How Many Pubs *Are* There In Dublin?

Quick answer: Nobody knows. But every figure you've seen is wrong

Long answer: Nobody knows, but here's why. And I'm going to give you an estimate that's much higher than any figure you see elsewhere. And it'll still be wrong, in some ways, to some (or all) people - and that's fine.

Let's go through some of the claimed figures, and the huge range within:

The Dublin Pubspotters Guide book, as used by Yuya Abe to attempt to visit every pub in the city (which he did, quicker than I ever will - albeit using a different list of pubs), claims there are "over 900" pubs. I have this book at home and know that it lists many pubs which had been demolished by the time of the books publication, as well as a small number of places that are not pubs. However, this figure is the closest to reality; as it's based on physically counting all the actual buildings, basically.

AI Slop machines, and the dying ruins of search engines, usually tell you there's 772 pubs in Dublin. This is a figure that appears to date from 2018, from the "AIB Pub Outlook Report", a document which I now cannot find; and which probably didn't specify it's sources. 

DIGI gave a figure of 759 in 2022.

My guess that both of these figures are taken from the Revenue licence register, counting 7 Day Ordinary pub licences - but I don't consider this valid for many reasons, which I'll go through below.

At the other end of the scale we get this nonsense number. Lovin Dublin cite a UK report claiming there are 251 pubs, and give a population figure of 1.26m for that - so they mean the city and most of its suburbs in that case. The data for that report is apparently Tripadvisor, which certainly does not list every pub (and in some cases lists things that are not pubs, as if they are). It is also likely only core city entries; despite giving the population for a much wider area.

There's two main reasons nobody knows the answer to this, and arguably a third that's less of a main reason, but probably has the largest impact.

What Is A Pub?

This first issue is pretty important in deciding a number. Are you only counting places with a Publicans (7 Day Ordinary) licence as "a pub"? 

If you do, you're excluding some of Dublin's most famed bars like the Horseshoe in the Shelbourne; the Cellar in the Merrion and the Library in the Central/Hoxton Hotels, because these have Publicans Ordinary (Hotel) (Public Bar) licences, as you might guess from the name. There are also some former hotels that are operating solely as pubs, but retail a Hotel licence.

You are also excluding the small, but valid, number of pubs with Railway Refreshment Rooms licences; a number of premises that absolutely look, act and feel like pubs that have Publicans Ordinary (Theatre) licences; as well as gig venues. Plenty of people consider some of these to be pubs

You might not want to count *all* of these; but I could direct your attention to the number of restaurants, off-licences and even a university conference centre with 7 Day Ordinary licences - if you start cutting a category, you need to look at all categories.

I wrote about this issue back in 2020, when we were pondering the future of pub opening at all.

How Do We Count Them?

The second major issue is that there's no solid source for where to get a figure from. As you'll have seen above, there's lots of different figures given, with very different sources.

The LVA occasionally state a figure for the number of pubs in Dublin; but they are stating this from estimates based on their membership.

While trying to distance themselves from the actions in a Publicans (Theatre) licenced premises in 2020; the LVA stated that they don't represent hotel bars, restaurants or theatres (see tweet embedded in the previous link) - although one of their board members at that time only had business interests in hotel bars and supermarkets; and I'm pretty certain I've seen LVA plaques in a hotel bar before. 

They believe that 75% of pubs in Dublin (and Bray, which is traditionally LVA and not VFI) are members; but don't give figures to back this up. Their figures are usually in the 700-ish range, so they are correcting for this; but will still not get a perfect figure.

So lets just use Revenue's figures - the file is public, right?

The file right now shows 775 Publican (7 Day Ordinary), 49 Publican Ordinary (Theatre), 136 Publican Ordinary (Hotel), 5 Railway Refreshment Rooms and a handful of other types that I consider to be valid to some extent; to a total of 979

But that figure isn't right either. The file shows pubs which have renewed their licence at a given month end, and cannot be taken to be a list of every pub. Some trading pubs do not appear on the licence for years at a time.

Also, the licencing year runs October to September; so while the file right now contains a full years worth of renewals; the file next month will probably be missing 40% of the pubs.

There's also multiple pubs on the register that have been closed for years, or occasionally even decades. These renewals are usually processed immediately too, so they'll be on a partial register from November and all. Do you want to count these?

What Is Dublin?

This one may sound like I've suffered a recent head injury until I explain it...

If you cut the Revenue licence file on "Dublin", you miss a handful of premises which Revenue have decided are in different counties, but actually aren't.

In terms of trading premises that I consider to be pubs, this is currently one pub Revenue believe is in Meath, two that it believes are in Kildare. There was formerly one it believed to be in Wicklow (the Blue Gardenia), but this has permanently closed; another one in Kildare that may reopen; and also the bar in Weston Airport if you wish to count Aerodrome licences - this is also actually not in Kildare, although much of the runway is.

So how many *are* there?

Nobody knows. Didn't I tell you that already? But I did say I'd give my figure.

My running register file at home, which includes trading pubs temporarily missing from the Revenue list *and* the pubs in Not Kildare and Not Meath, is currently exactly 1000. It has been as high as 1012 before. But this list includes premises that are very, very closed or very, very inaccessible for drinking (e.g. now an off-licence), which I have marked off as undoable. Taking these out and we're at about 965

I actually wanted to call this blog "1000 Pubs in Dublin", but in 2016, the file was only in the high 900s; before I got old files from Revenue to locate numbers for some trading yet missing pubs.

Depending on exactly how you want to exclude places that really don't look and feel like pubs, but have licence types that are more like them; and dropping off places that are long-term closed and unlikely to reopen, I'll give you about 850 as a figure. It varies week by week as places close, open or reopen. Some of that 850 you will still probably not consider to be a pub, but they're open and trading and you can get a drink there.

You might need to buy a ticket, or buy a meal; or haul yourself to a hotel in a business park; but they have Publicans licences or one kind or another, or something damn close to it.

Not Actually Pubs (or Nightclubs) - Wine and Special Restuarant Licences

A very occasional question I get about entries on the map is why very few of the famed nightclubs of old in Dublin are actually on it.

There's a very simple answer to this - they weren't pubs. Mostly only those in hotels ever had conventional publican style licences originally; albeit some oddities do pop up like the Olympic Ballroom having had a pub licence in its latter days (1995-2000).

Indeed, loads of them sold no alcohol of any description; with those that did often being limited to selling only wine. This wine was often of exceptionally poor quality and exceptionally expensive.

