bit of an odd choice...
There is a bit of housing being developed nearby here, so this is likely to be their local, as such; considering none were ever developed in the bulk of Citywest and both S3757 Browns Barn and the pub in Fortunestown has closed.
Monday, 16 June 2025
S1661 Green Isle Hotel
I'd been to this hotel a few times before, using the conferencing facilities - most notably, many years ago, an all-hands meeting in work telling us that a certain % were being laid off because the CEO needed a new 911 "times were tough"; but I'd never drunk here prior to this visit.
The bar of the Green Isle is large, and was busy and even slightly raucous when we visited - this certainly stands in for the lack of any pub in this bit of Clondalkin.
The hotel itself seems to be extremely popular with trades/builders from down the country using it as their Dublin base - there are even signs asking you to clean your boots when coming in from the carpark (incidentally, one of the worst designed / tightest carparks I've ever been in); so I suspect the bar is also busy with that custom on weekday/Sunday evenings.
It is still, however, clearly a hotel bar without much attempt to make it feel more like a pub - for instance, it is accessed behind reception.
Sunday, 15 June 2025
Saturday, 14 June 2025
S3226 Maldron Hotel Newlands Cross
Friday, 13 June 2025
S4515 Louis Fitzgerald Hotel
Thursday, 12 June 2025
1016097 Mackenzies
Wednesday, 11 June 2025
S0257 Buglers Ballyboden House
I'm not sure there's a current pub name I have to try so hard not to misspell - the Colosseum in Walkinstown no longer holding that name, thankfully. "Bulgers" seems to scan better, despite Bugler being a semi common surname, and a type of musician at that. I may just be remembering a horrific incident that was heavily reported when I was a kid, though.
There's more than a few newspaper archive references to "Bulgers" as well, covering both the pre- and post-spellcheck eras of newspaper editing (the pub has been Buglers since 1954) so at least it's not only me.
Another packed pub - three in a row, albeit they aren't all that far apart - I ended up in a corner of the bar rather than in the fairly recently renovated lounge, or the covered outdoor area so new you can see the demolition of the old one on Streetview.
Tuesday, 10 June 2025
1010020 Eden House
Approaching this pub from the road feels a bit weird - as the pub doesn't address the main road at all.
When you do get in to it, via the start of a housing estate, it becomes clear that the pub is in a very old building - a Georgian manor house called, appropriately, Eden House.
Eden House - the manor, that is - was redeveloped in the mid 1990s in to the pub we now have; with a small retail/office development and a housing estate built on the lands.
The pub itself has a variety of Georgian or Victorian features left inside, and has quite an unusual layout due to the room layout of the house itself. It was also absolutely and utterly rammed when I visited, so I ended up outside rather than continuing to wander around inside. This may be worth a revisit when quiet; but the reason it has ended up so late in my ticks is that it isn't quite the easiest place to get to!
Monday, 9 June 2025
S1328 Ballinteer House
Another single storey, shopping centre carpark pub but with rather less of the semi-architectural interest of the Coach House - this is a bit of a box.
And a very busy box it was too; with not a lot of free tables and a huge amount of food being served at the time of my visit. Surprisingly, there was a single Irish independent tap on offer - Trouble Ambush - which is what I enjoyed at the only free table I could find.
The pub apparently features a six-table snooker hall - with snooker tables very rare in pubs to begin with, and even more than one cue sports table of any description being rarer this is not something you're going to find often.
Sunday, 8 June 2025
S0251 Sandyford House
Sandyford, the business park area, has lots of buses; and is walkable from the Luas. It has two not-really pubs and once had a hotel.
Sandyford, the village it's named after, has one irregular bus and eluded me for quite a while - it took close to three hours to get here due to poor meshing of public transport timings; and a lengthy amount of time to get to the next pub afterwards; but I made it.
