Revisited Pubs March 2025

Some odder pubs here, as I got back to more mobility and also had to go to some more far-flung parts of the county

N0304 Carnegie Court Hotel / K67, Swords - first time back here since January 2007. It has changed. A lot. 

N0006 Brew Dock, Amiens Street - dinner before a train

N0097 Underdog, Capel Street - while in the area for...

N1620 Boco, Bolton Street - meeting up with some people

DG0493 The Coast, Skerries - only place showing the Brighton game in Skerries

DG0492 The Gladstone, Skerries - a brief half time check to see if anywhere else was.

April 2025 register update

Nothing.  

There's an update, it has some procedural stuff mostly still relating to the changes after Press Up renaming and sales, but nothing changing the map or my target list.

S1205 Harcourt Hotel

Harcourt Street is known for its hotel nightclubs. The Jackson Court is known for Coppers, the Russell Court for Diceys.

The Harcourt Hotel goes beyond this, with two nightclubs. The mainstream Dtwo, and the upmarket Black Door - so upmarket they wouldn't let me in for not having a collared shirt, albeit this was pre-pandemic - join two bars, the Harcourt Bar and the 1900 Bar in this hotel.

Having been refused entry to the premises before, and not dressed any differently this time; I decided to avoid the entrance, with its bouncer, and go in through the hotel lobby and ask where the bar is

I suspect this was not required, as I was going to the main bar door and not the Black Doors, erm, black door; but I've already written about hotel bars sometimes requiring subterfuge. It worked, and I was directed to the Harcourt Bar internally.

It's not particularly memorable; but this type of bar really isn't for me anyway.

The Incredible Moving Pub(s)

Pubs don't move. Except when they do.

There's been a run in recent months of pub operators moving to a new premises, leaving their old one rather than opening a second branch. There are also cases - recent and more historic - of both the operators and the name moving, or other cases where a pub can make some claim of it's own history on another site. 

The end-2024, early-2025 run of operator moves are interesting as they all involve relatively long moves, but still within the overall area you might consider the pubs traditional catchment.

In March/April 2024, the social media of the recently closed N1116 Clearys in Inchicore was renamed to Tom Tavey, as in N1124 Tom Tavey. This pub had been renamed to The Devils Cut, but had since closed down. And indeed, they are moving in here.

(it's important to note that my visits are points in time and I'm fairly certain that the operator of Clearys when I visited is not the same as those who have just moved to Tavey's - it is 6 years ago) 

Prior to that, the operators of N1195 Lanigans, the previous bar in the Clifton Court Hotel (but not the last one before it's most recent closure) moved in to 1014978 The Wild Duck on Sycamore Street, a return to pub operation closely awaited by some people I know.

Additionally, the operators of 1007228 The Clock took over the recently closed down S1472 Pifko/Pilsner Pub, but renamed it The Liffey Saint 

Clearys->Taveys and The Clock->The Liffey Saint are both ~400m moves; with Lanigans->The Wild Duck being more like 800m.

But what of a pub actually moving? Retaining its name, and potentially some of its atmosphere etc in the process. I've taken note over the years of a few examples, but these won't be comprehensive. And its all still subjective.

One clear example, and the only clear one still trading is the death of S0208 Bernard Shaw, and its resurrection in the up until then N2405 Racket Space, a premises with the same operator. The Racket Space name has been changed to refer to part of the venue only now. A number of these moves crossed the Liffey.

Another case, but one where the new location has since changed, is N2749 Cu Chulainns, Summerhill moving to 1002519 Cu Chulainns of Ongar in Ongar. This has been renamed twice and is now the Ongar House

In times before I have licence numbers, other known moves include the Barnstormers bikers bar moving from Townsend Street (pub since demolished) to Capel Street (now N0084 The Black Sheep); and the famed and ill-fated Irish House pub moving from Wood Quay (since very controversially  demolished) to Grove Road (also since demolished). I'm also aware of at least the name of the Steering Wheel, Bolton Street (since demolished) being moved to S2026 The Steering Wheel, Clondalkin.

