1023254 The Burton

This pub was sitting ready to open in Autumn 2024. Bar stocked, menus on the table, the works. But it didn't open.

It "opened", giving out free drinks, on Bloomsday (June 16th) 2025, saying it would open soon. It didn't open.

Paperwork and compliance issues were preventing something in the legal process required to open a pub from finishing, so the pub sat empty.

But a few months ago, new recruitment signs went up in the windows, indicating that things may have finally been resolved. And they were, as the pub opened on June 25th - with the July licence file drop two weeks later actually providing the licence number too. Long term readers may know that sometimes I get to visit somewhere new many months before the Revenue file provides a number for whatever reason!

And I missed that opening, because for whatever reason the social media accounts they had used for the 2025 promotional "opening" were not in use any more and I had not found the new ones. But I was doing a check of my pipeline list which lead me to discover it had already opened; and as I happened to be very nearby anyway, I was there within 15 minutes.

This is a small hotel, however the bar does not feel like a hotel bar and there is no obvious reception area. The drinks options are quite generic, but but reasonably priced for the city centre; the food looked fine but I didn't partake.

Revisited pubs June 2026

I spent much of the month quite far away from Dublin, but I got a relatively decent amount of revisits in regardless. 

N0006 Brew Dock, Amiens Street
N0053 Graingers, Amiens Street
S3178 Street 66, Parliament Street
S1465 Dudleys, Thomas Street
S1468 Thomas House, Thomas Street
S0264 O'Loughlins, Dun Laoghaire - all changed, changed utterly... well, it now has a modern till. And a modern outdoor area. But the front bar isn't drastically different.
S0296 Kelly & Cooper, Blackrock
S0295 Jack O'Rourkes, Blackrock
S0298 Old Punchbowl, Booterstown
N0007 Clearys, Amiens Street 

EPITR: LEAD01 Donegal Airport

I said I wasn't going to cover Aerodrome licences anymore a few years ago, when employment meant that I had a compromised position in relation to nearly all of them in Dublin (in that I worked for their landlord); but I neither still work there, nor ever worked for the owners of Donegal Airport... so I'm covering this one. I'm running dangerously short of content after all.

This is the International airport in Ireland with the lowest passenger numbers, by some margin - 56k in 2025 compared to well over 400k at Kerry - and as such it isn't surprising that there is only a single bar, in the combined landside arrivals and departures area. This bar is also the cafe, and the shop - despite the reintroduction of duty free to the UK in recent years, the three or four flights a week to Glasgow don't justify having an airside shop.

However, as goes small alcohol selections in a mixed premises, there's more here than you might expect; but all in bottles or cans. This includes a large selection from the nearest brewery, Errigal at the Caisléain Óir Hotel in Annagry.

While sitting waiting for your flight to depart, you can also read the airports free magazine, which has more than a slight feeling of the now ended Aer Lingus Cara magazine to it; if Cara had only ever written its tourism articles about Donegal rather than worldwide Aer Lingus destinations that is! 

EPITR: LEP081 Sweeneys Hotel

This hotel was derelict - very, very derelict - before undergoing an extremely lengthy renovation in the early 2020s. 

Documented by an episode of At Your Service which no longer appears to be on RTE Player, from Summer 2022, the hotel eventually opened in July 2024, but I believe some other elements of the redevelopment took longer than this to be finished.

But finished they now are, with everything open. There is a courtyard area with a bar - this wasn't actually open on the Wednesday afternoon I came through, a pizzeria and a bakery; and there's also a small traditional hotel bar to the front of the main hotel building.

This bar is presumably more intended for guests of the hotel, but it is open to the public. That "public" was just me during my time there, but as my pint was poured by a receptionist; it isn't like they are losing money having the bar physically open during the day. 

Dungloe has a lot of bars, including a lot of licenced, closed bars; so it is unlikely that there's much market to be carved out amongst locals here. But I doubt that's the point.

EPITR: 1019263 Crolly Distillery

This is a first for me - not as distillery tour as I've done many of those before; but a Producers Retail (On) Licence. This newest category of liquor licences was introduced in 2018 as an available add-on to a manufacturers licence; alongside an equivalent Producers Retail (Off) Licence for those who wish to sell off-sales only. 

This licence type can be generated from new, not requiring surrender of an existing pub licence; saving the five figure expense of buying one. The Off licence can even be issued by the District Court, reducing legal costs even further, and they are both cheaper to renew than a pub licence. They are, however, vastly more limiting than a pub licence and hence many busier places will use those instead - hence the Dublin distillery and brewery premises I have written about before with full pub licences like Rascals, Teelings and so on.

There are only about 30 of these licences - both types combined - in existence, and only a single one in Dublin which I have yet to visit. Donegal is very heavily represented in them, with both Sliabh Liag sites (the distillery and the bottling plant), Baoilleach Distillery and Kinnegar Brewing also having licences.

The On licence allows for daytime (7pm latest) on-sales of products to those who have undergone a tour of the facility - but this tour can be as basic as you want - a joke at the time of introduction was that a brewery could basically go "there's the fermenters, there's the bar" and have satisfied the requirements.

The Crolly tour is at the other end of the scale though, being quite in-depth; and up close - as the stills were cold, with the days run planned for later, I was brought right up to them; and brought to the - but not across - the threshold of their on site bonded warehouse.

The tour includes a tasting of their new make, unaged spirit; as well as at least one of their released whiskeys (these may still be contract products - "matured and bottled on site" is specified on the retail packaging). I also had a tasting of their soon to be released Oloroso cask product, which was definitely distilled on site. You can upgrade all the way to a €150 tour, but this seemed a bit excessive!

The bar area at the end is quite nice, and large enough to comfortably cater for a bus tour of visitors; but not ridiculous for when there is just one solo tourist like there was for a brief period after my tour.

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: Bar Anam

Well, I had to go back and see what had been done to Underdog, didn't I.

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(I promise the sky is real, Dublin had some really nice late Spring weather)

The kitchen's open, there's some macros on the taps and it's been painted, with new furniture. But some of the regular customers are still around, there's still a range of craft offerings (some slightly less common) on the taps.

Operated by the same people who run Dudleys, another recent re-writeup oddly enough; there are some similarities in the two pubs, but plenty of difference too. Dudleys offers fairly conventional pub grub, but Bar Anam has Dak offering Korean food to the rear of the pub. Dudleys is quite a lot larger, with a bar and lounge split, and the lounge itself having a mezzanine; and this space allows them to have live music.

