S0261 The Old Orchard

The final of the Charlie Chawke group of pubs for me to visit - well, in Dublin. I'm no great fan of big pub chains, but I've never had an issue with a Chawke premises; and when I still worked in radio they were great hosts when doing outside broadcasts - for them or more general ones located at their premises. 

This premises offers you two quite different options - the main Old Orchard pub, which is quite food focused; and the Paddy Scallys bar; an "old man pub" type setup. This, however, is quite new - having been the pubs off-licence and a wine bar in recent years.

This is where I went first. It's quite well done and had I not heard the barman telling other customers that it was quite new, I may not have landed on this info. The pubs website pushes "kegs directly below the bar" as a selling point here - something that those who apply a more analytical approach to their seeking out pints of Guinness on quality basis may want to check.

I did also head in to the main section as I wanted dinner; and food is not brought in to Paddy Scallys. This met my expectations of food from other Chawke venues, never been disappointed by the quality, although the prices might have been a tad high.

There's also two further restaurants out the back, connected by a covered walkway at the other end of a massive car park; but I'm not sure if these have any connection to the pub.

N0768 Blue Haven

A nice 60s suburban pub, this gives the feeling of being a pub in a row of shops despite there actually only being one other premises adjoining - an estate agent now, but originally a grocery shop.

There's a traditional interior and traditional service (pints brought to table after settling); and it seems that golf is the sport of choice going on the many social media posts about golf society trips and when major events are being televised.

All told, a very conventional - but nice - suburban pub. I don't really have much more to say about it!

RetroReview: S0398 Dunnes Stores Blackrock (as TGI Fridays)

Another from the "making sure everything marked off is written up" challenge; this is one of the stranger premises to have to write up.

It's a supermarket, or more realisticially a big convenience store - a store format Dunnes are beginning to roll out, and indeed now have two of that are using pub licences. This one I managed to tick off by visiting it when it was a pub-licenced restaurant.

Once the most expensive pub in Dublin - the pub, not the prices, though it was probably up there - this was best known as The Playwright, run by the Moran Hotel group and particularly popular as a nightlife destination in the early days of late bars. It had a run of wins of the Dublin and eventually National Superpub of the Year in the Black & White Pub Awards, which were taken quite seriously by the press in a way that more recent pub awards have not quite been.

In 2004, it was sold for €8.1m as part of a sell off of various assets by Morans. The bulk of the pub was rapidly converted to a TGI Fridays, which was open by early 2005; but there was also a Dante's Italian (a now defunct sister chain, in Ireland, to TGI Fridays) on site; and some element of remaining bar where you were not expected to eat.

This closed in around 2010 - its quite hard to track down exact dates for crash era closures, there being so many occurring - and the unit lay empty until Dunnes purchased it in about 2018.

While still recognisably an old pub, the thatched roof has been replaced by slates; and an extension built over the "courtyard" smoking area and (leaky, on my visit) glass-roofed entrance lobby that existed in its pub era.

As a TGI Fridays, it put me off the brand forever - I think I may have gone to some abroad when the brand was still owned by Radisson Hotels, to get loyalty points and nothing more; and my reviews of the other TGI Fridays in Dublin (of which only two remain) are not glowing - the chain reaching 7 branches for a time is not a good reflection on Ireland in the mid 00s!

(work-safe!) Adult Entertainment in Dublin Pubs

It's been a relatively quiet year for new pub openings, compared to the last few anyway. A clear backlog of premises to open from 2020/21 finally opened after the February 2022 lifting of restrictions on pub service; and the pipeline has got a bit short now.

Indeed, I was very surprised at the lack of places opening for Paddys Day this year, although April has picked up a bit with a few. I document the openings of places elsewhere on the site so I'm not going to go through details other than what the purpose of this post is.

Something is quite baffling in that a huge proportion of the new venues opening - and with two exceptions they are actually *new* venues and not reopenings - are effectively activity centres for adults.

As of the time I write this, there are six premises open that match this requirement. Only three of them have turned up on the liquor licence register but I'm fairly confident that all of them are licenced as pubs - it just isn't practical to operate the way they are any other way.

First off we have places that are specific to one sport/game that you can play on the premises, but where you can also drink.

We have two bowling alley / arcade setups, from the British chain Lane7. These are like tiny Leisureplexs, but three times the price. And with a bar - which you do not need to pay for a lane to go in to. I have visited one, on Clarendon Row; and will have to tick off the second branch in Dundrum also, which I believe is larger; and had been intended to be a Press Up branded bowling alley originally.