There is an edge case amongst still open pubs - after the original John Clarkes in Irishtown (now S0160 Merry Cobbler) was liquidated, the Clarkes eventually took over a nearby pub which now trades as S0158 John Clarkes, and claims a founding date of 1932 - taken from the old pub.

1020014 The Dean Townhouse

My previous writuep covered a very large hotel bar on Harcourt Street. This covers probably the smallest.

The Dean Townhouse is a satellite annex to 1009296 The Dean, a place I've only ever reviewed abruptly and negatively (although I was back to it afterwards for a work event that was fine). 

Being physically disconnected from The Dean; the Dean Townhouse has it's own bar licence, its own bar and its own reception.

Or, realistically, its own bar-and-reception; for one staff member services both, which are co-located in a small space to the front of the hotel. Much of their tasks during my visit involved telling people with reservations for Sophies that it was actually in the main hotel, two doors down.

It's a nice, little, bar; but there is another space in the hotel you might drink in - it has an actually quite large (website claims 169 seated) function room in the basement with its own bar. There is the unfortunately limited drinks selection that all former Press Up (this being Dean Hotel Group now) properties have, though.

1014216 Iveagh Garden Hotel

A lot of the new pub licences in the past decade have been hotels. I suspect if I worked out actual figures we'd find that there has been a noticeable reduction in "traditional" drinking spaces, a lot of replacement with hotel bars.

And these days, those hotel bars are often smaller than they used to be, and not really intended to be used by the public. Some notable cases of this include when I felt I had to buy dinner in 1014503 Hotel 7, or feeling like I'd snuck in to get to the bar in the original 1013980 Premier Inn

So it was quite a surprise to find a vast combined bar and restaurant in the fairly new Iveagh Garden Hotel; with no expectation that I was a hotel guest and no subterfuge required.

Harcourt Street hotels usually have larger, very public bars; albeit with exceptions (see next review for not large, and 1004979 Stephens Green Hotel for one were the bar is a bit buried), so maybe this shouldn't be a surprise.

There isn't a nightclub here, however; so I don't imagine there is huge amounts of outside trade coming in. Bar is reasonable for a hotel, in terms of range, price and atmosphere; and you don't need to get a door code to use the toilets like is quite common in smaller hotel bars.

1021439 Old Fashioned Sams

A huge and slightly rambling new bar and restaurant complex on an awkward site, running from a Harcourt Street basement out to a large, effectively new build structure on Montague Street and Montague Lane. The facades of the old buildings were retained, but the structure inside is new.

Ownership seems a bit confusing here too - the licence suggests a connection to 'Ohana, which is next door on the Harcourt Street side; but it is widely reported as being a Chris Kelly Group premises.

On the evening I attended, Dublin was particularly dead - something that continued for most of my visits in January and February - and the huge premises had a small enough number of staff, concentrating on the corner bar at the main entrance. There were still, however, enough staff to have a barman per customer - and presumably some in the kitchens too!

This is an interesting setup, well designed and well implemented - and should be busier by now than it was on a January afternoon.

1021705 Porters

A new pub that's trying very hard to be old; this pub replaced a bookies in late 2024; although it had had planning for quite a long time before that.

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It'll take a bit of time for the gold trim to weather, the new leather and fabrics to get a bit worn and even for the smell of fresh paint to abate before it looks "genuine" as an old pub, but they've done a decent job.

There isn't anything particularly different or noteworthy about the pub itself, sitting on a street with many well known pubs already - but that may be enough to keep it busy and let it get more bedded in.

1021114 Premier Inn, Newmarket Square

Premier Inn spent a long time with a single hotel in Ireland; but have expanded to a significant chain in Dublin in the space of a few years - with five open and one under construction as of the time of writing this post.