Dudleys has TVs, and Bar Anam doens't - yet. I happened to be there while one of the owners was present and had a chat about the pub and their plans; and TVs or a protector for occasional use are under consideration. Underdog would also occasionally use one of its menu screen TVs to show free-to-air sports coverage, so this wouldn't be a change from what went before.

It's not the same as it was, but it is already it's own thing. I'll be back - indeed I have already been back between this first visit and the writeup.

June 2026 Revenue register update

This one's late due to me, not Revenue. There's so little to add that I never got around to it!

New: 1023199 Maldron Hotel Croke Park, Clonliffe Road.

1998 in The Docklands - an Evening Herald pub crawl of sorts

There's nothing more that I like running across in a newspaper or magazine archive that someones documented Dublin pub crawl - except maybe their list of favourite pubs that is.

While looking for an address to confirm somewhere probably wasn't a pub (Wrights of Fishermans Wharf restaurant which I think may have been the two storey unit opposite the Harbourmaster, but I'm still not confident of that); I came across a 1998 pub crawl of Dublin's docklands by Evening Herald journalist Linda Higgins.

While the docklands were significantly less rough and ready than they had been even five years early by 1998, they were not what they are today, and could be a somewhat dodgy place to hang around. The article was written for the first arrival of the Tall Ships Race to Dublin, so there would be large crowds in the area looking for refreshment. It was not a suggestion that people would randomly go to the docklands for pints!

I have previously written of my own micro-crawl of the very few remaining pubs on the South Quays, covering how many there once were. By 1998, only some of these still existed; but the Herald covers both sides of the river to give a good number of places. There are also, unfortunately grainy, photos of most of these pubs - some of which were in their final years of operation.

The pubs are not in an order that you could have practically visited them in, particularly with there being two fewer bridges over the Liffey in 1998, but I'll cover them in the order from the paper.

The first premises that Linda writes up is The Funnel at 24 City Quay, which she describes as recently opened. I knew of this more as a music venue, operating from ~1997 to ~2000, but there was a restaurant there too according to the review, which complimented its food. This was an early part of the South Docks to be redeveloped, and I believe this is now an apartment building with TC Mathews Carpets in the location of the pub.

Jumping over the river, the next pub is N1833 Harbourmaster. This still trades, although there were plans afoot to demolish the newer section of the pub to replace it with a hotel. For a second pub in a row, a food menu being "Californian" is mentioned, something I don't quite grasp - I've eaten in the Harbourmaster many times from the 00s onwards and never thought of the food as Californian!

The then Jurys, now N1900 Hilton Garden Inn comes next. This was the first of the now many hotels built or under construction in the North docklands, and has changed significantly since - there was apparently a newsagents and a very seperated pub area to it in 1998. 

Leaping back across the water, the then newly renovated S0153 The Ferryman is next. This also still trades and is a semi regular location for me, it serving as one of the two regular pubs for work events in my current job.

Linda then heads, or writes, back along the quay towards the city to Colombia Mills. This is another place I had known of a music venue first and foremost, but in 1998 it also had Colombia Bar & Grill on the premises; offering very very traditional sounding Irish pub food for the time. Considering I went in to see the Tall Ships and almost certainly got brought to get extremely bland stodgy pub food somewhere, I do wonder whether I did actually get to Colombia Mills; as an unaware 11 year old!

Continuing back Westwards, we then next get to S3132 O'Reillys under Tara Street Station, still trading and still doing food; despite it never having crossed my mind that they would. This is the pub furthest out of the docks covered in the main article.

We then have a neck-snapping return back East on the South docks, to get to Dockers. This both is and isn't the pub currently trading with that name from some rare surviving original buildings - it was half the size and significantly less fancy in 1998; and only survived the wrecking ball by not having been demolished before the Tiger died. Food, not a regular offering, was being added for the duration of the Tall Ships.

We now teleport across the river to Valance & McGrath, of which the building and possibly some of the interior still exists, as the Bottle Boy bar of 1016228 Dean Docklands hotel. This was one of the last traditional Docklands pubs to close - really the last, because The Ferryman only ever briefly closed for a refurb - but did food offerings and hence got listed.

A non-pub, in Quay 63 restaurant, is up next. This is not well documented online, but after much digging I am fairly sure it was in the small red building beside the old British Railways Hotel that was knocked in the mid 2010s for Salesforce. This is followed by another, I believe, non pub in the elusive Wrights in the IFSC.

Two final recommendations for drinking alone are giving - Kellys pub, quite far out in to the South docks, which would not last for much longer after 1998; and Kennedys (now S0022 The Workshop) at Tara Street station - even further in to the city than O'Reillys.

Rather strangely, the photo montage at the top contains two premises which are not written up - Campions, which was knocked to build the Convention Centre (but did not give its licence to it - it has a unique National Convention Centre licence); and the Point Depot. The latter may have been in lieu of Quay 63 which is not photographed, and neither is Wrights.

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: 1021467 Fidelity

So many of the places I do re-writes for have changed utterly in between the time of my initial visit and the revisit. Atmosphere, crowd, and drinks offerings may have been completely upended

In this case, the changes to some of those are less major - but the changes to the physical pub itself are immense.

My initial writeup here was for Dice Bar, a bar known for its music choices, connected (at one point) to a brewery and generally seen as quite cool. It was, however, an absolute dump in terms of physical structure and fittings; deliberately going for a dive bar aesthetic.

Fidelity is known for its music, connected to the Whiplash brewery and generally seen as quite cool. But it has had a high end refit, and now does not sell macro brewery products at all.

Since the demise of Underdog, I've been here more often than I had been prior - but I did come here occasionally anyway. Those who bother looking at my monthly revisit lists will have seen that, and indeed it is having to link to the Dice Bar writeups that has lead me to do this new entry.

The licence number has also changed, from an original system one to a new one. This is almost certainly because the licence has been extended to the unit next door, now operating as Fidelity Studio; an extension of the space with a food offering.

The old Dice Bar interior fittings were claimed to be in storage, awaiting the former operator finding a new space. I haven't heard anything on this since that claim was made in 2020, but things may yet occur.