The Sandyford House claims to date to the 1690s and certainly bits of the pub are very old; but with the 16 years of Streetview passes showing three completely different paint jobs and multiple different approaches to outdoor seating, they certainly aren't unwilling to modify this place! The balcony seating, removed since the earliest passes, is an interesting loss.
I didn't venture any further than the front bar - named Boss Crokers, after the Irish-American politician and former namesake of a pub on the Quays, most recently N0185 Index. I got one of the window bays on my own, as the bar was not terribly busy when I attended.
A longer visit than normal ensued here, due to the bus times; and I took a few photos of some of the historical paperwork on the walls... which I now can't find. I'm certainly not going on another five hour round-trip mission to re-take them!
Saturday, 7 June 2025
S1177 Coach House
If I ever do get around to writing something on the morphology of Dublin pubs, the single storey, high roofed open-plan pub (often, but far from always, beside a shopping centre) will probably take the place of the "generic 80s suburban pub", even if some examples are not from the 80s. And they're a type of pub we're rapidly losing, as many of them succumb to the appeal of their car parks to apartment or supermarket developers.
And indeed, we may yet lose the Coach House - planning was granted in 2023 to demolish and replace with apartments and a "cafe/wine bar" a quarter of the size of the current pub. However, it is still trading currently.
A good example of that form of pub, and with a better range of drinks than many pubs in the city, I'd probably be fairly annoyed if I was local and this was proposed for demolition.
Friday, 6 June 2025
N0023 Admiral
This place currently trades as a restaurant and as such, you do need to eat to get served here. It has previously - while still Admiral - had external signage stating that it was a karaoke bar; but this seems to have been removed around the time the fake bow and prow of a ship were added to the outside walls!
A pan-Eastern-and-Central-European restaurant, this was frequently formerly described as a "Russian" restaurant; but the prominent Ukrainian flags flying from outside the premises should dissuade you from this.
The pub itself is under a multi-storey car park, the construction of which involved demolishing an older pub - The Peacock - further down Marlborough Street. The name, and I assume the licence - such a low serial number indicates a very old licence - moved up to the corner with Cathal Brugha Street after that. The Peacock was sold off in around 2002 after multiple legal issues including an attemp by Gardai to have its licence removed.
There were a few other brief incarnations after this, including an Eastern European bar "Baltika", but it opened as the marine-themed Admiral in the late 00s.
I'm barely a bar reviewer, so getting a food review from me isn't happening - but I was happy enough with the schnitzel I got. Beer choices on draught are more than you'd expect in most restaurants, but do primarily consist of the national draught lager/pilsners of the countries that the restaurant serves the food of.
Thursday, 5 June 2025
DG0489 The Bus Bar
Another of my "opened too late in the evening" Skerries misses from my 2021 visit; the Bus Bar burnt down in late 2023. Unlike the slow progress of reopening we see with some other pub fires of the past few years; work started very rapidly here and the pub reopened within ~13 months.
Since the pandemic, a portion of the front of the pub has been taken up by a coffee shop; and this is retained in the rebuilt pub. This leaves a small bar to the front, but with a large lounge to the rear.
Said front bar is quite nice, a one-manner in layout that could convince you that you are in a tiny pub somewhere rather than an element of a bigger setup.
The pubs name intrigues me; but I presume is easily explained by the bus stop for various services from Dublin (and to Balbriggan and rarely Dundalk) being pretty much right outside the door. It has been called that name since opening in the early 1930s.
Wednesday, 4 June 2025
DG0495 Nealons
I missed this on my previous trip out to Skerries as it opens quite late on weekdays - as then did half the pubs in the town - and I could only really get one of the early evening openers done before going for my train.
The front of the pub looks like something you'd see in a tiny village, not a large enough suburb / seaside resort. The inside extends well beyond the area that the shopfront would suggest, with a rabbit warren of small areas to the front, where you should be able to find somewhere to wedge yourself in, even when busy. It all opens out a bit at the back with a smoking area and big screens.
