N0272 Keelings

Keelings is the only pub in Donabate, for now at least - Smyths having closed its doors in August 2024, with the contents auctioned off.

Luckily for drinking capacity in the town, Keelings is fairly large, but its unfortunately also not incredibly memorable. Suburban pubs don't really need to be - people go to them because they're local, and form connections with the pub via people, via events, social activities and so on; rather than because they're incredibly notable for some reason. Just existing is no guarantee of success - the place still needs to be well run - but the result is often somewhere very similar to other places I've been before. And that isn't a bad thing.

There's some Hope taps, which is always nice to see in pubs near (or near-ish, this far out) to the brewery - Hope having established themselves as the default craft choice in Northside and North Dublin pubs in the same way as Rye River have in West Dublin / North Kildare, and Wicklow Wolf on the Southside.

1015219 Dublin Liberties Distillery

I'm pulling this writeup out of order; as the news has just broken that this distillery is closing - as in fully closing, with no clarity on whether it is ever reopening at all.

Distillation has stopped, with the visitor centre closing imminently - I've seen claimed dates of "Tuesday" - as in May 20th - or June 1st for this; but there's no info on any of their social media channels about this.

I only visited a few weeks ago, and this writeup would have been in August otherwise; but I feel it should be pushed forward in case anyone wants to go during the very limited time the visitor centre has left.

They do (or did) tours here, and also hosted events; but I turned up and asked what the options were for being served without doing a tour; if they could do this at all. Most of Dublin's distilleries have an explicit bar, and are totally willing to serve you without a tour - but there isn't quite so obvious a bar here, despite the full pub licence.

However, they could still serve me. Two tasting flights were on offer; as well as some mixed drinks. I opted for their premium tasting flight, at €35, which featured some quite old whiskey - sourced, obviously, for a new distillery - as well as their own products.

The sourced products in said flight were exceptional, chosen to exhibit their casking more than their age and doing so very well. The younger, on-site made product was of a good quality, young but better than many newer Irish whiskeys I've had by a decent margin.

The staff member that served me knew her stuff, both on the distillery and on Irish whiskey in general. Should the staff all be laid off in the coming days as looks to be the case, she would be an asset to any other distillery tour - as presumably are the others if the training and experience are similar.  

I hope that the closure here is brief; and that the staff are able to find roles elsewhere - it is a particularly bad portent for the distilling industry here when an established distillery, with a competent visitor experience; owned by a mini-major of the drinks world feels the need to close.

1015814 Doolally

Around the time of my visit here, the yet to be renamed Press Up Entertainment - now Eclective - were in various forms of financial trouble.

My visit here may have suggested why.

This vast, vast restaurant pub was under a quarter full. Shortly after being seated, it became clear that the table beside me had been given the wrong main course, providing a significant hit to the kitchens food costs.

My own meal was then delivered, with the wrong main course...

I did get what I'd ordered, it was fine but not fantastic - a common problem with Press Up menus - and a tad dear. But the margin for my visit would have been reduced; and with a giant, mostly empty dining room to light and heat, they would need a very big margin to keep going.

I also don't think "doolally" is a good name for a pub, but there's plenty of premises I'd suggest get renamed if anyone would listen, and I'm not sure this would be even in the top ten!

1015855 Marlin Hotel

When I first cased out the bar here for drinks, it was closed - with a sign saying that drinks could be got from The Horsebox, a cafe in an actual converted horsebox in the hotel lobby. As I suspected this might be more for residents, I came back some hours later and got in to the now open, large, but basically empty bar.

During my time there I was offered the food menu and asked if I'd picked something multiple times - I didn't want to eat yet, and didn't order anything; but it gave me the feeling that outside drinkers are tolerated at best. I'd suggest that if you intend to go here, go here to eat.

Going here to eat was something I'd planned to do - it was the third and final location of the surprisingly mobile Canteen restaurant, which spent some time operating relatively close to my house (in Celbridge - the restaurant that is, not my house) and where I ate and enjoyed a number of meals. 

The move happened to coincidence with the Pandemic, closing in Celbridge in late February 2020 and only reopening in the Marlin when restaurants reopened for the first time in June that year; and for whatever reason this did not last. The hotel does not currently seem to have a high end restaurant as a replacement.

There is planning permission to extend / add an annexe to the hotel, breaking through to some of the oldest retail buildings in Dublin on Aungier Street, but I'm not sure if this is going ahead. The annexe was proposed to be called The Dolphin, keeping a maritime theme to the naming, and would restore some direly neglected buildings in the process.