To this day; there are a number of places that people consider to be bars which are trading under the same legislation that these clubs did in the past. I won't be naming names, lest one of them having actually got a pub licence that isn't Revenue listed; but I will try explain the actual legislation and reasoning for why it was done in the past.

The Not Pubs and Not Clubs have one of two categories of licence:

Special Restaurant Licence. 

Introduced in 1988 after much opposition by publicans unions, this allows a premises to serve all types of alcohol via table service only; before, during, and for 30 minutes after a substantial meal - that term we remember from the pandemic. They may not have bar service, and they may not serve any alcohol to people who are not dining.

There are 195 of these in Dublin as of the 2024/5 licencing year ending. These range from chain restaurants (Milano, Zizzi, Wagamama, Daata all have these for some premises) through to museum cafes, and plenty of conventional restaurants. There's also a few obvious cases of places that brand themselves as bars, though!

Interestingly, 55 of these have old-style licence numbers, meaning they are >18 years in business, albeit possibly not always as that specific name. In an industry where 18 years in business in ancient, I'm slightly surprised by this. 

The first application I can find a record for is for the King Sitric in Howth, applying in September 1988; and indeed this has a licence number of N0002SR, with N0001SR being lost to time; not in any licence file I have stored. 

The early applications for Special Restaurant Licences published in the newspapers at the time are effectively a list of the famed restaurants of Dublin of the time - as well as the King Sitric, we see Beaufield Mews, Le Coq Hardi, the original location of Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud, Blakes (which latterly had a full pub licence), Quo Vadis, and the still extant FXBs on Pembroke Street all publishing notices in the early weeks of the new system.

Wine Retailers On Licence

This type of licence, introduced in 1860 under the Refreshment Houses (Ireland) Act, allows the sale of wine, and fortified wine under 23%, for consumption on or off the premises to any adults. It places no restrictions on the circumstances of that consumption on premises - e.g. no need for food; but does not allow a public bar - so table service is officially required.

There are 895 of these in Dublin, more than the number of conventional Publicans (Ordinary) licence holders. Most are restaurants, with some wine bars; and also some potentially inexplicable cases of holders of Publicans (Ordinary) or Publicans (Hotel) (Public Bar) licences also having this licence. 

These types of licences are not transferable to a new owner - which is not really a problem when they can be created easily - so there are very few old licences on the registers. One of the oldest licences on the register is for a guesthouse in Glasnevin which does not even mention that it offers wine.

There is an additional layer that can be added to this licence, which is the granting of a Restaurant Certificate by the local courts. This allows for the sale of beer, via table service only, with a meal. It does not allow the sale of spirits. This was added in 2000, and was not the case prior to this. 

No online public record of Restaurant Certificates exists, as this is a court procedure rather than a Revenue procedure - this also applies to General Exemption Orders, aka Early Houses for instance.

Why?

That various premises, including many older nightclubs, use or used these types of licences explains why they aren't on my map. But why did the premises use them?

There's a multitude of reasons for this, relating primarily to how Ireland, to this day, has no effective concept of a nightclub licence, working as we are still with the 2000 modernisation of the 1927 Intoxicating Liquor Act for most of our legislation.

What we do have are Special Exemption Orders - "late licences", another court procedure with no online records; which can now be obtained by conventionally licenced premises, for a wide range of circumstances, albeit with considerable cost and legal effort. 

These are also something that has been around for the life of the current licencing system, but they were extensively restricted under Section 5 of the  Intoxicating Liquor Act, 1927. 

This limited their availability to hotels and restaurants (so not conventional pubs), in County Boroughs - effectively cities - and not at any time on a Sunday. This made them effectively useless except for events in city hotels, which is why quite a large proportion of nightclubs were in hotels until recent years.

The requirement to be in a County Borough was deleted in 1943, the Orders were made available for licenced holiday camps in 1952, and further extended to "ballrooms" in 1962, with the requirement to serve a substantial meal in those introduced then.

The restrictions on premises type, the ban on Sunday operation, and requirement for a substantial meal were both deleted in 2000. 

These regulations drove non-hotel nightclubs to operate as wine retailers instead; although it didn't really give them consent to serve alcohol late without a Special Exemption Order and the requirement for food - the Refreshment House Act limited service to 11pm. 

As far as I can tell - 165 year old legislation with lots of amendments is quite hard to follow - enforcement of closing hours for wine only premises that were not serving food, as many of the famed Leeson Street clubs did, was just incredibly weak.

Currently - since 2000 - the Restaurant Certificate allows sale, under restaurant rules (table service, with food) for an hour after conventional closing time; and this is used by some of the last remaining late wine bars that exist. It also allows service from midday to ten on Christmas Day, something astoundingly rarely used!

October 2025 Revenue register update and year-on-year cleanup

This was both a very quick to process update as very little changed; and very long - as this is the last file of the licencing year, so any pubs missing for the entire year* are removed from my master list and demoted on my maps to closed; and I also update registered company names etc on said master list

That said, it's the smallest year on year change list I think I've ever ended up with - and a lot of it is still sweeping up pandemic era closures.  

I'm also going to use this post to announce that I've decided to drop passenger vessel licences - that is boats - from my target list. I had already excluded Irish Ferries and Stena ships on the same basis that I've excluded planes; but realistically you can't just go for a drink on any of the boats, so there isn't any reason to include them. N2741 Cill Airne, aka "The Boat", has a conventional pub licence.

*if the pub is actually still open, I leave it there - sometimes renewals don't get posted to the file 

Monthly changes: 

New:

1022516 Moxy Hotel, East Wall - new hotel appearing on the register only days after it opened.

Reappearance:

N2588 CHQ Building, Georges Dock - this was the licence for Ely CHQ, but now appears to be assigned to the entire building, which is becoming a food market in the near future.

Year-on-Year changes

Additions

N0282 Michael Collins, Rush - I'm pretty sure this is still closed. This got re-added in August but I missed it.

Removals:

1003456 Shipwright, Ringsend - burnt out, but was unlikely to ever reopen due to being converted to accommodation
1013026 Dominick Inn, Dominick Street - never reopened after the pandemic 
1018936 Napper Tandy, Merrion Row - never reopened after the pandemic, although it was relicenced in the interim with a new number
N0022 Hill 16, Gardiner Street - likely to reopen soon enough as works have been ongoing for a while, but not renewed in 2025 
N0185 Index (formerly Voodoo Lounge), Arran Quay - erratic opening history in recent decades means this will likely return
N0273 Smyths, Donabate - replacement pub may turn up in the redevelopment here
S0004 Xico, Baggot Street - closed quietly in late 2023/early 2024

 

Revisited pubs: September 2025

A month interrupted by other beer events - the Beoir AGM and the Dublin Beer Festival - so there was only a single new visit, and limited revisits despite having made a specific aim to return to places I had neglected for decades

S0018 Bowes - deliberate revisit after 20 years

S0164 Horse Show House - another one of those

S0172 The Waterloo - more for phone charging than for pints, but some of those were consumed along the way

N0063 Cumiskeys - to monitor my personal inflation calculator, the pint of Beamish in here. Reported to me at €5.00 in April, it was still €5.00 in late September.

