A pub reopening should always be a good occasion, but finding out that one is about to reopen just as you're ticking off all the pubs near it can be a tad annoying. And so it was when I visited Balbriggan in early 2024 and found Dempseys approaching the end of its refurb.
Formerly The Millrace, one of those pubs where the sales ads online linger for years after being sold; and indeed it lingered for years closed too - the last social media activity for the pub was in 2015 but it may have survived til the pandemic.
The refurb was extensive and the fairly dated interior you can (currently, anyway) see in the linked sales ad is gone; replaced with the faux-old type that has returned to fashion in recent years and should hopefully age well. Despite trying to look old, it's definitely the most modern pub in Balbriggan as it stands.
On opening, a relatively strict dress code was posted, with one entry - "no coats" - raising a lot of eyebrows in a country with a climate that often requires them. This, I suspect, was there to ensure that anyone wanting to flaunt a jacket from specific brands that have acquired a particular reputation wouldn't bother coming in.
That said, I wasn't barred from entering with mine on, despite it being from one of the brands sort of on the edges of that - but it wasn't black or grey so that might have been enough!
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