1018396 Premier Inn Temple Bar

This Premier Inn has possibly the least accurate locational name of any hotel in Dublin that isn't pretending to be at the Airport - it is on the corner of Georges and Stephen Streets and quite some distance from Temple Bar!

The hotel was built in to a series of buildings which had once been a hotel - the Red Lion, and latterly used for retail and restaurant use. The corner unit has been kept for restaurant use, but is still unoccupied some years after the hotel opening; and you instead enter the hotel through a corridor, with lifts down to a basement reception and bar.

Every time I stuck my head in here, the bar appeared closed and was behind the reception desk. So I phoned them and asked if the bar was a: ever open and b: open to the public - the answer to both being yes, it is open normal hours and anyone can go in.

It's an odd experience - you're basically drinking in a basement bar/restaurant that feels a bit like a canteen or breakfast room; which I presume it actually is. The pint was particularly poor too. 

I don't see why you'd be bothered going here, but you can, should you wish to.

1020358 Chancery Hotel

A still quite new - opened March 2024 - hotel, this sits right beside the Radisson's Dublin Royal Convention Centre, but is a separate hotel and under separate ownership, linked with S3012 The Grafton Hotel

The bar here is small, but still has a reasonable range of drinks for its size, including Irish independent brewery products. Toilets are buried in the basement and, from memory, more than a little odd - hand dryers fitted to the sinks that resemble bulky taps and automated sliding doors.

It is rather out of the way for most reasons you'd be looking for a pint, but if you're at an event in the aforementioned conference centre, or in Le Pole Square or Dublin Castle it may be worth a visit.

S3445 Fitzwilliam Hotel

The Inn On The Green bar in the Fitzwilliam Hotel is slightly buried inside it; and as such I had never bothered going in to try find it. However, as unvisited premises in the city centre are getting thin on the ground, I decided to see if I could go in.

On the day of my visit, the actual main entrance to the hotel was undergoing works, so you had to enter through what I suspect is normally a fire exit, or at best a circulation stairwell; which dropped you in to a corridor somewhere to the side of the reception. This did not stop a doorman seeing me and asking what I was looking for - but the outcome was not rejection, but instead instructions on how to find the bar - it is very much open to the public.

And a very snazzy bar it is too, albeit the decor and lack of windows do make it feel like you're drinking on a very fancy cruise ship. 

Like some other 5-star hotels in Dublin - the Shelbourne, Marker and Merrion being ones I've experienced this in - there's some free basic bar snacks; albeit the range of drinks is quite limited.

Dublin was exceptionally quiet on the day of my visit, so this bar being even quieter than most is possibly not a regular occurrence, but it may still be a good place to drop in to for a quiet drink when elsewhere is busy. It's certainly away from the main activity outside.

1011740 Hilton Hotel, Charlemont

Unlike its stablemate hotel in Kilmainham, there is no sign stating that the bar is Residents Only here at the "Hilton Dublin" as it is simply branded. The Charlemont Bar & Bistro has signage outside and they have always advertised the bar to outsiders, including when it was called the Third Stop - a now dated reference to the Luas stop outside, which is no longer third from the end of the line. 

The bar is quite nice by hotel bar standards, and is unlikely to ever be as busy as the nearby S0202 The Barge. Other than The Barge, there is somewhat of a pub desert around here, so this is worth remembering as an option.

Originally built as a Stakis hotel, I *think* this was the first Hilton in Ireland; but I'm not entirely certain of that.

1989's Recommended Pubs - Again

I'm always on the lookout for old guides to Dublin pubs - from any era up until the present, really - as they often contain bits of information that I might not have otherwise landed on; albeit sometimes uncited and extremely untrustworthy (there's a fairly recent guide which has a clanger per page ratio of about 1:1, and that's just the bits I know not to be true.

But when you find a book written by Eamonn Casey, who is still around and operating as a licenced trade historian - despite the National Library having decided that he's dead (those dates are for the disgraced Bishop of the same name!), it should be vastly more trustworthy. Eamonn's stuff all appears to be properly sourced and verifiable.

Eamonn has published two guidebooks to Dublin pubs, one in 1989 and one in 1992. The 1989 version is slightly harder to find in libraries, but was not hard to find second hand; and by virtue of being slightly older I bought this one first - I'll either buy, or go to a library to read, the 1992 one at some point. 