N0097 Underdog - rarely a month goes by without this appearing

S0083 Beer Temple - another fairly common stop.

Revisit 20 years on: S0164 Horse Show House

I mentioned this in my RetroReview of this pub - my first, and until now, only visit here was a few weeks before my 18th birthday, when they served me while I was wearing my school uniform. 

During the Young Scientist which was being held across the road, so the area was *full* of teenagers.

That said, I've been the same (abnormally tall for Ireland) height since I was about 13, I've been able to grow a beard if I wanted to since about the same time; so the sum total of places that refused me service underage is one (Pravda, now the Grand Social)

There's two bits of context that are probably more important in why they didn't even think I was that young - with the jumper off, my secondary schools uniform looked like a bank clerk uniform; and AIB's HQ was next door to the pub at the time. And I'd ordered food.

So I'm letting them off for not checking my ID in 2005; and I'm pretty certain there's a statute of limitations on the offences!

Unlike the first of these long-term revisit writeups, this pub has changed quite a lot - internally and externally - with modern and well appointed outdoor areas (uncommon as early as 9 months after the smoking ban when I first visited) and a recent interior refit also.

Revisit 20 years on: S0018 Bowes

My previous post her set out an intent to try revisit some pubs that I'd last been to over 18 years ago; or least where the last time I can remember was that long ago.

In the case of Bowes, I cannot recall being in here since meeting someone to watch a football match in 2005. I wrote the RetroReview in 2020 when there was planning being attempted to merge the pub through the former Irish Yeast Company building behind; and thankfully this plan seems to be dead.

As you'd expect with a pub with a Victorian interior, very little has changed in the 20 years since my last visit. The TVs are newer, and there's various craft beers on the taps and in the fridges; and a lot of the smaller distilleries they have whiskey from didn't exist in 2005 - but the fundamentals are still the same. 

This is a nice pub in a very central location. I'm not sure why I wasn't in here in the past 20 years; but I'll try make sure I get back in before 2045. 

Aged Visits - revisiting pubs last visited >=18 years ago

As I'm all but out of places to tick off - and entirely out of conventional pubs until some open or reopen - I've decided that I should try figure out which pubs I've not been to for the longest and potentially revisit those, to update what are often extremely outdated "RetroReview" postings here.

I don't have dates and times for visits prior to starting the blog a bit over 9 years ago, and recording my re-visits from late 2019, so there's nearly 15 years and just under 100 pubs that haven't been recorded as visited on here, other than the RetroReview

Rather than post the full list here, and tie myself to actually visiting them all, I'm going to list a few places I know are approaching, at or beyond the 20 year mark since my last visit; and which I'll vaguely try to get to at some point in the next few years or so. I am deliberately leaving out ticketed venues (race tracks, theatres, cinemas)

* Hoxton Hotel (former Central Hotel) - I believe I was last here in 2004. It's reopening soon, which is a good excuse to visit
* The Bridge 1859 - 2005
* Horse Show House - 2005

These three above were all last drunk in before I was 18, so definitely deserve a legal revisit! The rest below are all a bit later; but still last visited so long ago, that someone born on the day would now be old enough to drink:

* Bowes, Fleet Street - circa 2005
* Fagans, Drumcondra - circa 2005/6
* Kennedys, Drumconda - circa 2005/6
* The Old Storehouse - circa 2005, when it was Eamon Dorans
* Quinns, Drumcondra - 2006. Also reopening soon
* IFI, Eustace Street - not sure I've been here since 2006. Yes, this is a cinema, but the restaurant and bar are open to all
* West County Hotel, Chapelizod - circa 2006
* The Old Boro, Swords - not been here since 2006, well before it was Wetherspooned
* The Betsy, Swords - 2006, as the Slaughtered Lamb
* Intercontinental Hotel - 2006, as the Four Seasons
* Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan - 2006, as the Stillorgan Park Hotel
* Mulligans, Abbey Street - 2007, as Madigans
* Madigans, North Earl Street - 2007
* The Grattan, Grattan Crescent - ~2007, as the Village Inn

N1205 Abbey Theatre

The "Serious Theatre" stage of ticking off had already begun a few months ago in Smock Alley, and has now continued to our National Theatre. 

My specific visit was to see a play on the smaller, subterranean Peacock stage. This features a small bar area which sells wine and bottled beers/ciders, primarily from independent Irish producers. The ticket check is after the bar area, so you could probably get away with ticking this one off without actually buying a ticket... but don't say I suggested that! You will not get in to the actual play without a ticket, however.

In terms of the grand old Dublin theatres and their history, the Abbey is a relative newcomer; having been opened in 1904; however it opened in the space of the former Mechanics Theatre - itself about a hundred years older. Only the Gate, founded 1928, is newer amongst the long-standing operations.

That old building was significantly damaged by fire in 1951, causing the Abbey to move to Pearse Street for a decade and a half, before returning to a then striking Michael Scott designed building on the original site in 1966.

Unfortunately, this building is now increasingly unsuitable for modern expectations. For instance, the Luas, which opened over 20 years ago, can be heard passing while inside the Peacock - as the room was not built with sufficient sound or vibration isolation to cope with trams that wouldn't arrive for almost 40 years; and which have got longer and more frequent even since.

A replacement building has been discussed since the 1990s; with a larger plot around the existing building being slowly assembled - this explaining the empty and derelict state of many of the buildings reaching from the theatre to the quays. Recent public progress on the new plans have been effectively non-existent, but the theatres 2025-2030 strategy does still plan for a new building. If this goes ahead, expect the Abbey to drop off any lists of licences for a number of years.

I still have double digit figures of theatres left to visit - attending plays had never been my thing, only certain venues amongst the serious/grand theatres also do music or comedy performances; and a lot of the suburban theatres (each County Council having at least one) are rather inaccessible without driving. So theatres make up the single largest grouping in my outstanding visits, and will obviously make up much of my future reports.

Revenue register update, September 2025

I still have no further writeups to post, so another routine posts gets moved to being a scheduled post! 