Two of them incorporate former licenced premises in to their sites, so maybe they could call them by the previous name rather than giving them potentially inaccurate locations? This one being "The Liberties" and the Georges Street one being "Temple Bar".

Well, the pub that sat under this hotel was the Red Lion; and the hotel that once stood where the Georges Street one was was, erm, the Red Lion.

Scratch that idea...

Anyway, the actual bar here is tiny, even for an Irish Premier Inn; but is open to the public. I'm not sure why you'd want to come in; but you can. Toilets need a door card to be negotiated from reception, so there's further issues with just popping in for a pint.

1015607 Roe & Co Distillery

Diageo's latest entry in to the world of Irish whiskey came surprisingly shortly after selling off their previous - they bought Bushmills in 2005 and sold it in November 2014; and then announced that they would convert the defunct James Gate power station in to a distillery in January 2017 - a gap of only 27 months!

The name is recovered from a previous distillery which Guinness purchased on its closure in 1927, with the brewery extending on to the site in the following years. I have Roe ancestors, and it's not that common a name - but mine were in rural Kildare (via Newark - they emigrated, came back, and emigrated again with some of the kids staying in Ireland) and these Roes appear to have come from Wexford; so I suspect no relation.

That old power station was converted - in part, there are still some areas with original power equipment, defunct but intact, in the building - to a distillery by 2019. Initially I believe you could only visit here on tours; but at least recently you are able to head in to the Powerhouse Bar without tour booking or reservation, assuming it isn't too busy. 

A nice space, featuring a model of the building it's in - something every pub should have, this is a cocktail and whiskey bar, but with a few Diageo beers available on draught or in bottle also.

Diageo do a good "brand home", as I believe the marketing department like to call this; and with both here and the Open Gate available to visit without a ticket, you can spend a good few hours in them in D8 without paying 1010753 Guinness Storehouse prices.

Price-controlled pints

The ever increasing price of a pint has received a lot of media coverage recently, with €10 being breached in tourist traps, and €7 now seen as quite normal in most of Dublin. There's a significant price range available for the same or similar products though, ranging from sub-€3 pints in suburban Wetherspoons branches up to those tenner pints already mentioned.

But imagine if pints were price capped? It sounds like some form of wonderland (for the drinker) or dystopia (for the publican); but even if you're under 30 it actually happened here in your life time. Sort of.

From the mid 1960s until just in to 2001, price restrictions were introduced for periods of months to years, preventing or capping increases; and often reverting the price of pints, and other drinks, to a previous price.

Legislative Basis

The basic legislation used for imposing these caps was the Prices Act 1958, amended by the Prices (Amendment) Act 1965 - a wide ranging piece of legislation which also relied on the Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1953. This allowed the control of prices on both national and local bases; for pretty much anything the Government of the day wished to do it to. Multiple Statutory Instruments a year were issued under these Acts until the late 1980s, with some - but far fewer - after that.

The general scheme of a liquor price restriction under the Prices Act was to define a date - somewhat prior to the announcement - which prices would be baselined at. A pub would be required to charge no more than that price for a period of time - either defined with an end date, or until the order was revoked.

This not only put a cap on the price of a pint, but also prevented pubs that were charging less than average from increasing their prices to match - at least while the restrictive order was in place. 

Control Orders

The first price controls came in, nationwide, in November 1965, reverting prices on all alcohol products, and canned/bottled soft drinks, in pubs to the price as of May 1st 1965 - with an allowance for duty increases to be passed on.

These prices were held until June 1966, where 1d (1/240th of a pound) a pint was added to a range of named products. 2d a glass was added to most spirits in October 1966. 

In April 1967, the baseline date was changed to April 1st, 1967 - I presume this was done to encompass products which had been introduced in the prior 2 years, as prices had otherwise been controlled during that time.

This order was revoked in December 1967. 

Local price orders applying to tens of individual areas, ranging from as small as Mohill, Co. Leitrim up to the size of Galway come in over the years after 1967. I did not locate a nationwide, or Dublin relevant, order during this time period however.

