About Half Of The Pubs In Naas

Naas has over 20 licences of the type I cover. After a specific mopping up trip, I have been to about half of them - or over half of them that are actually open. It could have covered more if I'd done a bit more research before jumping on a bus down there too.

I will not be doing a specific trip back here to finish this off, although if the sole closed pub re-opens as plans I might drop by. So this is what you're going to get.

Naas is the county town and hence administrative centre of Kildare, and as such I have been there quite a lot over the years, so I already had a reasonable number of premises ticked off. I'll list these first:

KDP0001 Osprey Hotel

I've been to lots of random events here over the years. Built as part of the "Devoy Quarter", the hotel is actually on what was empty land rather than Devoy Barracks, but is somewhat contemporaneous with the construction of Kildare County Councils HQ next door. 

KDP0025 Town House Hotel   

I've had a single pint here, on a Saturday afternoon a good few years ago when doing a Lego show in Naas Library.  

KDP0061 33 South Main

A modern pub that has kept some of its heritage - the building still has The Ivy heavily branded on it - I've eaten and drank here before. 

KDP0137 Kavanaghs

Another place I've had food and drink in before. A bit more traditional. 

KDP0182 Lawlors Hotel

An organisation I'm in had their Christmas party here for a few years, so this is the premises I've been in most often in Naas. I've also had more carverys here than I should have.

KDP0187 One New Row

Naas has two pubs that use their address as their name; which is quite a lot when you think about it.

This pub is very late 2010s in design and feels a tiny bit out of place, but I've been here more than once so I clearly don't have problems with it! 

KDP0210 Killashee House Hotel 

An exceptionally boozy work Christmas Party happened here in the early days of the crash. It was in January, as they found out the budget could stretch to booking out an entire hotel in January rather than just getting a dinner in December...

New visits 

Only four of the five new pubs made it in to my photo roundup here, for reasons that may become clear when you get to its writeup - I didn't want to take a photo of the outside! 

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KDP0068 Haydens

There were *three* doormen outside this pub, which I find quite inexplicable for a generic November Sunday, with minimal sports on TV, nothing on locally and no doormen on any other pub. Busy and with the youngest crowd of any of the premises I visited on the day. 

KDP0086 Fletchers

If this pub was in Dublin, it would be famous. A proto Long Hall; this has a Victorian interior, with electrically retrofitted gas lighting providing the minimal artificial illumination inside. A gem of a place.

KDP0097 O'Connors

This is almost a side street pub. I say "almost" as it is just one building off Main Street, and the building on the corner bears a large sign for it. 

An oddly laid out place, but quite cheap.

KDP0113 The Forge

This pub closed in ~2011 and was set alight in 2018 - badly damaged, but not enough to melt the 2010/11 Premier League sticker off the front door. 

It has been thoroughly renovated, and its owners also own other closed pubs in the town; one of which they plan to reopen (see the section below for why the other is a bit more of a problem).

Interesting pub, but needs more bar staff.

KDP0186 McCormacks

This should be quite a nice pub, but there were two things I didn't quite take to in the bar on my visit. It was weirdly smelly - to the point that I thought that it smelt like a bad pub toilets; but the toilets were actually in perfect nick; and there was basically no addressable bar. There are tables in front of the bar, and you get handed pints over those tables.

There are more areas to the pub, and I should probably have gone to take a look at those 

Unvisited

1006072 Moat Theatre

I find suburban theatres hard enough to tick off in Dublin; I'm not going to bother on side quests. 

KDP0033 Monread Lodge

Too far outside the town to do on foot, and I'm just not applying the same completionist approach to areas outside of Dublin.  

KDP0046 Maudlins House Hotel

See above - it's relatively nearby

KDP0059/KDP0071 Naas Racecourse

A pub licence and a racecourse licence here. I'm not interested in horse racing, and see above about completionism being for Dublin only! 

KDP0089 Tani

I said some research would have helped here. This restaurant has a full pub licence, and has had for a very long time; but I wasn't aware of that until I was back home.

KDP0112 Naas Court Hotel

This appeared to be set up for a specific Halloween party structure this weekend, rather than being open to the public; to the point that I couldn't figure out how guests even got in. 

KDP0165 Harbour Hotel

I've actually tried to drink here before, but the bar opened later in the day. It's not on the register this year (or any time recently) for some reason so I just didn't bother. 

KDP0174 Punchestown Racecourse

I've been to election counts here. The bar *was* open for one of them but I didn't really feel like drinking! 