Reasonably large update to process this month, albeit a lot of it is just renewals of extant premises. However, there's still a few changes of note:

New:

1022169 Lane7, Chatham Street - already visited
1022390 CitizenM Hotel, Bride Street - already visited

Renumbered: 

1021887 Plunkets, Middle Abbey Street - formerly N1939

Removals:

1009401 Citywest Hotel, Citywest - this hotel has been purchased by the State and is extremely unlikely to ever reopen

Revisited pubs, August 2025

With a current pub writeup backlog of zero - everywhere I've been since 2005 is written up, as far as I know - the revisit post for August is being promoted to the status of being a regular scheduled post for the first time in many years. 

N0097 Underdog - a regular that needs no explanation

S3103 Christchurch Inn - one stop of a few on a Sunday afternoon wander around the city

1014121 John O'Dwyers - and another

S0198 Cassidys - and another

N0082 McGraths - another regular

S0106 Tapped - with two hours to kill before a work event in the next-but-one entry, I had time to visit a few places in Dublin 2...

1007394 Davy Byrnes ...some of which were less busy than all their also famed neighbours on a sunny Thursday evening, presumably due to a North-facing outdoor area

1019597 Hyde - this was where said work event was.

1017882 IMC Cinema Santry

Another cinema, part of the same chain as my other recent visit, but without anywhere near the history of the Savoy. 

And it was another surprisingly cheap pint, of Heineken - the only beer they offer. 

There is a tiny bit of history here, though. The cinema itself is an early 90s multiplex, minimally modified but that has been kept in serviceable condition; however that alone isn't particularly interesting. 

The previous use of the site, as McCairns Motors Vauxhall and Chevrolet assembly plant is more interesting, at least to me. I have been in to the admin areas of the centre in a previous job, and there is a photo of the media launch of the shopping centre development in the early 90s, with a helicopter dropping someone off in the ruins of the car plant.

There's also a quirk with it's name. As the cinema element of the Omni Park shopping centre, this was the cinema that gave the Omniplex chain it's name - but it isn't part of that chain. IMC and Omniplex were two seperate chains that mostly operated as one - Ward Anderson - but split over ten years ago, and despite this being the source of the Omniplex name; that name went to the other side of the split. 

S0259 The Willows

Just when I'd announced I'd finished all the "normal" pubs in the county, it gets revealed that one recent enough closure that I'd just missed - it shut before I did a sweep-up of that bit of suburbia - was to reopen on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

I didn't make it out that weekend - I was elsewhere in the country; but I did the weekend after. 

This is another Irish "estate pub", an entirely different idea to that in the UK - a pub in a small row of shops in a housing estate; often these days not containing any conventional shops at all. Streetview history shows that the normal shop here closed some time between 2014 and 2018. 

Most of these pubs were built in the 1940s to 60s, this coming from the latter end of that period by the looks of things, but it has been extensively updated - I wouldn't say "modernised", as that would imply a loss of character - before its recent reopening.

The food offering, at least initially, extends to toasties; and the drinks offering has some Four Provinces to break up the monotony of Diageo and Heineken products. I expect more food may be offered here going forward.

The pub isn't too far from Dundrum village and the Luas stops there; but there isn't another pub for quite some distance in all other directions, so there should be catchment here to keep it going.

1001687 Smock Alley Theatre

One of the newest, and also oldest, theatres in the city centre; Smock Alley opened in 2012 in what had been, for my generation at least, the Statoil Dublin Viking Experience. (That attraction is not to be confused with the still operating Dublinia)

However, that was just a temporary cultural use of the building, which had formerly been a Catholic church - apparently the first obvious one within the city for centuries, as it opened pre-emancipation. And this church had been built on the site of, and retaining various features from, the 1735 Theatre Royal.

That theatre itself had replaced a 1662 building on the same site, and a little of the fabric of that building appears to still survive. I don't believe there's another operating theatre in Dublin that can claim, even tenuously, to have that length of history - but this really isn't my specialist subject.

What there is now is a complex with a number of relatively small rooms, including a banquet hall above the main stage. It's here that I had my drinks; as there was an option to purchase charcuterie prior to a show, in what have to be some of the most impressive surroundings of anywhere you can actually get a drink in Dublin. 

But you do have to go see something being performed here to get a drink, either in the banquet hall or the small bar in the lobby. I saw a modern, Dublin-set interpretation of Moliere's Misanthrope; an interesting experience for someone who last attended a theatrical performance in the early 2000s! 

1013760 Savoy Cinema

Once a grand, nearly 3000 capacity single screen cinema, the Savoy has been chopped up so much over its nearly 100-year history (opening in 1929) that there are now THIRTEEN screens in the building.

I watched a documentary, on my own, in Screen 12 - which I'd swear is what the ladies toilets for the main screen used to be - with what was actually a fairly reasonably priced pint, of the only beer they serve - Moretti. 

I wanted to see the documentary anyway, and the screen was cooler than the air outside, so I got a comfortable enough visit to tick the place off.

This limited beer or wine offering isn't all the Savoy has ever had, pub-wise though. The adjacent branch of Madigans was once the cinemas bar (and also the first pub on O'Connell Street in the modern era - there's still only three other than the hotel bars, which isn't a lot) but eventually separated in operation and ownership and trades entirely independently and on its own licence.

1022390 CitizenM Hotel, Bride Street

Bride Street was once lined with pubs - eight by my count, and another 3 on Werburgh Street which continues directly from it. Of those, one one of the Werburgh Street pubs - the famed Lord Edward - still exists.

But as part of the recent redevelopment of the area, Bride Street now has two hotels. One, a StayCity, only has a residents bar - licenced as such and out of scope for me. The other, the new CitizenM, has a conventional bar open to the public.

Or at least it does by the time you're reading this. On the day I visited, they had not yet got their full Publicans Licence (Ordinary) Hotel in place and were only able to serve wine and soft drinks. But a wine is a wine, I was in the bar and I'm counting it against the full licence they were expecting to have by the end of July. I think the hotel opened a bit earlier than was originally advertised so this may explain the period of no full licence.

The bar is a hotel lobby bar, but a fairly nicely fitted out one. With no beers actually yet on offer, I can't comment on what the beer selection is like; and I know next to nothing about wine either, but I was able to drink what I bought!

DG0499 Stoop Your Head

Two weeks or so ago, my writeup of the Yacht in Loughshinny caled it the last - last open and trading at that time, anyway - very conventional pub in the county for me to visit. This visit is the last place that vaguely looks and feels like a pub; with everything else being at best a hotel lobby bar. It's 927th on my rolling register basis, so not a nice round number; but very significant all the same. I still have 30-something pub-licenced premises of less obvious pub character to visit, and new places do still open - but we are approaching the end. Anyway: on to the writeup.