Every pub in... Clane

Clane is closer to me, but it made sense to go further first and do Clane on the way back.

There are three pubs and a hotel in Clane, and a golf course located not a long way outside the town, that I am going to pretend does not exist. 

 

I also believe the GAA club bar is quite popular, as it has been in a number of previously visited towns (Kilcock, and Leixlips two GAA clubs); indeed it even has a brand name of Tommy Coneffs. A number of GAA clubs in North Kildare have bars run by a single external management company called SMSC, this being one of them. But I never consider sports club bars to be pubs unless they have a pub licence, which is astoundingly rare.

There's only two pubs I haven't been to before, so I'll start with those. 

KDP0062 Breeze

The name and the paint job - its very, very, blue - of this pub imply rural nightclub in the 2000s, but it's a very normal pub; and only called Breeze since 2021 - it was ormerly The Parade Ring and The Corner House.

A normal, friendly outer-suburban or provincial town pub, I believe there's a lounge here that does food but I didn't cross over to that side.

 

The bar is very sports oriented, and had a large number of F1 fans in to watch the sprint race on that afternoon. 

KDP0067 Jones / Fagans

The front door of this pub has Jones above it. The side door has Fagans. Some older references to it will call it the Clane Inn.

 

Quite modern and food focused inside, and at least formerly having a "disco bar", this feels even more like a suburban pub than Breeze does. This pub, like those in Sallins, had quite a number of Leinster fans - but at this stage licking their wounds rather than still watching the match, which had finished,

Already visited:

KDP0180 Manzors Village Inn

Been here before. Don't particularly like it. It's big and its popular though, so I am clearly not in the majority with that viewpoint.

KDP0047 Westgrove Hotel

A slightly rambling, large hotel intertwined with a shopping centre complex. I have drunk here before. It is a conventional outer suburban hotel with nothing particularly notable about it, but also nothing wrong with it.

Ignored:

KDP0038 Millicent Golf Club is just about in Clane. I'm not doing golf clubs on these roundups, because these aren't licence completion attempts.

Long closed:

 

Clane has a closed pub, building still extant and which was still licenced in to the 2010s - but I believe closed in the 2000s if not 1990s. This is KDP0076 Royal Oak, at Mainham just outside the town.

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: S1465 Dudleys

This is one of the latest - in terms of how long ago the changeover happened and how long it's been since I visited the new incarnation - of this series so far; but there will likely be some others where I've just not got around to it.

This pub was formerly Bakers, a locals pub that also got a lot of Guinness tourists, and offered food. Bakers announced in 2020 that they would not be reopening after the pandemic, with Dudleys opening in 2021, one of the first "lost pubs" to come back. 

Dudleys is quite similar, except they now offer a substantial number of craft beers as part of the offering. Unlike many pubs with a stronger craft beer offering, the pub has TVs and sports subscriptions, something I need to remember next time I'm looking for somewhere to watch a match.

The curse of going somewhere frequently meaning I can't give much of a writeup strikes again here. Like mentioned on the previous writeup for Swift; I have spent a lot more time in D8 since the closing of Underdog - and with Third Barrel about to take over The Christchurch Inn (former S3103 Beer Market, and a guaranteed recipient of an entry in this series as it really doesn't have a proper page here anyway) down the road; I will very likely continue to, meaning more visits here. 

Every pub in... Sallins

I'm really stretching my "tick off the nearby towns" thing here, but Sallins is on a reasonably frequent bus route, and I had the time to do two towns, so I dropped out. Said bus also goes to Naas, so that may yet turn up here, albeit it has a lot of pubs...

 

Sallins has three pubs, and as far as I can tell has pretty much always had three pubs. I've been passing through the town for years and I don't remember there being any more than that; but I have not done significant research in to this.

 

 

KDP0147 Flanagans Mills / Lock 13 Brewpub is probably the most notable pub in the town, being large and prominent; and I've actually been here before, repeatedly. I did not drop in again on this visit as bus times didn't really allow it, but I'll almost certainly be back anyway.

 

Kildare County Brewing brew on site, and their products are available in some other pubs, and in can in a currently fairly limited range of stockists. During pandemic full closure times, they focused on cans and I bought plenty of online orders from them; but I've also dropped in for food and to buy takeout at other times. Like a lot of more frequent places, the writeup ends up being short!

KD0084 The Railway Inn is a traditional pub, with a traditional name. It was exceptionally busy when I visited, with no space in the bar and limited space in the lounge due to the Leinster match that was on. Despite being this crowded, the bar staff were still providing to-table service for older customers, which I find a nice touch.

The pub cannot have been called the Railway Inn forever, as it claims to have opened in 1837 - with the railway only getting to Sallins in 1846.

KDP0164 JP Healys, which is right beside Lock 13, but is a separate pub, is where I had a pint of Kildare County Electric Juice. Somewhat less crowded - but with all its canal-view outside seating taken in the beaming sunshine, this pub had a slightly younger crowd. 

This pub was formerly the Bridgewater Inn.

Revisited pubs, May 2026

While there were some new visits this month, it was another month of mostly re-visits, as they really now all are.

N0007 Clearys, Amiens Street - bit of an inspection visit to make sure it hasn't been ruined by new ownership. It has not.
N0006 Brew Dock, Amiens Street
S1433 O'Sheas Merchant, Merchants Quay
N0215 Fidelity, Queen Street - this is overdue a rewrite now as the writeup is for Dice Bar still.
N0213 Frank Ryans, Queen Street
1011787 Salmon Leap, Leixlip Co. Dublin - yes, this pub is actually in Dublin, even if you can look in to Kildare from the lounge.
N0084 Black Sheep, Capel Street
N2805 Krewe, Capel Street - the drinks offering here has improved since my last visit
S0077 Nearys, Chatam Street
S0106 Porterhouse, Parliament Street
S3178 Street 66, Parliament Street
N0191 Pantibar
Bar Anam - last visited as N0097 Underdog and will also need a writeup
N0082 McGraths, Drumcondra
N1099 The Sackville - last visited as a very different The Sackville!
N0204 P Duggans - lasted visited as Eamonn Reas, but nothing has really changed
S0292 Wicked Wolf - changed a fair bit in 9 years, tidier and with more drink options
N1620 Boco

The Comeback of Thatch - 1980/90s neo-rusticism

Dublin has a reasonable number of thatched pubs, for a fairly urban environment. There aren't any in the city centre, but there are plenty in suburbia.