These premises are currently or permanently impossible to tick off:

KDP0018 Five Lamps

This is closed and has been for a very long time. The pub is owned by the owners of The Forge, who are planning to reopen it and have proven they can reopen a long closed pub already. 

KDP0054 Time Nightclub. 

I am baffled as to why this has its own licence, which is a hotel class one, as this is *physically in* the Osprey Hotel. It is also completely gone, having been converted to a conference centre. Time used to run branded buses up to Maynooth when I was of the age of going to bad rural nightclubs; but I never actually went. 

KDP0183 Sarah Floods

This pub doesn't exist. 

It was demolished in ~2007, but remains licenced. Apparently demolished for a road, which has not materialised; the licence is held by the owners of The Forge and the Five Lamps, but it's a bit harder to reopen a pub that is completely gone!

Gone

There's not a lot of pubs that are gone off the register in Naas, but there are some:

KDP0034 Swan Dowlings

This has been closed for a while, but not as long as when it first got permission for demolition (2012). The most recent proposals have been refused.

KDP0184 Graces

This is now Neighbourhood restaurant and does not seem to have retained the pub licence. Graces operated until at least 2022.  

Revisted Pubs, October 2026

Some relatively long ago revisits this month, over a decade in a few cases.

S3965 Cassidys
S0065 Bill Ahernes - last visited as Fitzgeralds
S0106 Porterhouse
S0082 Brogans - the revisit caught that I'd never written this one up somehow
S3718 Peadar Kearneys
1008947 Wiley Fox
N1083 Briodys
N0099 Big Romance
S3103 The Christchurch
S3178 Street 66
S3467 Vicar Street
S3055 Buskers
S1438 Board - last visited as MVP
N1102 The Celt
S0015 The Ginger Man
N0106 MeMas - last visited as The Metro
N1556 Murrays
N1064 The Oval
1001292 Olympia Theatre

S3891 National Concert Hall

Finally, a "last of the last" post - this is the last premises with a National Cultural Institutions Licence for me to visit.

While this would only have been licenced in the 2000s (based on its licence number, and the post-1997 possibility of getting such a type of licence; this has been a concert hall since 1981; and was a music venue in the 1870s prior to becoming the original home of UCD.

A redevelopment project has begun, converting some of the areas of the building which UCD remained in for longer in to more recital spaces and other uses; but there is a full renovation of other areas planned which will lead to a multi year closure. Or at least that's my knowledge of what's planned; the NCH website is not currently loading for me so I can't check the full details!

I thought this would come sooner and had basically stopped paying attention to what was going on here; intending to visit when it reopened... but it hasn't actually closed yet. So to inch further towards completion, I had to find something to go to here.

This years Haunted Dancehall provided something interesting enough, and not too wallet shattering. This also has the advantage of multiple rooms and hence three bars - I suspect all three bars - open to the guests.

There's a small range of draught beer, a few more bottles and also a select few Irish independent cans available at these bars - Kinnegar Big Bunny and Trouble Ambush.

If someone else is doing a tick off list and gets wine with lunch in the cafe here, I'm pretty certain that is on the main licence too, so would count. I certainly haven't found another licence for it.

RetroReview: S0082 Brogans

Another missed writeup, and one I'd never have caught if I didn't do my monthly revisit writeups. This is just getting in under the wire in time to be linked in this months one!

I think I know how this happened - I didn't catch that I'd been here before 2016 when I did my initial list of pubs I'd been to; then realised that I had at a later point, marked it off my list and maps but never updated the list on here. I used *that* list to do the RetroReview series.

I'd actually been here quite a lot, as it was the place I went before any gigs in the Olympia - at least until Galway Bay opened down the road; and it was the original location for Underdog; which I visited in all three locations (the last one quite regularly). Indeed, the writeup for what is now Thomas Reads mentions me decamping to Underdog in this premises.

Upstairs you get a fairly normal city centre bar, and downstairs you have the remains of Underdog; opened only at weekends by Brogans but still having a few craft options. It was oddly quiet the night I most recently dropped in - a Thursday, admittedly - so this may be a good choice if other pubs nearby are busy.

1009866 National Stadium

This was the last premises on the second-last of the very odd category licences for me to tick off - a National Sporting Arena Licence - and took some time to figure out when to do it. 

The name here is a bit opaque to those who are not aware of the venue - it is the National Stadium for the Irish Amateur Boxing Association, and is the only non field sports venue with a Sporting Arena licence in Ireland as it stands.