Probably one of the oddest named pubs in the entire country, this premises claims to have been the first gastropub in Ireland, opening as such in 1959, in what had been Duffy's pub  (a rarely, but sometimes, seen pub name despite how common my surname actually is).

Last time I tried to go in here, I was denied service because I didn't want food - but this was during the late 2021 pub opening period, with all its paperwork and reasons why somewhere might want to keep their limited seats for diners. I was instead told that the neighbouring, and co-owned since that 1959 reopening, DG0500 Joe Mays would serve me if I didn't want to eat.

The issue there was I had just had lunch. In Joe Mays. Oh well. 

This time I was advised that eating in might be required if the pub was busy, so I arrived hungry. The food options here are mostly seafood based - this could easily be the only food focused pub in Ireland that doesn't offer a beef burger. Despite my fishing industry parental family background; my food choices tend towards the generations of retail butchers that my mother is descended from, but cod basically taste of nothing. The over-branded fish and chips ("Fresh Cod Fritté") was perfectly to my expectations; and I was able to down it with a pint of O'Haras. My drinking partner for the day was happy with his moules frites, even with the baseline of having much experience of eating them in France!

While I was there, there were people just in for drinks, so I probably didn't *have* to have food here, but I don't regret doing so. From past experience, Skerries pubs and food don't often mix, and I did need to have lunch somewhere.

As for the name - it's not explained on the website. There is a low doorway inside the pub which has the pubs name repeated on a warning sign above. But my immediate thought was of a command to duck before a sail boom goes around while tacking in a sail boat, of which there are plenty outside in Skerries Harbour. Locally, and when referred to on its own website, it is "Stoops" rather than the full name. Despite this, I don't believe it has any particular SDLP connection...

1022267 Priory Market

Dublin's first example of a European indoor food market - or, arguably, first in the almost a decade since the Epicurian Food Hall was converted to a giant Dealz - is somewhat strangely located in an industrial estate in Tallaght village, a reasonable distance away from the high frequency bus routes and tram line that serve the Tallaght area. But it's worth the walk.

This is because it is co-sited with, and run by, Priory Brewing who were already there. A social enterprise, Priory has been around for a few years, but I believe did go in to a hiatus for a period before returning recently.

In the corner of the market that is beside the brewery, Priory have their bar. The offering here is four bright tanks of their four main beers - a pale, an IPA, a session IPA and a lager, albeit the lager was sold out when I visited - as well as keg offerings of the rest of their lineup (on the day of my visit, this was a weiss, a double IPA, a red, a sour, a stout and possibly more) and some other Irish independent guest beers. 

There's also a cocktail bar, a significant source of the long queues that were at the bar at times while I was there - they were not a permanent fixture, as the number of staff behind the bar would increase to reduce the queues when needed.

I'd had lunch just before getting on the bus to head out here, so I didn't actually try any of the food options. The longest queues, by far, were at the ice cream vendor - but it was mid 20 degrees outside, so this is understandable; but plenty of the others seemed fairly busy too.

I'll head back though, and try get some food on that visit. Now to lobby the NTA for more buses... 

S3556 Sugar Club

Why did a semi-state sugar processing and canned foods company need a private theatre? Whatever the reason for it, the mid 1960s headquarters of the Irish Sugar Company was built with a theatre in the basement. There were other corporate theatres in Dublin at the time - Guinness's Rupert Guinness Theatre; and the Players Theatre at the John Player factory on the South Circular - so it may have been due to this. 

The Irish Sugar Company had commissioned a borderline agrarian propaganda movie about sugar beet production in the early 60s, but I don't think they'd need to retain a private cinema just to show this!

When opened, the venue was dubbed the Erin Foods Theatre - Erin being the canning arm of Irish Sugar, and was used for various events over the years; but it was more commonly known as the International Cinema, which operated there, non-exclusively, from around 1967.

It then became - exclusively, this time - the Arts Council's Irish Film Theatre from 1977 to 1984, the venue then lay empty until 1999 when it reopened as the Sugar Club; initially a regular nightclub but now a venue for music and comedy performances, club nights and occasional use as a cinema. And it was one of those nights that I went to tick it off.

While there are occasional, but rare, club nights here; the interior is set up more for cinema or theatre performances, with tiered seating - that has tables. There isn't really a dance floor, as such - although that didn't stop a number of people dancing during the concert movie I was watching. They also do food, specifically pizza, delivered to your seat, not a very common feature of a club style space! 

I am worried for the future of this venue, as the building was up for sale in 2022 and, as a ~60 year old office building, is likely to be a redevelopment target. Planning consent for redevelopment of cultural spaces sometimes includes requirements for replacements; but these replacements are rarely as useful and even more rarely successful. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.

1019413 Mama Yo

I didn't manage to finish off the various elements of Press Up before the entire entity basically ceased to be, but I got there in the end. At least until Eclectic open somewhere entirely new, that is.

This is a deceptively large - the single shop unit width at the front opens out hugely behind - very generic and very expensive Chinese restaurant, that really does not need to hold a pub licence for the way it serves drinks.

I don't recommend going here unless you have a good reason to, as there's better alternatives on the same section of street let alone elsewhere in the city.

Revenue licence numbers - what do they actually mean?

Across this site, and the map, and my own records I make use of Revenue's licence numbers to keep track of what is and isn't a qualifying pub. They are matters of public record and also used in the CC-BY licenced register so there shouldn't be any issues with this; and I can't think of any other system for it. But its not instantly clear how it works to outsiders, and even ten years in this is somewhat of a guess!

Systems:

There are two different numbering systems in use by Revenue:

* Alphanumeric registration for liquor licences alone, issued by licencing court district, used until (approximately) late 2007 

* Sequential numeric National system used since late 2007 - which is used for all excise licences

Alphanumeric

The alphanumeric system appears to have been introduced in the 1970s and applied to existing premises in a roughly geographical basis. You will see sequential numbers for pubs in a single area of the city, and occasionally a "missing tooth" of a number where a pub has closed down, or has been re-numbered for some reason.

There are five legacy areas that have, or had, alphanumeric licences in Dublin - Northside, Southside, Drogheda, Meath (Trim, presumably) and Arklow. There are a significant number of NXXXX and an even higher number of SXXXX licences for the first two, a handful of DgXXXX licences for Drogheda, one for Meath and formerly one for Arklow - these are MhpXXXX and ArpXXXX - the p standing for pub. The solitary Dublin-located yet Arklow licenced pub - Arp0667 Blue Gardenia - has permanently closed.