Both books were published by "Pelican Marketing Publications" and feature ads from trade suppliers - Guinness, Ballygowan, United Beverages (Guinness's then soft drinks arm), Bank of Ireland, Tilestyle and "A Trust Catering Repair", who seem to have changed names repeatedly and may still exist under one of them. There are also "profiles" of some individuals and companies including Murtagh Properties and the Fitzgerald Group - and in both cases, many of their pubs are featured in the book.

Regardless of the corporate sponsorship, this is a consumer targetted publication. 

55 pubs are covered, and despite a 36 year gap between publication and now, most are still trading under their original name. Most have a two page writeup, but the first two have three for some reason; with usually an interior and exterior photo. The exterior photos of a number of pubs feature the same Ford Sierra (with a reg that comes up on check site as being a Transit van somehow), presumably either the authors or an unnammed photographers.

Most writeups have some history of pub - past ownership, licencing history or similar - which makes this invaluable for someone working on any pub history project including any of the pubs covered.  

Another reason to read such outdated info as the more review-like bits of the writeups, is that a review from 1989 can show a very different pub to today. 1989 Whelans is described as somewhere to get a good lunch, with much detail of its interior design - and not a single mention of live music! 

I'm not really a book reviewer, and nor am I going to just scan in a book that's still available and with a living author, so I'm going to do my usual summary of what the book contains and what has happened to the pubs since. At 48/55 still trading in some form, this has a similar-ish closure rate to the other 1989 pub listing I've previously analysed

I have visited all 48 of these premises that remain open in some form, albeit some are completely transformed by now - rebuilt, converted to a hotel or in a slightly different location!

The pubs featured are:

"Dublin Pubs Southside"

S0253 The Goat, Goatstown
S0314 The Queens, Dalkey
S0298 The Old Punch Bowl, Booterstown
S0251 Sandyford House, Sandyford (visited but writeup not yet published)
The Carraig, Blackrock - now S0292 Wicked Wolf
Martin Morris, Terenure - now S0248 Vaughns Eagle House
S0302 The Purty Kitchen, Dun Laoghaire
S1580 The Rathcoole Inn, Rathcoole
N1121 Palmerstown House, Palmerstown
S0768 The Blue Haven, Rathfarnham
The Clocktower, Kingswood - since completely rebuilt as S2821 Kingswood Lodge
The Earl of Lucan bar, N1133 Spa Hotel, Lucan - now called the Ballyneety Bar
S1510 The Patriots Inn, Kilmainham
S1268 The Sarah Curran, Rathfarnham - closed, most recently the Rathfarnham House.
S0399 The Wishing Well, Blackrock
The Seventh Lock Tavern, Ballyfermot - demolished, most recently the Killeen House
S1328 Ballinteer House, Ballinteer (visited but writeup not yet published)
S1583 An Poitín Stil, Rathcoole
1009200 The Laurels, Clondalkin

"Central Dublin"

O'Dwyers, Mount Street - redeveloped as S0149 Leinster Hotel (writeup reflects its intermediate period as Howl At The Moon)
S0003 Toners, Baggot Street
S2793 Sinnotts, South King Street - this was already the current generation of this in the shopping centre, which had opened the previous year
S0056 The Bailey, Duke Street
The Parnell Mooney - now N1098 Parnell Heritage Pub
Bellamys, Ballsbridge - now 1011804 The Bridge 1859 (but writeup is about Bellamys)
S0240 Slatterys, Rathmines
S0180 Slatterys, Ballsbridge
Caspers, Wicklow Street - now S3271 Marys, sort of (building has had multiple redevelopments)
Bunit & Simpson, Ringsend - now S0158 John Clarkes
S0120 Whelans, Wexford Street
Rathmines Inn, Rathmines - now S0235 Blackbird
Alfie Byrnes, Conrad Hotel, Earlsfort Terrace, now S2747 Terrace Kitchen (writeup is about a different era of it being Alfie Byrnes)
1007394 Davy Byrnes, Duke Street
S0111 The Old Stand, Exchequer Street
Maguires, Pearse Street - demolished, most recently Widow Scallans
S0086 The Palace, Fleet Street
The Harp, D'Olier Street - now S0967 River Bar

"North City"