A nationwide order, for pints and spirits, was introduced in March 1977, using March 11th as the baseline. Increases of up to 2p a pint were allowed in September, and another 2p a pint in July 1978. These July 1978 prices were set as a new baseline; one which would hold until these regular orders ceased in 1985.

Regular increases of 1p or 2p a pint were legislated for, with a more major change coming in September 1979 when nearly all of Dublin (Backweston Park, e.g. Weston Aerodrome; and "any part of the Urban District of Bray" were excluded, although the latter didn't cross the county boundary as far as I was aware) received an extra increase of 1p.

By March 1982's changes, the total allowed increase was now 51p, or 49p outside Dublin. Considering -if we trust that chart that loads of pubs have -  the normal price of a pint was under 51p in July 1978, this price control legislation had allowed prices to more than double in under four years!

The final increase, in July 1985, allowed for 80p / 78p outside Dublin, to be added to the July 1978 baseline. 

Controls on lager and spirits were removed in October 1985, and on stout and ale when the order was fully revoked on December 10th 1985 - with only overnight notice!

After 1985

There was a brief control of Dublin prices, excluding Dun Laoghaire Borough, from July to November 1988, at 22nd July prices. This was the last Dublin price control for nearly 12 years; however from March to October 1997, pint and spirit prices were set to a December 1996 baseline *outside* the four Dublin counties.

Final Hurrah

The most recent price controls were instituted for a brief period in 2000/2001, with pint prices rising rapidly. This was blamed on multiple factors - high inflation (5.6% for 2000), the introduction of a minimum wage for the first time in 2000, high economic growth (9.4% for 2000) and concerns about price gouging during the then ongoing Euro changeover process. Prices had been increasing for some time, with the first saber-rattling about introducing price caps being in December 1998.

Eventually these were introduced. SI 222/2000, set pub prices to those charged in that pub on May 15th, 2000 for a period for 6 months from July 6th, 2000. 

On expiry of those provisions, prices increased immediately in many pubs, and despite the implications that it would be reimposed, within months the Minister had decided not to.

Future Controls?

The Prices Act was revoked in 2007 on the introduction of the Consumer Protection Act 2007; which provides the ability to set maximum prices during a state of emergency only.

The Crypt: S4512 Captain Americas

After finishing (well, I say finishing - I keep finding ones I've left out) my RetroReview series of pubs which I visited before 2016 and then the NecroReview series of places which had fully closed down by the time I got to do their RetroReview I'm left with a tiny handful of writeups to do that are pubs which were entirely off the register before 2016.

Pubs can be closed and remain on the register for years, indeed one of the places I've given a review on the basis that it's permanently closed still holds its licence (N2030 The Good Bits); and the mid/late 2010s financial recovery reopened a lot of closures from the crash, so very few pubs that I've been to have gone for good. I started drinking in Dublin's pubs in ~2003, and legally in 2005; and I'm actually surprised by how few were off the register within the first 13 years. At the moment I think there's only two.

So we're starting with the only one where I have a licence number on file - I was able to get six prior years of registers from Revenue's Statistics office. 

The only Dublin branch of Captain Americas to have closed, that I'm aware of, this opened in 2007 in the never successful public plaza outside 1008408 Glashaus Hotel and seems to have shut down around 2011. I worked in the area from 2007 and would end up here occasionally for work lunches or events

If you've been to the Blanchardstown branch, it was quite like that.

S4514 Arcadia

Some pubs push their food offerings as their main thing on social media - they do make for more unique photos than pictures of pints, lists of match kick-offs/throw-ins or press photos of the main pub entertainers that go around - but few places do it to the extent of Arcadia. Someone involved here considers themselves quite the food photographer - and they're certainly good at it.

In a shopping centre / apartment development in Kiltipper, this was originally the "Kiltipper Cafe Bar", a name that probably indicated the food focus a bit better; but changed a few years ago.