Clearly the districts do not strictly cover county boundaries - while the Mhp and Arp pubs are very close to the border, the Dg district comes as far south as Loughshinny. The N and S division also does not respect the Liffey, or the postcode even/odd split, with plenty of "Northside" pubs to the south of "Southside" ones out to the West of the city. This, I imagine, covers older district and circuit court boundaries, many of which have been minorly altered over the years as court houses close or other changes are made - and this may have in part lead to the replacement of the old system.

Non-retail types of licences such as restaurant, wholesaler and manufacturers also used this system; with suffices relating to their licence type added to N and S licence numbers, and the "p" for pub swapped out for the same letters in other areas. Bafflingly, their un-suffixed numbers can collide -  S0012 is a pub and S0012SR an unconnected restaurant a number of streets away

Sequential

The national/sequential system gives no indication of where a pub is, but it can sometimes be used to infer when it first opened by comparing to the age of pubs with nearby numbers above or below it.

There are huge gaps in the numbering at times - as this system is used for all excise licences of all types. 1000064 is a pub in Dublin, but 1000065 is the road fuel excise licence for a petrol station in Mayo, for instance. In particular, as entire classes of excise licence have been registered, blocks of numbers have been used at once - much of the 1003/4/5xx blocks are marked fuel (green diesel etc) licences.

I had assumed that these numbers started at 1000000, but a 6 digit number starting with 9 has appeared in some previous registers - this may be a solitary error, and it isn't currently there either.

Renumbering

A licence number is for life, not just for a specific operators time in a pub... except when it isn't. Every year a reasonable handful of premises change licence number.

I can't tell for certain what the rules are for a new number being issued; as some cases of extremely long closure have led to the old number being kept, but I suspect it has to do with redefining the licenced area of a pub - generally if a premises undergoes works which alter this, the number is changed - but this doesn't seem to be consistent. Two pubs near me out in Kildare which have had huge reductions in floor area - conversion of nightclub/function room areas to flats - still have their old system numbers.

A change of licence *type* will usually cause the number to change also, but not if it is a a Hotel (Residents) to Hotel (Ordinary) - a small number of these have appeared with their old number intact, including one where it was on the old system

1018497 Six by Nico

A branch of a chain of restaurants, Six by Nico operates on a slightly odd gimmick - all they offer is a six course tasting menu, which changes every six weeks.

A week or so before we visited here, I had been in Vigo and had had a tasting menu at a 1* Michelin restaurant. With wine parings and a few small extras, I left that restaurant very nearly €300 lighter.

And I preferred what I got in the gimmicky, Scottish chain place for less money in a much dearer city. But I do point out that I'm no restaurant reviewer.

You can't just come in here for drinks, but the pub licence is well used - there's an actual bar, with a cocktail barman; an option for cocktail parings for the six courses that looks dangerously boozy and is fairly reasonably priced; and some Irish independent beer offerings - I can't remember the brewery specified on the menu, but it was unavailable that evening, with Heaney offered in its place.

I may well go back here, if a future menu looks interesting.

August 2025 Register update

After many months of basically nothing, we get a reasonable update this month - all already visited!

New: 

1021935 Lane7, Dundrum Shopping Centre
1022058 Sandbox VR, Nassau Street
1022267 Priory Market, Tallaght (writeup scheduled for next week)

Renumbered:

1022218 Mercantile Hotel, Dame Street - formerly S3175

N1776 St Margaret's Golf & Country Club

Now, this tick absolutely needed a driver - the clubhouse here is 1.6km from the nearest bus stop, which itself does not get a particularly frequent bus service. It is possibly the last tick I'll do with a driver - or at least, the last on a multi tick trip.

I'm not quite sure how this is a "country club" - the facilities appear to be golf, a public restaurant/bar, and some conferencing facilities. But they do use the term across their branding.

The bar itself felt like a members bar somewhere, but is absolutely open to the public. Prices are a bit closer to what you might expect in a members bar, but I doubt many people come here to drink, due to that extremely long walk in from St Margarets village

N2410 Roganstown Hotel & Country Club

Another possibly not actually inaccessible without a car premises - there are ten buses a day, seven days a week from Swords or Balbriggan - this was sort-of on the way to somewhere truly inaccessible and would have taken probably five to six hours round trip to tick on its own, so it was done with a driver regardless.

A fine Georgian house restoration with two golf courses and a leisure centre, the term Country Club is fairly accurate here, when it is often a stretch elsewhere. The bar is a large room, with dark wood and relatively ornate decoration - and notably, not a television in sight as far as I could see.

The range of draught beer here was not interesting, but they actually have some Irish independent products in bottle - once sort of common in the earlier days of independent breweries getting in to bars, but now rarely enough seen. My Galway Bay Full Sail was delivered with a branded half pint glass, and was a fairly fresh bottle, going from the best before date.

Revisited pubs July 2025

N0053 Graingers - now the Connolly bar is gone, Graingers suffices for the quick inter-train pint

DG0492 The Gladstone

DG0497 The Snug

DG0495 Nealons - these three were all part of a day trip to Skerries to

S1465 Dudleys

S1468 Thomas House - and these two a Sunday wander around D8

S0106 The Porterhouse - escaping the tourists in Temple Bar on the way to another tick

DG0503 The Yacht, Loughshinny

At the time of scheduling this post, it's set to go out on the first of August; and is going to be the last post on an increased six day a week schedule. 

I'm not going to revert to the five or even four day a week schedules I've had for much of 2025, but crash straight back to the long held three day schedule - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. 

Those days will be 'reserved' as such for writeups; with any other posts done on other days - because at the time of writing I have all of three visits in my backlog to write up, two visits scheduled to happen within a few hours of writing and then less than 40 more places left to go. So my backlog is gone, basically; and I'd like to actually have some posts for the rest of the month...

But back to the actual pub writeup. I am calling this my "last traditional pub" visit; as everything else left to go is either a pub-restaurant, a hotel, a theatre or a strip club (which I'm still trying to figure a justification for not going to). The Yacht isn't an incredibly old pub, having been opened in 1960 as a single storey, flat roof extension to the building housing the owners grocery store.

Old photos inside the pub show that it has been extended and modified over the years, in to a much larger, fully two storey - but still flat roofed pub. You can disregard stereotypical British opinions of flat roofed pubs (as criticised in this article) when in Ireland, and indeed this isn't on an estate anyway!