There is then Flight Club, which is darts based, in the former S3727 Sams Bar. This offers "social darts" which is, as far as I can tell, just darts as you'd play it in any normal pub, but with bookings. You can, again, just go in to the bar without booking. I visited as Sams and I'm terrible at darts, so I won't be back.

The next category is VR based "experiences". One of these is still sports based - 1021725 Pitch - a virtual golf setup where you swing at a screen rather than on actual grass. You can again just go to the bar here.

We then have Sandbox VR, a VR headset setup that looks somewhat terrifying; and has a robot cocktail 'bartender' which you can, again, just head in to get a drink from without paying a minimum of €30 for a VR trip.

The final category of those that are open is "a mix of all of the above". The former Icon Centre at Leopardstown Racecourse has finally reopened as 1021852 Super Social, which has darts, indoor golf (which looks to use real balls), shuffleboard and other activities. The website says you can come in without a booking for activities but I suspect you may be rather encouraged to get a meal rather than just drinks. Super Social is open in the afternoon for under-18s, not common with this type of venue it seems.

Yet to come is a branch of Bounce, a boozy ping pong setup that already exists in the UK. I have no idea whether they'll let you in to their branch in the old Central Bank, when it opens, without a booking as it hasn't opened yet - and their UK website is incredibly opaque about whether they allow it there.

S1595 Delaneys / Knocklyon Inn

A pub that many people will know bits of by sight, passing it at 100km/h - this is the pink pub you can see from the M50, south of junction 11.

The pub has been there for a lot longer than the motorway has (the current ownership dates to the 1840s), and was once on the Dublin to Brittas road, which now crosses the M50 and hence passes the pub at height. These new roads mean the pub looks rather out of place, sited at an angle to everything else around it, and somewhat shoved in a corner. The "front" of the pub now addresses a park rather than a road; and the entrance from the car park to the lounge seems to suffice as a main entrance instead.

This review has sat scheduled for today, but still at draft status for ages, as I'm not sure my visit really gave me enough time to get a good handle on the place. It's a bit of a walk from the nearest bus stop on the now bypassing road, and this cut my time between buses down to pretty close to the time required to knock a pint rather than have a look around.

The building presents as an incredibly 60s/70s pub - mansard roof, weird tower - but I suspect the core building is very old. The walls inside are decorated with old photographs and signage and there's quite a lot to look at, which I didn't get to fully take in.

S2493 Speaker Connolly

This name feels odd to me, as there's a pub vastly nearer my house with basically the same name - Speakers Bar, named after William Connolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. That pub in is Celbridge, where Connolly's country estate - Castletown - is located. I'm not sure if there's a specific reason for the name here.

Built as Tallaghts environs expanded in the 80s, this was reported as being precisely over one mile (1.6km - this will be important later...) by road from the next nearest objecting pub - Delaneys Knocklyon Inn; one mile being the distance at which a new pub could be opened despite objections by other publicans under the licencing laws at the time. 

Two things are interesting about this - firstly, the now closed Firhouse Inn was closer, but they were not objecting - the Speaker Connolly being a joint venture between publicans including the owners of the Firhouse Inn. Secondly, despite the road changes since having made the distance between the pubs slightly longer than I believe it was originally, I am only meausring it at as being 1.2km!

A few writueps ago I mentioned my concern that a previous large suburban pub with a large carpark could be eyed up by a developer. Well, this is a large suburban pub with a large carpark; and it already has been - planning has been applied for twice here. 

The plans propose to keep the pub, which is often applied for but less often done; although in the south west of the city/county, this has actually happened more often than not; with the Traders in Greenhills being a recent example

The pub itself could do with a refurb if those development plans fail to come through, being a little run down; but it's clean and functional and there's plenty of space inside.

S3735 Scholars

The busiest pub I've been in in quite some time; easily since before Christmas. I couldn't find a table or perch here after ordering, so instead had to sit at the bar - something I dislike doing in busy pubs; as it reduces the area for ordering pints even further, and increases the risk of having a pint dropped on you by someone else ordering. 

I'd be in favour of whipping away the bar stools, when vacated, at busier times in pubs and indeed I have seen that done sometimes - but there's going to be as many if not more people who *want* to sit at the bar as want to have easier access. 

I have to presume the pub is named after Scholarstown, the townland that it isn't in. Indeed, the maps on townlands.ie show that it's in Ballycragh, two townlands over. But at the time this area was being built up in the 1990s, Scholarstown was already well known and its close enough.

The pub is that common suburban, 70s-00s Dublin setup of a small shopping centre with a pub at one end - a different form from the 30s-70s row of shops with a pub in or on the end, or the co-existing 60s-90s form of the pub with a big carpark on its own. 