When arriving here, I stood for a number of minutes at the "please wait to be seated sign"; but it appears, like my own local, that if you're coming in to drink you really don't need to do this - the seats behind the bar seem to be fair game for drinkers; and I was directed to sit wherever I liked. (They were selling a gift card to someone in front of me, hence the delay).

The pub was busy, the food looked decent and there's a big enough selection of drinks albeit all macro - I had my first pint of Murphys outside of Cork in about a decade as a result.

Kiltipper is a bit of a pain to get to from anywhere other than along it's single bus route, which was even having sporadic cancellations on the day of my visit; so I don't think I'll ever be back here; but it's ticked.

RetroReview: S3727 Flight Club (as Samsara)

I was scheduling this ahead as a NecroReview, but realised that the as-yet impending, but now long since happened, reopening of this premise as Flight Club would make the status inaccurate. It has re-become somewhere open that I visited pre-2016 rather than somewhere dead.

Indeed, I visited there in about 2007; for a merger party / staff meet-up for my then employer; and I'd never been back since. I cannot remember particularly much about it. 

The premises was, at that time, Samsara; or "SamSara at La Stampa" more specifically; the hotel having taken the name of its restaurant for some time before becoming The Dawson.

There were plans to redevelop the hotel along with the adjoining Royal Irish Automobile Club premises which lead to a decision not to reopen Sams after the pandemic; but these fell through in 2022. The hotel has since reopened as The Dawson Hostel - not a hotel; and the bar as Flight Club - a darts themed pub, something a bit odd as a concept considering there's plenty of darts pubs around as it is, including some with darts boards big enough even for me to hit.

S1994 Killinarden House

We continue a series of pubs in what I can only really describe as "suburban Tallaght" here - in the overall, huge, area that people think of as Tallaght; but not in the village - where I ticked the pubs off ages ago.

Without attempting to rehash the history of Tallaght, much better documented elsewhere - with that blog having spawned a book which I've yet to find on-sale and may have trouble finding as it appears to be out of stock in many places - I've always found the rapid development of the housing areas around Tallaght to be very interesting. 

A primary reason for this is that my parents, in one of the many housing crises gone past, had their first home in one of the many poor ideas that get thrown around during a crisis - a trailer park - outside Tallaght village. They managed to sell the 'house' on before it rotted away, and I believe the site is now under the M50 interchange; but they were amongst the earliest of the tens of thousands of families that moved to Tallaght in the 70s and 80s.

I also worked in Tallaght and latterly Citywest for a good number of years, but relatively poor bus connections back then meant I never really went beyond the village. This has changed, and that is the main reason for this run - and a future run to come - of Tallaght area pub visits.

So, on to the pub - this was built in the late 70s as part of that rapid development; but unlike some of the Tallaght pubs, it isn't a giant barn. Instead it resembles the 50s and 60s suburban shopping district pubs that much of the rest of Dublin have; although the shop section of the site looks to have been redeveloped in the 00s with apartments above.

Inside, it is still a fairly big pub though; with the lounge having a view in to the kitchens and a stage for the various performances held here. There's a piano on that stage, a piano which at the time of my visit was being played / played with by a kid.

Normally, this would cause a discordant clanking enough to drive anyone out of a pub; but from what I could tell, the kid was watching a basic instructional video on YouTube while playing with the piano - result being something almost approaching music. Still not quite my idea of a relaxing setting for a pint though!

Revisited Pubs February 2025

February was a month of very limited mobility after a back injury, which happened after getting these three:

N2404 Grand Central - convenient location after finding somewhere else closed
S0083 Beer Temple - somewhere less, well, bland than the previous one
1004031 Bison Bar / Workmans Club - missed a bus by seconds, and this pub is beside the bus stop

NecroReview: N1958 Becketts Hotel

The second of the accidentally dug up missed pubs, this was missed as it has a Kildare address on the licence file; but is not in Kildare - it is very much in Dublin.

It's also very much closed. Branded more as a restaurant than a hotel, albeit it did always have rooms, this did not reopen after the pandemic. 