Indeed, the pub is in a small village; and various reasons led to its closure in 2006. The son of the original owner bought it back in 2012, reopened it and has operated it since, and there was a reasonable volume of customers when we dropped in. 

I did this with a driver as I assumed it was basically inaccessible otherwise - however, the 33/33a buses stop basically outside the door. Parking really isn't great, so the bus may have been a better option.

1021424 Blue Bar

A surprisingly, well, gigantic premises on the way out to Red Island in Skerries; this used to be "Blue Café Bar", and the food service still seems to be a major element here - we were asked if we wanted menus at least five times during a fairly quick visit!

This was done with a driver; not that it really needed to be - but the pub we were intending to go to next (and did) opened later we expected it to; so rather than leave it un-done (it is not the most accessible without a driver, albeit it does have buses), we came here to grab an unexpected extra tick.

Sun generates crowds in Skerries, but Blue Bar was less busy than the other seaside bars slightly closer to the town centre, albeit possibly just because there's far more space here. You can pick between outdoor seating, or all various types of pub seating options inside. 

We ended up at the bar, slightly mystified looking at the more unusual cocktail ingredients/garnishes they had on display or were prepping for the evening. There's a reasonable range of draft beers here, as well as their extensive cocktail options. Checking to try find when the Cafe bit of the name was dropped - unsuccessfully - found many people raving about their chicken wings. I do not eat chicken wings, or realistically any meat on the bone; and my driver is vegetarian, so this wasn't much use to us - but as I know the popularity of wings, it's worth mentioning when somewhere is reputed for them!

N1508 Shoreline Hotel

On to another series of "very or incredibly hard to get to without a car" writeups, done with a driver - and indeed, this is hard enough to get to with a car, as drivers park extremely poorly to avoid paying for parking in the hotels carpark when visiting the adjoining beach; dumping their vehicles in the way anywhere and everywhere.

It was a reasonably nice day when visiting, so the hotel bar was extremely busy - there were no fully free tables indoors or out, but we were invited to sit at an underoccupied table outside by the others at it. The hotels outdoor area has a coffee cart, for the huge number of drivers presumably; and there were musicians setting up as we were leaving; a rarer thing for a non-city-centre hotel bar to have.

There are easier to get to places to have a drink by the sea, but they are also generally even busier than here; and may attract anti-social behaviour. So perhaps it would be worth getting a driver and battling the parking disasters to come by for a pint.

1020755 allta

Pub-licenced restaurants make up a decent proportion of my posts recently, and will do for a while yet - as they're a category I am now having to make specific efforts to tick off. 

This one falls in to the "actually welcomes drinkers and has a real bar" category, a small enough selection; even smaller if you exclude places that used to actually be pubs but have become restaurants over time.

The bar here is large enough, and was initially worryingly quiet during our visit - but started to get busy around 8. All music is played off vinyl, a rare but not unique element shared with N0099 Big Romance and possibly some other bars in the city. 

There's a small, occasionally changing food menu in the bar; with more range in the actual restaurant, but we went for the bar. I suspect that bookings, if you just want to go to the bar, are not essential much of the time - but later on a weekend could be required.

1014271 Dunne & Crescenzi

A pub-restaurant that apparently doesn't serve drinks without food; although on the day I was told that, there was a TD sitting outside with an Aperol Spritz and no sign of having a meal... but I came back for dinner another day anyway. I believe pre-pandemic, the Wine Bar element, still advertised on the awnings, was an actual thing here; but it is now entirely restaurant.

One of the older restaurants still standing in Dublin - a 1999 opening being practically ancient history for a non fast food premises, and potentially getting towards being on an "oldest restaurants" list as older places die off (see Come Here To Me!'s 2010 list, with 1989 being new enough to get mentioned, and many closures since marked); this only got its pub licence in more recent years, possibly for the aforementioned wine bar, or for the administrative ease compared to the rules around serving beer and spirits with a Special Restaurant Licence.

I'm not a restaurant reviewer - as I've said before, I'm barely even a pub reviewer really - but I enjoyed the meal here. It was however a very expensive tick to get!

1009141 Castleknock Golf Club

To get to the clubhouse of this early 2000s, Bernard Langher designed golf course, you need to walk on a footpath that changes side a number of times, and through the, erm, path? (I'm not great with golf terms and haven't picked up a club in nearly 20 years...) of at least one, possible two holes - and for one of them I did need to wait back as two people hit a drive (?) over the entrance road.

There's a public licence here because the restaurant and bar are open to the public, with a small members area of the bar at one end. This is where I was seated by the staff, however, as a solo drinker/diner with some larger groups expected to take up the other tables.

Food was decent, drink prices reasonable, and my timing good enough that I arrived in the door just as the skies opened, and ate my lunch while an unseasonable torrent came down - and then left to go back to the train as it became sunny again. I'd probably recommend driving if you're going here for food, though - it was a bit of a walk from the previous place, which itself was a bit of a walk from public transport!

1013947 Castleknock Hotel

A second slightly awkward to get to hotel writeup in a row - but at least this time, it was all flat. Now that I'm approaching 50 remaining premises to do, they all get harder to visit in some way or another - and this ones delay was due to access.

This is the sort-of flagship of FBD Hotels, the leisure investment arm of the only remaining Irish car/home insurer; a mix of businesses I've always found quite odd - but then again, Sean Quinn did both insurance and hotels too. FBD however have not needed a massive bailout!

It's a big hotel, with multiple dining options; and was very busy when I arrived - but there was bar seating available. There was nothing particularly memorable about the bar, or anything else, until I was leaving - when I saw a staff member vacuuming the concrete outside the hotel!

1010478 Deer Park Golf

This very, very 1980s clubhouse, attached to the currently non-operational Deer Park Hotel, is open to the public and normally operates as a restaurant under the control of the Wright Group.

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I hauled myself up Howth Head, in very warm weather, to find that the restaurant was pre-booked for First Communion dinners and only drinks were available - but at least I was able to slake my thirst, get it ticked off and take a look at the views before rolling myself back down in to Howth.

Once littered with hotels, Howth currently has zero operational - this having been the last open; but the owners intend to replace the current structures with a new 142-bed setup, so you will likely be able to enjoy a pint with these views for some time yet.

1014505 Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport

It's extremely hard to get to this hotel without driving, or using their shuttle bus from the airport - its fairly isolated and there's poor footpaths. I got a taxi in from Priorswood, and a taxi back out; so bear that in mind if intending to come out here.