However, they are almost all pastiche in style. The thatch is real - very real, very expensive and requiring very skilled trades to install and maintain it; but the pubs were not thatched originally, and some are or were new buildings.

 

As far as I can tell, the trend for this was started by the only thatched Dublin pub to have since been demolished (yet!), the S0440 Stillorgan Orchard, which was thatched in late 1988.

 

A number of other pubs were thatched over the next few years, as this trend proliferated. S0232 Glenside was thatched during a renovation in the 90s, with N0300 Lord Mayors in Swords being thatched during its extension renovation in 1992 (interestingly, lead by then the Douglas Wallace Opperman architects, the practice of the recently deceased Hugh Wallace). The Lord Mayors is to be demolished, removing another thatched pub from the county.

 

S0398 The Playwright in Blackrock - now a Dunnes Stores with a pub licence - was rebuilt completely in 1994, and thatched at the time. When converted to a Dunnes, the long unmaintained thatch was replaced with slates. 

 

All of these four - and potentially more Dublin pubs - were thatched by Kyran O'Grady, a first generation thatcher - something I believe is quite rare, as it is more often passed down families - who is still working today. 

 

N1128 Courtneys in Lucan is another pub which has a "modern" thatched roof, but I haven't been able to place when this went up, other than that it still had slates in 1970. This may be a 1980s/90s addition, or may be somewhat older.

 

On the slightly older scale, 1002618 Taylors Three Rock is reported as having had its thatched roof "added" in a review in October 1972, which indeed references there being extremely few other thatched pubs around - citing one in Galway as the only other.

 

 I  have severe suspicion about the integrity of S1583 An Poitín Stil in Rathcoole - this advertises itself in 1992 in a manner that makes me suspect it was first thatched then; and I cannot find a reference before them.

Now, not every Dublin thatched pub is a 20th century pastiche,.

S1580 The Rathcoole Inn's thatch, in comparison to basically everything else mentioned here, appears to be genuinely original - the trustworthy Heritage Houses of Ireland Facebook page speculates that it is "'possibly' Ireland's largest surviving historic thatched structure"

DG0478 The Man O War I think is possibly also genuine, has had some issues with its thatch recently - a fire which damaged it, but was not severe enough to force it to close for more than a day.

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: S1470 Swift

This is another pub I've been to a few times recently where the original writeup makes little sense to link to; and deserves a re-write.

Agnes Brownes was a very, very strange pub. Swift isn't. Swift is quite a normal pub for what this bit of D8 has become, with a normal pub interior, a normal pub crowd and normal enough drinks selection - there are a few Irish independent taps amongst the regular macros. They also do toasties.

I've been spending a lot more time amongst the pubs of D8 in recent months; for one main reason - Underdog is gone - and a few other ones. There's a reasonable variety, they're close to the bus route home, and are cheaper by taxi should I decide I don't want to deal with public transport for any reason. So I've been to Swift a few times and will almost certainly be back again.

Interestingly, this isn't the iteration of this pub that actually replaced Agnes Brownes. The extensive renovation happened before the pub opened as The Magnet, which I believe was connected to Luckys and The Circular; but changed to Swift after a relatively short period (and a change of operators).

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: N0020 Juno / Hera

The third in a not-really-a-series of doing a new writuep for somewhere that has both changed drastically since its original writeup, and which I am likely to end up in often enough that it needs to be explained.

Unfortunately, both the previous ones have shut down since I did them; but both were in "cursed premises" of sorts... and this one isn't. So I don't think I'm going to strangle it somehow.

I end up having pre-train drinks in this end of Drumcondra quite a bit, and they nearly always end up being N0082 McGraths. However, this replacement for the Red Parrot has started becoming a bit more common, particularly if I have a longer time to wait, or I'm approaching Drumcondra from the South to begin with. 

Juno offers the now fairly common mix of having quite a few craft taps, but not being a "craft beer bar" - there are macro products aplenty here, albeit those may be slightly selected for the cooler end of the market too. By that I mainly mean Beamish, which is having an odd revival both as a cheap pint in "normal" bars and as something people half my age drink in "cool" bars.

The Juno part of the setup here is the bar of the former Red Parrot; with the larger volume of the premises - the former lounge areas - being the Hera restaurant. I quite enjoyed a meal here, which has full availability of Juno drinks during it.

My Classics knowledge is fairly limited so I had to confirm that yes, Juno and Hera are the equivalent goddesses in Roman and Greek mythology; the Queen of the Gods. 

On the worry about cursing places with these writeups - Juno did in fact "close" briefly already in late 2024, leading to some actually quite nasty gleeful posts on Facebook from people who wanted a more traditional pub there; and some more respectful but still wrong claims about there "not being enough hipsters". 

This closure was for less than two weeks and I believe was solely related to getting Hera ready to open; nothing else. If it turns out doing this revisionary writeups is a curse I'll stop, I promise!

N1617 Gate Theatre

I warned last Summer that there would be quite a lot of theatres coming. This may be the last, for a little bit anyway - I currently have no more tickets booked!

The Gate opened on this site in 1930, but it is located in the 18th century New Assembly Rooms of the Rotunda Hospital (the Assembly Rooms, without the New, is N2205 Ambassador Theatre next door), and as an older theatre, has a more traditional bar, sited to the rear of the building and overlooking the carpark of the Rotunda Hospital. This makes it both older and yet younger than the remaining grand Victorian theatres in Dublin, comparing building fabric and operational history.

In addition to the "proper" bar, there is a smaller bar selling tea (in china cups), wine and soft drinks close to the main entrance of the auditorium. They also allow drinks in to the auditorium, the first Dublin theatre I have actually experienced that in, with an usher providing plastic glassware to decant at the entries to the auditorium. 

I don't review any of the plays I go to see on these ticks, but this one was quite good. And is still running for a bit by the time this writeup gets published, but based on the show seeming to be a total sellout the night I saw it, it may be sold out! 

Offshore Island Pubs of Ireland

I've written, on many occasions at this stage, about my family connections to Arranmore Island in Donegal; and how I only completed its 6 (remaining, of 8) licences in 2022, albeit the last remaining pub was one I had been in countless times as a kid.