I was here for a number of family dinners over the years, at least one of which I wasn't driving for; with the last one I remember being in 2014.

1020980 Glasshouse

This visit was in September, but it appears that I forgot to add it to the queue at the time and only noticed when I wanted to actually link to the writeup!

A "glass box restaurant" - apparently, that's a thing these days - the ground floor here is primarily a bar area and you do not need to eat to get in here. Replacing, albeit not directly, the second Harrys Bar; named after Harry Crosbie and connected with the 3Arena/Point Depot across the square; this is part of the development of the Exo building and brings a bit more life to the area on non-gig evenings.

The interior is rather full of plants, and lights, which does bring the idea that you may be drinking in either a garden centre or a lighting showroom at times.

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In the ranking of bars around here, it's an improvement on drinking in 10180000 Beckett Locke, but I'd still try get in to 1015426 Rubys

Licence register update, March 2025

 Two small changes for March, nothing massively major though:

Reappearances

N0055 74 Talbot / Mother Kellys, Talbot Street - reappears after a while away.  Still the same operator - the Irish Craft Whiskey Company - who have held the licence for some time (since late 2021), but re-appearing may indicate movement. This pub closed in March 2020 and has not operated since, but was on the register most of the time.

N0869 Donaghmede Inn - this pub also closed March 2020, and got within days of reopening after a refurb, but didn't. It was re-listed for rent yesterday.

S1575 Annie Mays

For a year and a bit, this was the nearest Dublin pub to my house that I hadn't visited - but the BusConnects W6 route was finally stitched together, and it's now fairly quick to get there.

It's also managed (and I believe part owned, at least according to the Irish Times) by one of my near neighbours, so I'm happy I have nothing bad to say about the pub - because Eugene knows where I live! 

The only pub left in Newcastle, after fires at McEvoys and Pollyhops; this is a large enough pub as befits its position as the only watering hole in a large enough town.

Formerly The Gondola, quite a bit of cash has been spent on the pub since the change of ownership; improving the external appearance and giving it a pretty nice interior. There's a quieter front bar section, where I think I was immediately noticed by the management on entering, but as someone he'd recognise from his previous pubs rather than as some form of reviewer, thankfully - and a very large lounge/dining room out back.

Bus stop is right outside, so this is a convenient place to pop in if you're passing on the W6.

NecroReview: 1001897 Bunker

Some work on cleaning up lists made me realise that two premises were left of my "pubs visited pre 2016" list that have since closed. In this case, it was temporarily off the licence register when I made that list.

Bunker is yet another dead club space in Dublin; but it was only this temporarily - this was the second generation Harry's Bar; the bar area of the 3Arena/Point Depot, and echoing an original Harrys Bar in the original Point.

The bar was completely underground, accessed from either its own staircase entrance or through one of the exits from the underground carpark of the Point Square. It was built to be in the basement of the Watchtower building; which never got above ground level.

A dark and slightly awkwardly laid out place to work as a club space, it still got used as such due to the hideous lack of them in Dublin. 

The venue has been physically dug up as part of the construction of the Exo Building and 1020980 Glasshouse.

1002238 Jobstown House

One of the most historic suburban pubs, this large and nicely appointed old roadhouse has even survived a CPO for the development of the large housing estates that surround it.

Owned by the same family for three generations, the pub walls are covered with various historic artefacts. As is often the case, it is some documentation that caught my eye first

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But I was interested in what appeared to be a painting of a *different* pub on the wall in the bar - I couldn't surreptitiously get a photo, but it did not resemble the current or any former form of the Jobstown House that I've seen. A strange thing to have.

NecroReview: S4466 Odessa

Back when I worked in radio, we had a Christmas party here. At the same time, a rival radio group had their party on another floor and we strongly suspected they were sneaking down to use our 'free' (to a point) bar by claiming plausible deniability if asked if they were at "the radio party"

Other than that I don't remember much. The premises closed for a refit quite some time ago, with a small hotel planned; but this has dragged ridiculously. The surrounding buildings, on both sides of the road, are or have been re/developed as hotels in the interim so there must be some demand for it - possibly it's just slightly too small.