The bar here is substantial, easily the biggest in a main brand (Clayton/Maldron) Dalata hotel I've been to; but that is because the hotel itself is pretty big, and with a constantly transient customer base. There's even a dedicated "delayed flights" checkin desk, handling those who have been boarded here by their airline during disruptions. It may also be a legacy of this having been one of the Bewleys Hotels which made up an early bulk purchase for Dalata, 

The bar itself has a fairly good range of drinks on offer, and the staff I dealt with were friendly and chatty - but there's an oddity with the layout, where the seats that are in front of the bar are actually for diners only. It's bar seating or lobby seating for the drinkers, something some people may not like. The lobby in particularly was quite loud with the volume of people checking in when I arrived; and I expect it's like that until late.

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!

S3437 Radisson Blu St Helens

I was going to say this was the most expensive hotel for pints I've ever stayed in, but in the time between my visit and the writeup, I've been to London for work - and even a discount hotel there makes the €9.30 I was charged in the Orangery here seem fairly reasonable.

The hotel is a fairly minimally messed with, mid 18th century mansion with a modern bedroom wing attached, and underground carparking hidden under the front approach, and is by all accounts quite nice. But there's absolutely no reason to go here just to get a drink - unless it happens to be in the last ~75 places you have to visit in Dublin, that is!

1021852 Super Social

The last of the 'experience pubs', for now - and finally one that isn't underground!

This is my first visit here, but it's not the first time I've written about the premises - as this was originally built as the ill-fated Baileys Icon Centre, which closed some years before I was allowed drink; and was briefly a nightclub - Rocksy - that the internet has basically forgotten existed. And then it sat empty, licenced, awaiting its fate.

When Club 92, the famed nightclub in the racecourse pavilion, closed in 2018, there was some mention that something was going to open in this space - and eventually a planning application went in to restructure the space, with some being hived off for retail and the rest being changed to pub/restaurant style use.

Rather than reopening as a nightclub type space though, it has reopened as a sort of amalgam of all the other experience bars, but with a large, conventional bar on the ground floor. There's virtual golf - like Pitch, darts - like Flight Club, but also shuffleboard and "The Arena", something I've not quite found a good description of yet; and I don't think would have been much fun to do on my own.

Apparently €5m has been spent on the fitout - a fraction of the ~€26m, inflation adjusted, that the Icon Centre cost; but still a very substantial amount. Hopefully this is more attractive to visitors and lives a longer live than the Icon Centre, or the Rocksy for that matter.

1021935 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.

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.

N2582 Carlton Hotel Blanchardstown

This is another wildly misnamed hotel, being in Tyrrellstown and not Blanchardstown; and indeed the only place to go for a drink in Tyrrellstown now - the pub in the development itself having shut down some time ago, and had a planning application lodged to convert it to apartments.

But despite this, it's incredibly difficult to actually get in to the hotel from Tyrrellstown. Not due to any issues with letting in outsiders - despite having been told some years ago that they didn't serve non residents, they do; with absolutely no issues doing do - but instead the issue is pedestrian access.

The hotel isn't causing this - they even have a pedestrian walkway out to the road, bypassing their long driveway. The issue is that the road is a dual carriageway with a concrete median and no crossing points. Google Maps even suggests a walking route that involves walking around a roundabout - on the road!

That aside, it is possible to run across and skirt the edge of the median, or get a bus one single stop - definitely the safer option on your way back from pints!

After dealing with the access issues, you get a fairly standard hotel bar - plush enough but not incredibly fancy, but still in the mould of "if you've seen one, you've seen them all". You'll have to decide whether it's worth the risk of death, or a short distance bus fare, to go here for that.

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!

1010656 The Green Phonebox

This is the fourth name in two years on the premises which was previously Peggys On The Green, Three Storey and previously 10 St Stephens; and which always seemed to be closed when I was anywhere nearby. 

Peggys opened in April 2024, closed in Autumn 2024, reopened briefly for Christmas and then closed again - a refit had been advertised when closing in Autumn, and that hadn't finished. It reopened on May 1st as The Green Phonebox, a rather odd name that is at least justified by the addition of a retro phonebox to their small front outdoor area.

I didn't get a great immediate impression of this place, as I assumed the sign outside offering Irish food and drink would mean there'd be some beers not made by Diageo or Heineken on the taps... and there wasn't.

Pointing this out on social media lead to someone I'd never interacted with giving me abuse for stating the facts that Diageo and Heineken Ireland are not Irish companies; which is very particularly strange as I frequently say vastly more controversial things about pubs and breweries than that without anything being said!

The pub itself is very, very touristy - greebling by the metre from some wholesaler, menu offerings of what tourists expect to be able to buy, and the aforementioned Diageo/Heineken only drinks. It would be more suited to Temple Bar, realistically.

1021842 Bewleys

The last branch standing of the once substantial Bewleys coffee shop chain obtained a Publicans (Theatre) licence recently; which has a solid claim to legitimacy as there is actually a theatre in the building. However, I think they are slightly stretching the rules about service hours under that licence - not uncommon - as you can now get cocktails with meals instead of just wine as before.

And that is what I did, rather than going to a show. An Aperol Spritz along with a slightly mad, yet extremely nice, concoction that could best be described as eggs-benedict-as-a-burger served as a late lunch here and got me a licence tick.

While not always possible - the cafe is vast, with many side rooms that are frequently closed, and can be very busy in the areas that are open - a wander around here after you've eaten is worthwhile, as there is artwork, sculptures, stained glass windows and various artefacts from the past of both the Grafton Street branch and other bits of the chain on display throughout the premises.

1022058 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.

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.

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 in

S0199 Devitts - before going for dinner in a new tick nearby

S0024 Hartigans - before going to a show in a new tick nearby

 

1022169 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.

1014544 The Ivy

The Ivy Collection is a British chain of mid-to-high-range restaurants with surprisingly bland menus - deliberately so, as some of the items are considered comfort food for their regulars - and they entered Ireland quite some time ago with this giant restaurant on Dawson Street. It has held a pub licence the entire time; but their behaviour towards their staff put me off coming here.

What behaviour, you may wonder? Well, it was a tips policy so egregious that it quite possibly caused the introduction of the legislation which require places to advertise how they handle tips.

That legislation means they can't do that anymore, but a WRC ruling that staff were dismissed in part due to union membership also made me fairly unwilling to go here; but a lack of recent stories; and a dire lack of other places to tick off, meant I finally did it.

What I got was mid-range food at far more than mid-range prices; but clearly it appeals to enough people that they are now opening a second restaurant on the same street, albeit this time as Ivy Asia. I sincerely hope it does not have a pub licence too!

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 

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.

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

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. 

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.

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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.