Arranmore's 6 pubs is quite a lot for one island, and it has made me wonder about what other offshore (before someone comes and lists most of the pubs in Cork City...) island pubs there are. And also if I can actually tick all of those off too.

This is not a promise to do that. I might, but I'm not guaranteeing I'll do it it like I have with Dublin and also The Rosses. 

I'm going off the 2024-5 full licence file here, so there is a very high chance I'm missing somewhere, but I made a reference back to the 2010-11 file to try find any lost pubs too.

I'm going to start North and work my way counter-clockwise here, so places I've been mostly work their way to the top...  I am also only counting islands you still need a boat to get to - I may have an Achill great-grandfather, but you're basically mainlanders now!

An additional thing to note is that some islands have bars in community centres or social clubs that have club licences. These may be the only bar, or an additional one. I have never counted social club licences as they are unquantifiable - there is no register for them. Another island has a "bar" which I have only identified a restaurant licence for to date.

Tory

LEP397 Tory Island Hotel - I have eaten (as a child), but not drunk, here. This doesn't count as a tick.

Arranmore

LEO002 Neilys 
LEP013 Earlys Pier Bar
LEP014 Glen Hotel
LEP015 Owens Hotel
LEP431 Seaview / Smugglers Niteclub
1009262 Phil Bans

These are all visited, with those trading during the day on a specific day in 2022 linked above.

Clare Island

CBP109 Bay View Hotel - this appears to now be a private rental, with the bar possibly occasionally open
1003341 Clare Island Community Centre / Anchor Bar

Inishbofin

GAP910 Inishbofin House Hotel
GAP911 The Beach Bar
GAP912 Doonmore Hotel
GAP984 Dolphin Hotel

edit: I initially didn't find the licence for the Beach somehow, but then noticed the gap in the sequence and went looking

Inishmore

GAP524 Tigh Joe Mac's 
GAP526 Tigh Joe Watty
GAP527 The Bar, Kilronan 
GAP977 Aran Islands Hotel

The, ahem, gap in those licence numbers made me see if I had GAP525 in my archives - the Lucky Star in Kilronan appears just once in the 2010-11 register, and seems to have closed permanently in 2006, with irregular opening before

I also found GAP528, Tigh Fitz, in these old files - it seems to have been sold as a non-trading hotel with bar in 2021 and is now rental apartments, without a bar.

Inisheer 

GAP863 Inis Oirr Hotel - this is ticked off, twice, in ~2008 and again in ~2012
GAP535 Tigh Ruairí - this was ticked off in ~2012
GAP536 Tigh Ned

Inishmaan 

GAP534 Teach Ósta 

Those paying attention may have noticed a licence sequence with a big hole in it for the three Aran Islands. I have no records of GAP529-533 in any archived file for the last 15 years, but they may have existed. 

Bere

BYP084 Bere Island Hotel
BYP085 O'Sullivans, Rerrin 

Cape Clear

BYP193 Cotters
BYP470 Ciaran Danny Mike's 

Sherkin

BYP196 Jolly Roger
BYP468 Sherkin House Hotel - not open to the public at present

Rathlin

I belive there is one pub - McCuaigs - on Rathlin, but without equivalent data, I don't have licence numbers.

S3667 Project Arts Centre

Coincidental to finally getting this licence ticked off the list, I have been doing a dig through the archives of the Sunday Business Post, which covered the redevelopment of Temple Bar in great detail. I think there may be an article to be had out of that; but without ruining that - this is a ~2000 build, purpose-built arts space, on the site of a more ramshackle former home for Project. 

As such, it doesn't have the classic bars of some of the older Dublin theatres I have visited; but instead it has an actually fairly large (compared to the size of the auditorium), more modern mixed area of low and high tables, plus a bar that primarily serves beers from O'Haras - a good choice for a venue that promotes Irish creativity.  

The bar is open after shows, something theatres are allowed to; but rarely actually do. We decided to make use of this, and got to see almost (or perhaps all) the entire cast of the show pop in for drinks themselves. I suspect this isn't something actors would want to do in more traditional theatres, and with some of the cast of the performance I was seeing being quite well known, I suspect it's probably an enjoyable benefit of this venue.

Project is 60 next year - with over 50 years on this site -  which I presume will lead to much celebration.

1022775 Díon

The pubstaurant to beat all Dublin pubstaurants, this vast premises takes the top two floors of the former Central Bank building on Dame Street; and is - currently if not going to eternally be - a bookings required, eating required setup; but one which holds a pub licence for the usual pubstaurant reasons.

I had been in this space before, but not this premises - I was on the last ever public tour of the old Central Bank - the late afternoon, last day of Open House tours in the year they were moving to the new building on North Wall. They did actually feed us - something that has happened on a few Open House tours where the building owner has a canteen (AIB Bankcentre was another); but this was in the canteen in the other building of the complex, not in the boardrooms and similar that once occupied the upper floors.

The opening of Díon was heavily delayed by the financial troubles of the fitout company that was originally working on it, and the fitout is of a very high quality. The food was fine, but the beer menu not so - a common problem with pubstaurants, even those of such a huge scale.

It's definitely worth going here at least once, to see the views. The food may bring you back, but I'd prefer places with pub licences to seem more like pubs! 

N0132 Clontarf Castle Hotel

I thought the bar in this fairly exclusive 4* hotel was residents only, or at least somewhat discouraged random outsiders.

I was wrong. I noticed that there was a line in some marketing blurb about the bar being "loved by residents and locals alike", so headed out there for the tick.

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The hotel is a converted castle, but the physical building is not as old as the history of there being a castle on the site, and I won't bother recapping the building or site history, when the licencing history is more interesting.

The low licence number here indicates that there has been a liquor licence here for a lot longer than the 1997 hotel construction would have got sequentially - new premises in the late 90s were nearly up to N2000-series licence numbers. 

This is because the Castle had become a licenced cabaret venue decades prior, potentially back to the late 50s based on some newspaper archive references. Anyone notable in the Irish cabaret scene performed there, as did various musicians; and by the time of the hotels construction works requiring closure of the cabaret venue; it was basically the last-man-standing of Dublin's cabarets

The Evening Herald devoted a page and a half to "The Death Of Cabaret", talking to Louis Walsh, Sonny Knowles, Maureen Potter, Jim Aiken and others about the impact the closure would have on the dwindling Irish scene.