I still haven't been to all of the remaining pubs in Skerries - the town still has a sizeable number despite a significant decline in recent years - and while DG0492 The Gladstone Inn is definitely a more traditional pub; Nealons brings in a bit of modernity in a completely inoffensive way.
Tuesday, 3 June 2025
DG0480 Dempseys
A pub reopening should always be a good occasion, but finding out that one is about to reopen just as you're ticking off all the pubs near it can be a tad annoying. And so it was when I visited Balbriggan in early 2024 and found Dempseys approaching the end of its refurb.
Formerly The Millrace, one of those pubs where the sales ads online linger for years after being sold; and indeed it lingered for years closed too - the last social media activity for the pub was in 2015 but it may have survived til the pandemic.
The refurb was extensive and the fairly dated interior you can (currently, anyway) see in the linked sales ad is gone; replaced with the faux-old type that has returned to fashion in recent years and should hopefully age well. Despite trying to look old, it's definitely the most modern pub in Balbriggan as it stands.
On opening, a relatively strict dress code was posted, with one entry - "no coats" - raising a lot of eyebrows in a country with a climate that often requires them. This, I suspect, was there to ensure that anyone wanting to flaunt a jacket from specific brands that have acquired a particular reputation wouldn't bother coming in.
That said, I wasn't barred from entering with mine on, despite it being from one of the brands sort of on the edges of that - but it wasn't black or grey so that might have been enough!
Monday, 2 June 2025
N2723 The Hamlet
Sunday, 1 June 2025
Revisited pubs, May 2025
May's revisits have a few 'new' entries, as in not the ones you see every month; but the old classics turn up regardless. Also, as I now have so few city centre places to visit anew, I end up in places I've been before more and more often.
S0083 Beer Temple - pint before dinner time
S0106 The Porterhouse - dinner time. Not sure why I didn't just have a burger in the Beer Temple, but that isn't important
N0097 Underdog - regular visit
S0172 The Waterloo - hiding in a snug wasting time before a work event nearby
S0027 The Lombard - bus was so delayed due to roadworks after said work event that I had 65 minutes wait for a train from Pearse
S0077 Nearys - regular meeting location
S0088 Foggy Dew - burning up time before a bus, and seeing some tourists making a scene of themselves
1000393 Gilbert & Wright - going in to the Wright Group Time Machine, as the pub I was trying to tick off was completely full
N0006 Brew Dock - dinner again
S0026 Lincolns Inn - waiting for a dinner appointment nearby, writeup to come
S0048 Kennedys - after said dinner
1016206 Brewdog - waiting for a different dinner appointment in a different pub-licenced restaurant
Revisit writeup because I feel like it: N0097 Underdog
Every month, I do a post listing the pubs I've revisited in the past month - I can tell from the views that people actually do bother reading these; and it provides some evidence that I don't just chase the new places.
One extremely regular entry on that list is Underdog, on the corner of Capel and Bolton Streets.
The writeup I have been linking to for it is from August 2016, is very brief, and refers to three incarnations of the pub ago - it having had two different Galway Bay Brewery pubs in it between then and now.
I don't usually care if I link to an old writeup - the Beer Temple will continue to get a pre-GBB The Oak visit linked forever probably - but this one is so poor I'm updating it; particularly as I'm usually there monthly.
The physical pub here is a Victorian corner pub, extended in to a modern building at the rear. In the past, I suspect it went in to this building also; for this was a hotel for a number of decades in the early 20th century. The interior is not Victorian, so it isn't on the lists of Victorian pubs - but in this part of the city, most of the pubs are well over 150 years old. It spent a bit of time between pub incarnations as a chain off-licence, before becoming a sort-of craft beer bar nearly 15 years ago. It hasn't moved too far away from this since.
On to the current operations. Underdog is basically the last full craft bar in Dublin that isn't owned by a brewery; and potentially the only non brewery owned bar that doesn't sell Guinness.