There's probably a minor academic piece on the different eras and forms of pubs using Tallaght examples alone, considering we've have previous shopping centre pubs (Croughs), standalone big pubs (Ahernes, Old Mill - albeit both on the sites of older pubs), a row shop pub (Killinarden House) as well as a traditional roadside pub (Jobstown House), two traditional village pubs, one much extended (Molloys, The Dragon) and a series of hotel bars.

NecroReview: S4157 Parkwest Tavern

Another one from the 'trawl the list to make sure everything is written up' efforts; this is a pub that was below my office for most of 2007; and which I would occasionally have lunch or after-work pints in - including the last lunch I ever ate in Parkwest when our long delayed office move got approved to be on at 11am on a random weekday - an urgent "last supper" style booking was put in and we were back up and running in the new office in Tallaght by about 4.

Back then, this was called Bennigans and I assumed it was part of the US chain of Irish bars, which announed they were entering Ireland in 2004 with a local franchiser opening branches in 2005. These were still going in 2008, when the US master franchiser entered bankruptcy; but had renamed by time of their own liquidation in 2009.

However, I can find no reference to this having been run by the Irish franchiser; and also this pub was renamed to "Hennigans"; yet the other Bennigans became Brannigans.  

Additionally, the Parkwest branch was opened in December 2004, by the model Abbi Titmus, some time before the two known Bennigans branches, with the Cork opening in 2005 being mentioned as the first in Ireland. 

This makes me suspect this was coincidentally, maybe deliberately, named and may have had to rename due to the other Bennigans existing and having the trademark, rather than rename when they ceased to be Bennigans. As what must have been a seperate entity, it wasn't affected by their bankruptcy, but a gang linked death in 2009 lead to the pubs closure anyway.

However, this doesn't fall in to my "crypt" category of pubs; those that were closed entirely before 2016, as it reopened in the late 2010s as the Parkwest Tavern. This, however, did not reopen after the pandemic. Parkwest has a continually growing population, so I'm surprised nobody has had another go at opening this since, but as it is still licenced it may yet reappear.

S1592 The Old Mill

It's not old and it's not a mill; but it's on the site of an old pub and has bits of an old mill in it...

This late 90s Fitzgerald Group drinking barn was built on the site of Bridget Burkes, an old and well known drinking establishment in the area. Referencing back to the Tallaght local historian Albert Perris again, the mill fittings inside were apparently purchased from Borrisokane in Tipperary - where my mothers family come from and where they actually had a pub until the 1920s.

The pub structure is a pastiche of an actual old mill building; and there were *paper* mills along the Dodder nearby; but the entire lot is from 1998. 

Inside, it's a standard suburban Fitzgerald pub, in decent nick which suggests the rolling refurbs that the group seem to do must have rolled through semi recently.

S1597 Ahernes

An older, large suburban pub; with a large carpark - my developer-senses are tingling... this type of pub is often the prime target for replacement with a supermarket or apartment development.

This pub predates the mass development of Tallaght; with what is now the bookies facing the road being the original structure. A trustworthy source online claims that it was at one point one of the Watkins, Jameson and Pim "The Tap" tied houses; one I would not have not come across before as it would not have shown up in city directories. The huge flat roof bulk of the pub was added in the 1970s, according to that same source.

During my visit, there were plenty of people in the pub but still a huge amount of space. I sat down in a quieter area, and the barwoman came over and pulled down a projector screen to show the match on - I hope not thinking that I wanted to watch a Palace game!

The Crypt: Polly Hops

This pub closed so long ago that I don't have a licence number on file for it. It burned down just before Christmas 2007; and there were never real plans to reopen it so I presume the licence disappeared off the register that year. My oldest copies are from 2010.

My Dad, who doesn't drink, quite liked this pub; and we'd go here semi frequently for food, and I definitely drank there on some of the latter trips.

While I never attended them, the pub was known for its trad music and dancing shows, to which bus loads of tourists would come out for "dinner and a show" packages. This is something that still exists elsewhere, notably in the Dublin mountains and foothills at S0336 Johnnie Foxes, S2031 Merry Plougboy, and 1002618 Taylors Three Rock; as well as some city centre pubs that don't need to do the bus bit.

Newcastle, which you could say Polly Hops was in, at a stretch, has lost two of its three pubs to fire - McEvoys burnt in 2004; and while the McEvoys shell still sits there, the Polly Hops site was rapidly cleared and is now used as a light industrial estate. Oddly enough, the next pub North of here towards Lucan, the Fox's Head, also burnt down in the early 90s.