Dollymount House, Clontarf - demolished
1013257 Gibneys, Malahide
N0152 The Drake Inn, Finglas - long-term closed
The Coast Inn, Skerries (visited but writeup not yet published)
N0149 The Fairview Inn, Fairview - closed, most recently The Players Lounge
N0123 Beaumont House, Beaumont
N0022 Hill 16, Middle Gardiner Street - closed but may reopen shortly.
The Big Tree, Dorset Street - now the bar of N0018 Dublin One Hotel (writeup reflects the Big Tree)
N0169 The Eplhin, Sutton
N0141 Viscount House, Whitehall
N0284 The Harbour Bar, Rush
N0134 Thomas Gaffney, Fairview - both premises were still open at the time, only the larger pub remains
N0146 Cat & Cage, Drumcondra
The Millennium , Swords - completely rebuilt as N1597 Peacocks
N0247 The Boot, Cloghran - currently closed
N0758 Clonsilla Inn, Clonsilla
Sheaf O'Wheat, Coolock - now N0120 Cock & Bull

S1139 Clayton Hotel, Burlington Road

When I arrived here, the bar wasn't open. It was a weekend afternoon, usually prime time for a hotel bar to be slinging out pints and meals; but instead I was reduced to getting a bottle of beer from the lobby coffee shop. At least the visit wasn't wasted!

This vast hotel, the biggest still operating in Dublin and possibly even the country, has a stored history; including some low points. In the days when most hotels had nightclubs, the then Burlington Hotel's "Club Anabel" was a major attraction, but its name became forever associated with the death of a patron in circumstances that lead to many attempted prosecutions, years of court cases and very little outcome.

To not have an open bar during the day in the biggest hotel in the city is strange enough; even more so for a venue with 50+ years of history as part of Dublin's day-and-nightlife; but the current operators are not known for chasing external trade even if they do still allow it - their other hotels, with limited exceptions, generally have small bars with minimal external advertisement.

N0253 Brock Inn

After a modern roadhouse that had become a hotel, and a modern roadhouse that is still a roadhouse; we come to a much older roadside pub; once called The Thatch and still featuring the former adjacent shop. 

The different atmosphere compared to the Coolquoy is down at least in part to that old pub feel. The areas inside the pub are laid out a bit oddly, there's old decoration and equipment - worryingly, we can definitely consider the VCR that's above the bar as part of this - and just generally more of a "proper pub" feel to it; despite the services on offer being basically identical. 

An interesting side note here is that, according to a newspaper feature on the pub in the 1980s, this was a Beer House until 1961 - only changing its licence to sell wine and spirits at that point.

I've given up always recording the "round number pubs", particularly as a register change can re-set them on me, e.g. I've got two 600th pubs due to the hefty number of previously visited places which closed in 2021; to the level that I'd need to do a count-back to find out what pub 800 might have been; but this time I'd only updated the register the day before and can confirm this was my 850th. 

A decently round number for a decent traditional pub.

RetroReview: S3744 Sandymount Hotel

Seems my cross-checking of lists wasn't thorough enough, and I did actually miss at least one more pre-2016 visit entirely.

I attended a wedding afters in this hotel, but actually experienced the normal bar also despite there being one in the wedding room - we arrived a bit early, and the main dinner bit was still going on and I think that lurking around the edge while people were eating would be a little weird.

The bar here is, unsurprisingly given the location, rugby branded like some other hotels nearby - The Lineout. My now fading memory was of a hotel guest being slightly miffed as to the limited selection of whiskey on offer, but this was a decade or more ago at this stage and has very possibly changed since.

May 2025 register update

Small enough update yielding only one useful result

Returned to register:

N0197 former Soup2, North King Street, which I also visited and wrote up as Taproom 47; and is possibly about to become something else, now it's re-registered. Unless it's drastically different again it may not get a third writeup!

N1381 Coolquoy Lodge

The Coolquoy Lodge, in the townland of Coolquoy Common, is the local pub for the residents of Coolquay - the spelling that basically everyone except the authorities and the pub owners use for the area.  There isn't an actual quay anywhere nearby, but "quoy" just looks a bit weird in English I guess.

This is quite a generic pub, a roadhouse on the old N2 that is still going after the bypass was built; presumably helped by the local trade which some since failed roadhouse pubs did not have. There's a sizeable bar area and a big restaurant section to the premises; which are well maintained but just a bit, well, bland.

That said, for a village to have a pub at all is no longer guaranteed, let alone one that does food. 