I'm fairly certain occasional performances of the type that had gone before *did* return when the hotel reopened, but it isn't a feature of the current offerings there.

There is a fairly standard hotel bar/informal dining setup, called Knights. This does welcome non-residents, accommodates non-diners, and there will be other people just drinking there. I had a shockingly reasonable quality (and price) for a hotel pint here, far far better than I was expecting from having visited 130 other hotel bars in the city at the time.

Revenue register update, May 2026

Small update this month of mostly minor data changes

 New:

1022699 MJ Wrights, Georges Street - open since December and already written up

Actual Adult (NSFW, ish) Entertainment pubs - an easily solved dilemma

I have previously written about the trend of there being "entertainment" pubs in Dublin - darts, golf, VR, bowling etc etc. Entertainment for adults that's entirely safe for work.

The thing is, as goes completing Every Pub, is that there are three premises that specialise in actual Adult Entertainment. Strip clubs, to get blunt about it. There were four with licences, but one has closed during the time I've been doing this.

S3794 Lapello - an actual old pub; but with the ground floor changed to a Centra, is an outstanding tick for me, with a Theatre licence.  S3732 The Barclay Club holds an actual Publicans licence, with S3639 Angels finishing up this set with a Theatre licence.

It should just be easy, if a bit expensive, for me to tick these off. There are two problems with that, however.

The first one is that I'm rather uneasy with this type of sex work, where I have little knowledge of just how much agency the workers involved have. I trust that the operators have done all required checks, but I'm still worried about things that might not have been easily found.

The second, and fundamentally more important one here, is that I'm not attracted to women. I've occasionally mentioned my long-term fiancé on here over the years; as well as my decades old history of going to Dublin's gay bars; but it isn't something I feel needed to be pointed out a lot. However, it means that any trip to these premises would be a massive waste of money in that regard.

I have asked all three about going in just for a drink - buying said drink, I never look for freebies. None of them allow it, all have an entry fee that includes a lap dance.

So I'm just not going to go to them. My target, my rules. Additionally, I don't consider these to be places that a normal punter can just go in to, even with an entry fee; which is the basic rule I apply for everywhere else.

Toby, Berni and JDW - British chain pubs in Dublin

The presence of English chain pubs in the Dublin market - currently, just a smattering of JD Wetherspoon premises and no solid plans for any more - is unpopular with many, but it isn't particularly new.

While the first JDW to actually open in Dublin was 1009755 Three Tun Tavern - since sold and renamed The Blackrock - in 2014; JDW had been sniffing around Ireland for quite some time prior to that. They had purchased a building on Capel Street with intent to convert it in to a pub in 2003, however they fairly rapidly sold this, writing down €900,000 on it and other costs involved in the abortive project.

They now operate three suburban and three city centre pubs - N2358 Old Borough, Swords, N2244 Great Wood, Blanchardstown, S3795 Forty Foot, Dun Laoghaire; 1015767 Silver Penny, Abbey Street, 1017594 Keavans Port, Camden Street and S4345 South Strand, Grand Canal Dock. A handful of pubs outside Dublin have all been sold off, and development plans for further pubs cancelled.

update: A July 2000 Sunday Business Post article claims that JDW were outbid on tenders to run two pubs under development at the time - 1010804 Drunken Fish, then branded tentatively as "Kings Excise Bar" but I believe opened as Excise; and somewhat oddly, the premises which is now their S3795 Forty Foot. If true, this would suggest an even longer history of kicking tyres on the Dublin market.

JDW aren't the only British pub chain to have poked around at Dublin and backed off.  Mitchells and Butlers have been reported as having kicked tyres on a number of large pubs various times up until 2014, as have Greene King - the latter apparently having gone as far as appointing advisors to negotiate with pub owners in 2013. Whitbread - the owner of Premier Inn who are expanding at a great pace in Ireland currently, formerly operated pubs (and a brewery) and were also apparently looking to buy Irish pubs in the late 1980s.

However, JDW and other assorted big chains are nowhere near the worst of what you could import from the UK, and Dublin certainly had those extremely tacky ones too.

There was a single branch of the Berni Inn pub steakhouse chain, in the premises which is now Tapped on Nassau Street. This chain was best known for offering the exceptionally cliched menu of a prawn cocktail, a steak and chips, and Black Forest Gateau; although clearly this was not compulsory. Drop the prawn cocktail and I'd be quite willing to eat that still, but anyway...

This was a joint venture with Clayton Love Group, the frozen peas to property entity, who had bought Jammets Restaurant that operated on this site before the Berni Inn. It opened in 1970 and seems to have closed in 1986 or early 1987, with there being bar and club elements open alongside the restaurant - such as the Ploughmans Bar and Mac's nightclub. There were proposals for more Berni Inns around Ireland but it appears none ever opened.

More recently, indeed after the sole Berni Inn had close, the somehow still going Toby Carvery brand entered Ireland in 1988. This brand is now owned by the aforementioned Mitchells & Butlers, but in 1988 was a subsidiary of Bass.

Toby Restaurants (Ireland) Limited assembled a small collection of large pubs - S0369 Step Inn, S1236 Mount Merrion House and N0313 Coachmans Inn; and extensively renovated them into the format of Toby Cavery pub/restaurants. These were sold off between 1991 and 1993, losing over £2m in the process between purchase and renovation costs. 

These premises kept their original names, but the renovation added "Toby Carving Rooms" to the pubs, the first one at the Step Inn being opened by TV presenter Derek Davis. The Coachmans is still a noted carvery venue. but is to be mostly demolished for a hotel development; with the Mount Merrion already closed and the Step Inn having moved somewhat up-class in its food service.

I should also add the perplexing presence of a pub-licenced former Little Chef out past the airport, but I don't think this was from a trial of having Little Chef Pubs!

edit: it is probably worth mentioning that Allied Domecq dipped their toes in to Dublin in 1995, but this was a brand protection measure more than anything else. They owned a chain of pubs vaguely based on the Scruffy Murphy's pub in Dublin, so they bought it. This was their only pub in Ireland and I believe was sold before or when Punch Taverns (the former Bass estate) bought their pub estate in 1999. I have documented this before.

The Pubstaurant - how Irish licencing laws cause restaurants to get pub licences

As I get to the difficult to tick end of the list of Dublin's pub licences - having long since finished everything you'd consider to be a "normal pub" - a reasonable amount of what I have been ticking off for the last 12 months have been restaurants.