Closed For The Duration - Licenced, but never open, pubs of the last decade

As we enter the tenth calendar year of doing this - I started keeping my spreadsheet and posting writeups in July 2016; although I'd been deliberately trying new pubs out for a while before that - I'm beginning to run out of places to visit.

I've previously written about this, and reduced the frequency of posting, and the end of my writeups of pre-2016 pubs soon will probably lead to a further cut in frequency, although a scavenger hunt of missing writeups has bought a few weeks worth of content.

During those ten years, a number of premises have remained licenced the entire time, but never opened their doors for trade at any point; with a few more where I could have purchased alcohol but would be very unlikely to be allowed consume it on the premises.

There's some mythology that a pub has to be open one day a year to keep its licence, and indeed I've had this repeated to me *by a licence holder* in recent years. This is not correct and I'm not quite sure where it came from. These pubs have held their licence, for far longer than the 5 year lapse period that was introduced in the early 60s; and could in theory reopen - if their fire certs were valid, and in one case, the building even really existed!

I'm going to record those here, with a bit of explanation where possible. Some of these are going to be getting vaguely in to hypothesis, as the future intent for the licences is very unclear.

N0229 Dolly Heffernans, Blanchardstown

Will it be a hotel? Will it be a nursing home? Neither of these proposals has actually progressed, with the hotel plans having first surfaced in 2006. This once rural pub now sits incongruously opposite a large car dealer and within a growing industrial estate.

N1223 Laurence Lounge, Ballyfermot

An early 2000s rebuild, with retail and apartments above, on the site of an older pub; this pub has been shut for the entire period of my interest with no obvious happenings at all

N0202 Millennium, Benburb Street

Planning permission has been refused to replace this pub with suites for the almost adjacent Aisling Hotel

N0877 Phoenix Park Racecourse

This licence appears to be registered to no premises whatsoever, seeing as the remaining pavilion of the Racecourse was demolished a very long time ago. Still held by the developers, my assumption is that is it being kept valid for transfer to a future pub on the development site; although to what building it is assigned currently is a mystery. 

Even after the racecourse had closed, "The END" nightclub in the pavilion continued to operate, but I believe it had closed significantly before the beginning of redevelopment in 2004.

N1097 Conways, Parnell Street

Rotting away, Conways closed in slightly murky circumstances including claims it had "lost its licence", but the licence remains; and the pub will apparently be renovated and reopen if the Dublin Central development ever finishes.

N2152 Barcode, Clontarf

A nightclub that targetted younger (legal age) drinkers, and did the "drink while playing sports" thing that is becoming the theme of 2025, twenty years before. But it remained somewhere I never visited.

Planning troubles contributed to the clubs closure in 2010; and nothing has been heard since - but the licence remains.

S0218 Houricans, Leeson Street

This closed very close to the time that I started the blog, and has remained licenced. At the time of writing this, it is finally up for sale.

S3504 TramCo, Rathmines

There are plans afoot to renovate and rebuild the hotel here and reopen, but this sometimes controversial nightclub still sits empty. Proposals will reduce the space from vast to just a normal hotel bar

Special Category I - off-licences using pub licences

S1349 Spar, Baggot Street - the former Henry Grattan pub, the signage of which appeared during renovation works. 

N0104 Parnell Street Off-Licence - formerly Forum and a variety of other names, this has traded solely as an off-licence for almost 20 years.

Special Category II - Out of action throughout this decade, but visited by me prior

N2030 The Good Bits, Store Street - written up as a NecroReview in January, The Good Bits closed in about 2011; but remains on the licence register to this day

S0398 Dunnes Stores, Blackrock - I visited this when it was a TGI Fridays, but it was closed for an incredibly long time and reopened as a supermarket.