There's a small number of bar staff here - including the owner, all well educated in the product they sell. There aren't really any fixed taps; but there are some near permanent products here - all from Irish or international independent breweries. You'll find something to drink.
The kitchen here hasn't operated as a regular thing since the last Galway Bay era; but it may yet reopen. Until then, if you need food, you really don't need to go far - this section of Bolton Street has multiple interesting and good quality Brazilian places of various kinds, as well as other pubs doing food.
Saturday, 31 May 2025
N2648 Travelodge Dublin Airport South / Metzo
Friday, 30 May 2025
N2771 Metro Hotel
Yet another case of deploying the DW-from-Arthur meme here, and ignoring the largest set of signs telling me that a hotel bar is residents only; specifically because a former work colleague drinks here frequently; while not living in the hotel
Indeed, he drank here when the hotel only had a residents bar licence, but a year or so ago the licence changed type to a public bar one - the serial number not changing in the process oddly enough.
On barging past the further set of signs inside the lobby telling me I would not be served in the bar, and further ignoring a sign telling me to wait to be seated; I was served and able to sit where I wanted.
The pint wasn't the best either, possibly because they aren't selling very much when clearly trying to dissuade people from coming in!
Thursday, 29 May 2025
N2433 Astro Park Coolock
Wednesday, 28 May 2025
N0852 The Concorde (as Green Fields)
It isn't often that I arrive at a pub and find that it has changed name without me knowing - indeed I don't think it's ever happened before. Pubs have shut down completely on me a number of times, so it's not like I pick up everything of course - I have even got a bus specifically to try tick somewhere off to find it dark and empty; having shut actual years beforehand (N0138 The Hollybrook, formerly Gilbert & Wright Clontarf).
In this case, even Google was unaware that The Concorde was not The Concorde anymore; having changed at some point since it was offered for sale in 2021. That article mentions the pub being kept in excellent condition, so my initial assumption that it had been renovated after sale may be inaccurate - it is in very good condition throughout.
You'll notice I've said "was". In the time between my visit and the writeup being published, the pub has reverted to The Concorde. It's just as well my correction on Google Maps wasn't accepted!
It's a large enough pub and it's sort of hard to say whether the area I was in was a bar area or a games room; featuring a pool table, and also some of my most disliked things in a pub - gaming machines. However, unlike some other pubs, they weren't right inside the door or blaring noise; so I'm more tolerant of them here.
Edenmore formerly had a second pub, N0741 Edenmore House, but this closed in the mid 2010s. The licence was moved to 1012867 Temple Bar Inn, one of the last licence transfers I ever saw reported in detail in a newspaper - court reporting of less salacious cases being an early victim of cuts in journalism!
Tuesday, 27 May 2025
N1343 Racecourse Inn
Monday, 26 May 2025
N0125 The White House
Creches - not something you usually associate with a pub; except possibly as an insult for somewhere known to be a tad lax with age requirements...
However, in a previous incarnation, this pub had a creche for the children of its customers, opening in 1996, but not mentioned in reports of the significant fire in 2002 which gutted the pub - for the second time in ten years, it having previously been burnt out in 1992.
The reports on the €4m arson in 2002 do mention another continuing oddity - the pub had, and still has, its own newsagents - currently branded as an XL Stop and Shop.
While common in rural areas to this day, pubs with their own shop are extremely uncommon in Dublin, excluding the dwindling off-licence sections that some pubs still retain.
I'm aware of only one other conventional one (S3046 The Swallows in Deansrath features a Daybreak), plus the ability to buy some of the decorative hardware in S3271 Marys. Even the rural village pubs of North County Dublin don't retain shops at this stage - albeit there is one still intact at N0253 The Brock, it appears to be closed down by even the 2009 Streetview pass.
Despite this slight anachronism, the pub is modern and well presented, having been refit extensively in 2015. It's on the bigger side for older suburban pubs, so there's a few areas to pick from.