Revisited pubs, April 2025

A relatively big list this month, as what has been a very effective month for new pub ticks has often left me with long bus waits, or going somewhere to wait for a dinner reservation time to come around

N0099 Big Romance - waiting until it was dinner time to go tick off a pub-restaurant

N1084 Pipers Corner - and then going somewhere after that had more interesting beer

S4500 Brickyard - guts of an hour wait for a bus up to Sandyford Village

1004031 Bison Bar - dinner after a days pub ticking, as the bus home leaves from outside

1016206 Brewdog - another pre dinner wait

S0271 Walters - one hour wait for a bus up Killiney Hill

N1062 Flowing Tide - it was raining and I had a relatively long wait for a Luas that went past Connolly

 N0006 Brew Dock - pre-train dinner

S0010 Dawson Lounge - a surprisingly terrible pint

S0080 Bar Rua - while deciding whether to descend in to Lane7

N0880 Kettles Country House Hotel

I was not expecting a pub that's so difficult to get to - until recently enough it was only accessible by the 41B bus with as little as two services in some directions a day - to be quite so busy.

However, the carvery here is the main attraction and as a result, I arrived to find a full lobby of people waiting for tables coming free.

On explaining what I was there for, I was brought past the waiting groups to a seat at the bar - there were a total of three bar stools, though possibly space for some more. During the time I was there, some other solo drinkers or diners were seated here too, so I hadn't skipped anyone waiting for any reason other than being alone.

Due to the buses, I had to spend an hour here before heading on; and on checking my likely times at further pubs, I decided to go to the carvery.

I think I can see why it's popular enough to cause queues - reasonably priced and much better than average quality.

While this is a hotel, it functions as the local pub for Rolestown; and indeed it once was that - the original early 70s Rolestown Inn was demolished and replaced by the hotel in the mid 00s; remaining under the ownership of the Kettle family that had owned the Rolestown Inn for decades prior.

The 197 bus made this rather a lot easier to get to than the days of just the 41B, but it still isn't the easiest. However, I left it off my previous sweep up trips of North County Dublin pubs via car, due to knowing that it *could* be done by bus.

1017710 The Orchard

Applewood is an early 00s housing development built around a "main street", with traditional retail units under apartments, and a more traditional pub than the often standalone bar/restaurant building that 00s developments often got - and which has often failed or never opened to begin with.

And indeed if you were told that the punnily named Orchard had been there since the 1960s, once inside, you might find it hard to disagree. 

It's a quite traditional pub, with the normal lounge and bar split that's often missing in the newer suburban pubs - and only ladies toilets in the lounge, something that would not be common by the 00s. 

There's a solitary craft beer tap, a hazy from Galway Hooker that I'd not seen offered anywhere before; a rare sight in suburbia and a welcome change from products from the two main macros.

All in this seems to be one of the better presented and operated of the modern suburban pubs.

NecroReviews: S1593 Cuckoo's Nest

This post is another part of the last barrel-scrape of place I'd missed doing a writeup for; and probably just in time - this will be "promoted" back to just being a RetroReview by virtue of the pub finally reopening, if I ever remember to edit it.

The Cuckoo's Nest is a famed old roadhouse of a pub, sited on the Greenhills Road; and was a regular place for lunches, going away parties and other work events when I worked nearby - albeit lots of people preferred 1009200 The Laurels in Clondalkin for after-work events. I think this was because a lot of them lived nearer and wanted to drive home before drinking. 

The pub served the large residential areas of Kilnamanagh and Kingswood as well as the daytime food trade for the large industrial estates around it; and historically operated as a music venue as well.

The pub closed in 2015, with various redevelopment plans afoot; and was set alight in 2016.

Much redevelopment did occur - with apartments, houses and a new Tallaght Theatre built on the lands surrounding the pub (plus the site of the original Tallaght Theatre); and there seemed to be little hope for the pub to reopen, particularly as planning proposals continued to change.

However, the pub is currently undergoing reconstruction, and while an original date of Autumn 2024 has long since sailed past us, it is likely that it will be open by Autumn 2025.

N1769 Graingers Manor Inn

A 90s suburban shopping centre pub that hit one of my triggers for not really liking a pub immediately - there's two gambling machines inside the front door of the bar. Something I last saw in another pub owned by the same people (Graingers - this surname is so common in Dublin pub ownership that not all Graingers are this Graingers; but these two pubs are) come to think of it; and something I really, really don't like.

I've been assured by a local that the lounge is a lot nicer, though.