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.