S4467 Croughs

This pub is in an area of Tallaght that seems to be a bit difficult to define - Google tells me it's in Jobstown, except sometimes it says Whitestown. The adjacent shopping centre is named after Fortunestown, but has the Springfield post office in it. The Credit Union nearby just calls itself Tallaght West.

I believe, from reading newspaper reports and also a Valuation Tribunal report, that the opening of the pub was possibly just as difficult, with a many year planning battle, going from the early 90s to when the pub actually opened.

A fairly standard, quite large suburban pub; the potential catchment area here is quite large but, as pointed out, in the Valuation Tribunal report, there is local competition from sports club bars. Possibly as a result of this, the pub was not incredibly busy when I visited.

32 Pints - The Adrian Chiles Challenge

Adrian Chiles has written about his desire to have a pint in every county in Ireland - something similar to my intent here with pubs in Dublin, but something even more logistically difficult. He brings this desire up as he mentions a couple trying to visit every pub in Britain, something I would find financially, logistically and probably liver impossible to match in Ireland.

Ignoring the temptation to try visit every pub in the entire country and just focus on one per county; I decided to see how far along I was already. 

I can remember 20, so more than half, less than two thirds; but I have little intent to push on further. I picked up a lot of these while working as a field engineer, over a decade ago, and that's why its extensively hotel bars. LOI matches provide a few here too.

My last additions to the list were Westmeath, in August 2024; Offaly in April 2022 and Sligo in August 2021; so there isn't a rapid gain rate here.

Going to go for a quick list, including a/the premises when I remember

Dublin - about 900 different premises so far, documented nearly in full on this site

Kildare - multiple across the county, considering I live here

Meath - Citynorth Hotel is the only one I can remember confidently. I think I've had pints in the newer hotel in Ashbourne too

Louth - some pub near Oriel Park

Antrim - multiple pubs in Belfast, Portrush

Down - The Coach nightclub in Banbridge

Derry - Magherboy House Hotel just over the county line in Portrush.

Donegal - tens of premises including a project to visit Every Pub In The Rosses

Sligo - multiple premises including the Swagman

Mayo - various hotels in Westport and Ballina

Galway - multiple premises including Tigh Neachtains 

Kerry - various hotels in Listowel

Cork - various hotels and bars including the Old Oak

Waterford - Harveys Bar near-ish the RSC

Wexford - various hotels and bars including Simon Lambert & Sons

Wicklow - multiple premises including Royal Hotel in Bray before a match in the Carlisle Grounds

Carlow - The Foundry nightclub

Kilkenny - various hotels and bars including Matt the Millers before a match in Buckley Park

Offaly - most of the pubs in Tullamore 

Westmeath - various hotels and bars in Athlone including Dead Centre

NecroReview: S3757 Browns Barn, Citywest

A barn - a stables apparently used for the Bianconi horse coach services - converted in the main in to a barn of a pub and restaurant; this place was a regular location for work lunches and even the odd work party when I worked in Citywest.

I still have a pint glass that a work colleague took from here when heading to a taxi home; and then left in my house before getting back to his.

I don't think that pint glass is why they closed; though, but instead the prevailing economy of the time and possibly a change in where drivers stopped for food - this was really more of a restaurant than a pub, but was quite close to the city, and became quicker in time when the Newlands Cross upgrade finished.

The licence was sold out to the Clontarf Baths restaurant, which itself isn't trading right now (at time of writing), but has been sold to NolaClan and I expect will reopen by this Summer. 

S1581 Muldowneys

I've previously commented on it being a tad odd that two of the four pubs in Rathcoole are thatched. Well, it turns out that Muldowneys also was - at least until gutted by fire around New Year 1961/2

Irish Press, December 30th 1961

For some reason, I'm struggling to write particularly much about this pub - it's nice, it was fairly quiet, but it wasn't particularly memorable. Usually the less I remember the better the pub is as a general "local" I guess.