These restaurants all hold full pub licences - I am not intending to tick off everywhere with a Special Restaurant Licence (hereafter SRL) that allows them to sell the full range of alcoholic drinks. 

Some of them are in former pubs that have since become restaurants, e.g. S0297 Daata in Blackrock is in a building which has had many pub incarnations, and there has been a licence on this site for likely over a century. The other branches of the now expansive Daata chain do not hold pub licences.

But rather a lot of them are not, and instead bought in a pub licence on opening, or at another time afterwards. Pub licences are not cheap - depending on demand they can range from €45000 upwards, and have reached over €100k in the modern era (and one traded for over £1m in the old era where they could not be moved far easily).

Pubs do this because it is significantly easier to have a conventional bar with one. A SRL limits how you serve drinks - table service only, when you serve drinks - limits before and after meals and on the minimum cost of meals, albeit that cost is now extremely low, and to who you serve drinks - only those actually dining.

Possibly more importantly than all of these issues for many restaurants, is that SRLs additionally place onerous requirements on what food and drinks you serve. 

The food requirements are very traditional including a requirement to offer soups and meat main courses; and for drinks bar must have an "adequate wine list" on a physical wine menu presented to diners,  and offer both spirits and beers "of Irish origin". So no Asian restaurants serving vegetarian food with only Asian beers allowed then! I somehow suspect these rules are not enforced to their full extent anymore, but the SI is unamended and in force to this date.

The regulations go so far as to define the types of chairs (must be cushioned) and tables (if no tableclothes, they must be polished hardwood with table mats) a restaurant must have, that the restaurant has a cloakroom, that it has gendered toilets and that "table appointments" - everything on the table like salt cellars, candles, etc - match between tables. Basically you need a prim and proper 1980s Irish restaurant to comply with the rules.

I have also seen claims elsewhere that a SRLs doesn't allow draught beer; but I cannot find any legislation to back this up; and I believe it is a conflation of how you are not allowed have bar service. Draught taps does not equal bar service, but it would certainly conjure up images of such.

You can also apply for "late licences" - special exemption orders - to serve alcohol at later hours should you have booked a function that requires this, which cannot be done on a SRL.

So a full pub licence makes for a much easier time actually serving whatever alcohol (and food) you want to serve in a restaurant. 

A recent visit of mine to 1022717 Ivy Asia shows multiple reasons why - they do not serve any beer of Irish origin, their food menus do not match the late 80s Irish idea of "proper" as specified in the SI, and you can stay drinking cocktails for quite some time after you've finished eating if you so wish. I'm pretty sure the "table appointments" weren't identical on every table either.

Restaurants that have gone down the route of getting pub licences range from relatively high end places like both Ivy branches and the nearby Dunne & Crescenzi, through to fast casual places like Captain Americas, and when still trading, TGI Fridays. 

The in house restaurants of the Brown Thomas and Harvey Nichols department stores, multiple restaurants in the former Press Up empire and odd dual uses like the Malahide Siam Thai's small cocktail bar and the now gone Dundrum Donnybrook Fair doing off-sales as well as its restaurant make up the bulk of the rest of the pubstaurants. Not all of these places welcome non-dining drinkers; but plenty do - as you can see from my many writeups on here. I may go back and tag them all as such in future.

Revisit 19 years on: S3727 Flight Club (visited as Samsara)

I was in Samsara once, for a work event in 2007.

I returned to the new entity in the same premises for a work event in 2026.

In the interim, Samsara became Sam's Bar, then closed during the pandemic for a redevelopment of the hotel it was in; which never happened. The hotel has reopened as a tourist hostel, and the bar has reopened as an "entertainment pub" as many of 2025's new openings were; this one themed around darts. 

Flight Club is a franchise, with the Irish Loyola pub/restaurant group licencing the format from a company that seems to also franchise shuffleboard bars - something nobody has yet taken as the core format here, albeit Lane7 premises do offer that.

The format on offer includes lots of games that are based on the concept of darts, but are not conventional 501 games; a bit like an advanced version of Bullseye without the risk of ending up needing to share a speedboat; and is fairly fun even if you're incredibly bad at darts.

The bar has a reasonable drinks range including one solitary Irish independent tap (Hope Hop On), and the food provided to the group I was with was top notch as goes pub finger food, quite possibly the best I've actually ever had.

Unlike the other "entertainment pub" setups, I'm not entirely sure if you can just come in here for a drink - the entire place is set up with darts boards and clustered seating areas around them; but I didn't ask.

Revisited pubs April 2026

While April did actually feature some new, in scope, Dublin visits for the first time in a while; it mostly consisted of revisits. Longer evenings, sunny weekends and a variety of reasons to be in Dublin meant this was an extremely productive month for those.

N0027 Annesley House
1000937 Bridge Tavern
N0024 Hogan Stand
N0018 Big Tree (Dublin One Hotel), fundamentally changed from my previous visit
N0020 Juno - I really need to do a writeup of Juno rather than the Red Parrot
S0088 Foggy Dew
S0106 Porterhouse
S3840 Lynotts (last visited as Graingers The Fountain)
1013579 Luckys
S1470 Swift - also needs a new writeup as this is drastically different from Agnes Brownes
S3953 DV8 (last visited as JK Stoutmans)
1022495 Old Royal Oak
S1510 The Patriots
S0031 O'Neills (Pearse Street)
S0009 Doyles (College Street)
S0080 Bar Rua (no longer a Galway Bay pub, Galway Bay having merged with Brú who merged with Carrig who ran the pub when the original writeup happened)
S0122 O'Neills (Suffolk Street)
N0082 McGraths
S0239 Murphys
S2288 Mother Reillys / Uppercross House Hotel
S0238 Rody Bolands
S0241 Graces
S0240 Martin B Slattery
S0237 Kodiak (last visited as Copan)
S0236 The Dunmore
S0235 Blackbird
S0234 Corrigans
S3727 Flight Club - last visited as Samsara

S0135 Gaiety Theatre

I'd been to the Gaiety before, a number of times at that - but every single one of them was when I was in school. We went to see some random plays here in primary, including a panto; and then also went to see King Lear here when doing it in secondary.