S0014 Note

This wine bar / bistro replaced another wine bar / bistro, which itself replaced a Booze2Go - you need to go back quite some time to find a traditional pub in this place; but it remains pub licenced.

I had stuck my head in here on a previous occasion, but they were fully booked. I was advised to come back early on a week night, and as I work less than ten minutes walk away; I did - and had no issue getting seated at the bar.

This is primarily a wine bar, with a reasonable number of wines by the glass and a huge number by the bottle on offer; but they also have a small beer selection. There's food, but I didn't try it on this visit - as it's so close to work, I may go back.

Something to note is there is a service charge on bills here. 

N2516 Croke Park Hotel

Why I decided to go here the night before the All Ireland Club Finals, I don't know - it just happened to be easy enough for me to tick it off. 

Getting served in the bar here was quick and easy; but finding somewhere to perch myself was not - the bar was hopping with fans of, primarily, Errigal Ciarán, getting drinks and food. 

I don't know if non-residents can get in here on match days, but if you do live around here; there aren't a huge amount of pub options - N0025 Gills is now only open about ten days a year for instance - so this may work for providing a watering hole or place to eat for those purposes.

S3067 Davenport Hotel

"Residents Only" said the sign on the entrance to the bar, as I was ushered past it by the front desk staff. Unlike a previous time where I just ignored a similar sign, the fact that I couldn't see where the bar was from the front door meant I had to ask at reception.

The response I got seemed to suggest that the bar was residents only "tonight", and with there being a Leinster match on, and me wearing a blue jacket (by mistake), I suspect I was initially being bundled up with a crowd they weren't interested in having in.

However, after asking if the bar was open on other days and explaining why, I was brought in. A return trip saved by staff who understood I was there for a very different reason than the potential hoards of Leinster fans! The same hotel chain operates a rugby themed bar directly across the road from here, so there would be logic in centralising that trade; trade that they certainly don't mind having in The Mont instead.

The bar itself isn't particularly interesting - the building itself holds the real interest even if the bulk of the fabric was destroyed by fire in the 90s - with the bars in the same chains Mont and Alexander nearby being more open to the public than here.

1018851 Merrion Hotel

The Merrion's main entrance features top-hatted doormen and feels rather imposing and off-putting to normal visitors; but if you walk past all of this; you will find a staircase down to a basement door at the end of the block. This brings you in to the Cellar Bar which, while still rather posh, is nowhere near as severe as up at the front.

I've now been to rather a lot of hotel bars - I'd guess at 100 - and generally know what to expect. I've even been to another hotel basement bar with vaulted ceilings; but the layout here is quite different even to that - there's multiple separate vaulted seating spaces, some quite cosy and almost like a snug in a conventional pub.

Another surprise was the tap list - there are 11 taps here; with 8 of them being Irish independent brewery product - Rascals, Sullivans, O Brother and two hotel branded beers of unknown source (Untapped suggests Sullivans supplied also). Looking at past check-ins on Untappd has shown some slight changes in what was on draught here, but sticking with Irish breweries to the fore

Another five star hotel had surprised me by calling out Rye River on their menus as one of their premium Irish food and drink suppliers; so my guess here is that the Merrion sees offering Irish beer (and whiskey - they had plenty of Irish on display too) as part of a similar offering. This is something more venues should do.

The bar isn't particularly dear, but you may need to arrange with the waiting staff for a table even at relatively quiet times - this is also one of the dining options for the hotel. Bar seating is available and there are even complimentary bar snacks. Certainly worth a look, and interesting as it is effectively a craft beer bar, but completely unlike every other one in Dublin.

S4583 The Grayson

This Press Up venue was a private members club (Residence), albeit one with a publicans licence for some reason - members clubs do not need pub licences; from 2008 to 2016; before briefly opening to the public under the same name.

It has since rebranded as The Grayson and advertises itself as a "Bar and Restaurant", albeit I struggled to find anywhere inside that wasn't a dining room space. It is also meant to be reservations essential; but a mid January weekend is not generally that busy anywhere; so a table was found for me in the ground floor dining room overlooking Stephens Green - a room with only 4 or 5 tables to begin with.

Food was fine, but very Press Up; as is the drinks list. The surroundings are quite different to some of the larger, newer structure Press Up places so may make it a bit more appealing but, it's still a Press Up cookie cutter experience otherwise. And my regular readers will know that that does not appeal to me.

Revisited Pubs March 2025

A sizeable list of revisits this month, and 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

N1127 O'Neills, Lucan - to figure out where the taxi rank I was going to had been relocated to 

N1129 Ball Alley House, Lucan - changing from the taxi back from a tick on to the (much cheaper) bus outside here, which left time for a pint

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.