I never got to attend the famed Velure nightclub here by virtue of being far too young; and even though the theatre-licence-for-late-opening loophole lasted in to my adulthood, the Gaiety was stopped from using this in 2004 for various reasons.

I'm a much more regular attendee of the cities other fine old Victorian theatre, the Olympia, as it has fundamentally become a music venue rather than a dramatic theatre; whereas the Gaiety rarely has anything other than traditional plays and musicals, with occasional stage magic and even more occasional comedy gigs filling out the year.

The Olympia is known for its bars, or at least for Maureens bar - and the Gaiety does have a named bar as well, the almost unsearchable John B's Bar - search engines will redirect you to the bar in Listowel once owned by John B Keane rather than this one named after him. This appears to be restricted to those in the fancy seats downstairs, however.

The bar I was able to visit was, unfortunately, the quite crowded and very modern bar for the upper circles. Selling a limited range of Diageo only beers, you'd do well to get in here early before a show and also to use the interval pre-ordering if available, if you want to actually get a drink during the interval. I was at a fully sold out performance, though, so this may have had an impact.

I often state that I'm not a restaurant reviewer, and I'm going to even more strongly state that I'm not a theatre reviewer so there will be no coverage of what I saw on stage!

1022717 Ivy Asia

A new Dublin "pub", and yet again, its a sodding pubstaurant.

Only a few doors down from its sister restaurant, this is another pubstaurant where you aren't going to get in for just drinks at any stage - the licence is here to make it simpler to manage the sale of cocktails and beer to diners rather than for operating as a normal pub.

The setup here is extensively done for Instagram, which is why I've not taken photos of any of it - the sliced agate (I think) floor and the statute at the urinals are already over-photoed. This level of setup doesn't usually bode well for the food...

...however, the food was actually well above my expectations. I'm not a restaurant reviewer, so I'm not going to get in to detail about it. It's pricey, but I wasn't disappointed.

Every Pub In... Dunboyne

The first of these trips to go beyond the county I live in, Dunboyne lies just over the border from both Kildare and Dublin in to Meath. It is accessible by Dublin Bus or Irish Rail, and is within the commuter fare zones, unlike some of the extremities of County Dublin!

With a 7,155 population in 2022, Dunboyne is notionally smaller than Kilcock; but supports four pubs (and a hotel) unlike Kilcock's two.

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 I started in Brady's, specifically in the bar, which I suspect would have people raving about if it it was in Dublin. A plain, traditional bar with no TVs, this provides precisely what you'd want from a traditional pub. Further in, they do have TVs, but it is still very traditional. This is apparently CMAT's local too.

Slevins was up next, and sort of unfortunately I don't have a lot to write about it - because its absolutely fine. There was just nothing that particularly jumped out to me.

O'Dwyers, basically next door, ticked a lot more boxes for me. It has a more coherent layout, despite still being split up in to many areas, and its outdoor areas step out from a sort-of conservatory to some coherent outdoor seating bays that somehow make you forget that they're actually in a car park. There was also a bouncy castle for kids today, but I suspect that's not a permanent feature. 

Across the square from both of these was Mulvanys Fingal House, which I just didn't quite warm to. Repeated signs inside the bar about photos and videos being banned raised massive questions, and the pub just didn't feel great for me. However, it was busy enough, and there was also signage about needing to book tables (despite them not doing food); so presumably it has a large regular crowd.

I didn't drop in to the bar of the Dunboyne Castle Hotel, not because it was particularly awkward to do so (it isn't), but because I'd already been there. This mid 2000s hotel was built around a former mother and baby home, itself a Georgian manor house; and as a good place to have a wedding relatively close to where I live, I have already attended a wedding here. Plenty of pints were purchased there, so I don't need to return to tick it off!

Every Pub In... Kilcock

I still have a total of one sort-of normal pub to do a first visit to in Dublin, so I will continue my trips to nearby suburban towns to visit their pubs. This trip writeup covers a very brief trip to Kilcock on a sunny, yet also rainy, April afternoon. 

Kilcock had a population of 8,674 as of the 2022 census - easily over 10k now, particularly when you include the large Millerstown housing estate that is actually in County Meath. And it has two pubs.

It had five pubs, in recent-ish memory. Three are currently gone. I'll give a quick roundup on these first before getting on to the two open pubs; but that the town has declined in provision so much is unfortunately not a surprise.

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Kilcock has been blighted with dereliction for my entire life, and while some improvements have happened - the Leaf / Chewits factory has been replaced by housing, and the derelict school buildings on and behind the Square have been renovated and replaced by a large Supervalu; there are still multiple derelict or underused buildings in the town centre, ranging from the extensive Kellys Bakery complex (once a major Guinness bottler) through to two of the closed premises I'm about to mention.

O'Keeffes had a significant fire in February 2023 and has yet to reopen, although occasional social media posts by family members promise that it will. 

The Lion House is to be converted to apartments with a licenced restaurant on site. Work was stopped in Summer 2025 for safety reasons. The building lies extremely derelict.

Corscaddens Hotel closed down a long time ago - it was for sale in 2002 but already looked slightly derelict in the sales photo, and it is unclear if it was trading at the time; but I can find references to events there in 1998. It was definitely shut by 2004 as I have photos I took of various derelict buildings in Kilcock back then, somewhere I can't current lay hands to. Aldi are planning to build a store behind here, and restore the building; but not as a pub or hotel.

But there are still two open pubs here, and the town has a lot of vibrancy to it - it is not all doom and derelict gloom

The Gregory Tavern is a large, rambling, comfortable pub; with a substantial choice of areas to sit and drink inside. It feels like somewhere that might do food, but doesn't - from what I've read, it just doesn't seem to take off when they have tried it in the past. This is a perfectly acceptable outer suburban - or provincial town, take your pick - conventional pub. I'd be more than happy to have this as my local, basically

Murphys is a picture postcard traditional rural pub, with a bar to match - but also has a fairly plush lounge and large well equipped beer garden as other options.

Both pubs could do with offering some independent Irish beers, and should probably first look to the brewery founded in - but which has since moved away from - the town, Rye River, which is widely available in all the neighbouring Kildare towns. 

Drinkers in Kilcock do have, as is often the case, the option of drinking in the local GAA club. In this case, it sits amidst housing estates fairly close to the town centre, and has extensive food offerings in its bar. This may depress demand for pubs in the town, but definitely gives another outlet.