For some reason, various gigs and cultural events on here that would have matched my interests were always on when I was out of the country. Never just otherwise occupied at home or anything else - always consistently when I was away.

Eventually, something I knew I could at least tolerate (Tomora supported by Oxis - both good performances) popped up, so I got here.

The venue is a modernised 1930s boxing stadium, but has held non-boxing events since the start; such as circuses and exhibitions in the early days. Concerts have been happening here since at least the 1950s, with acts as big and varied as Louis Armstrong, Fleetwood Mac and Leonard Cohen performing over the years.

While it is well maintained and well staffed; it needs some more internal signage as to the layout of the seating blocks - and where the bar is. Locating this required finding someone with a drink and asking them where they got it - something I was then asked a number of times as more people arrived!

There's a long wooden bar in a room that feels like a school sports hall, and an entirely can/bottle bar. They sell quite a mix of macro products at surprisingly reasonable prices, but the bar is a bit of a  throwback; with neon signs for "Cold Budweiser" amongst others barely hidden behind a black cloth, presumably as they don't sell Budweiser.  

There's a very solid sound system here, but the 11pm curfew means that it is not particularly useful for dance music nights; which would otherwise thrive here. The location works against it as being a reliever venue for gigs just too big for the Olympia or Vicar Street too

RetroReview: S3425 Irish Museum of Modern Art

You thought I was done with this series... and so did I. Or possibly only I did; I don't think that many people keep that close track.

However, when preparing a post for an upcoming visit, I noticed that I couldn't find this entry anywhere. And I have been here, a few times at that.

This premises has a National Cultural Institutions Licence rather than a conventional pub licence. I've covered a number of the premises with these before; but not gone in to what the licence actually is. 

Effectively, it is a pub-type on-licence granted on request (and with Ministerial approval) to a limited list of institutions, specified in 1997 legislation. It does not require a licence to be cancelled, and does not have limitations on type of customer; but also is not a conventional pub licence either - with no ability to transfer the licence out to another premises.

A bare majority of the specified institutions in Dublin have, or have had licences (S3660 Chester Beatty Library, 1022852 National Gallery, here; and formerly the National Library). The others that have not, yet at least are the Hugh Lane, the National Museum at either location, and the Royal Irish Academy.

In the case of IMMA, the licence is used for a limited range of drinks in the cafe; but also presumably for the large concerts which take place in the grounds - as the licence type would appear to cover this. I have been at a few of these over the years.

A Substantial Portion Of The Pubs In Athlone

Over the past few years, I've had reason to spend a few nights/weekends in Athlone. And during that time I've visited a fair few of its pubs.

But nowhere near "every" and not even the "most of" I've done in another part (Tullamore) of the tripartite Midlands Gateway 'city' that we were promised in the 2000s

Athlone is bigger than Tullamore, and has a university campus, an army barracks, plus more and bigger hotels; so an increase in total licences would be expected. On top of that, Athlone effectively has "suburbs" of its own, which have their own pubs, all within the built up area of the town.

As far as I can tell, there are five hotels, a theatre, a bowling alley with a pub licence, and *THIRTY FIVE* pubs licenced in the Westmeath side of Athlone. Some of these are not trading, and may not have for a very long time (one is an empty shell of walls, but still licenced); but most are open.

There is also the Roscommon "suburbs" of Athlone, contiguous to the town but over the county line. I've visited none of these, but this adds, thankfully, only one pub (The Mill) and one hotel (Athlone Springs) to the number. 

If you add in non contiguous but close villages, the total starts to clatter towards 50, so we shall not be doing that.

So, here's where I've been, sorted by licence number, as doing this chronologically would be complicated:

ATP011 Mary Mc's

I visited this when it was the Brazen Monkey, which was fine, and notably very cheap. I haven't been back since it's very quick rebrand in Summer 2026.

ATP012 Gertie Browns

A rambling pub (go on a quest to find the hidden smoking area, or even the gents for that matter) of many rooms and even two shopfronts - the Cellar Bistro around the corner being the same premises. 

Claims to be a thousand years old, but like the more well known ancient pub claim (see below), this is of exceptionally questionable veracity.

ATP021 O'Briens

Small and eccentrically decorated, with charity shop records on the walls; andsawdust on the floor of the "country parlour" style rear bar (a range, loose tables and rustic greebling, other than the wall mounted motorbike). 

Said motorbike has a sign with something along the lines of "O'Briens Bar 1968", which I believe is more likely to be the age of the owner than the age of the pub; as this is only open a few months as O'Briens.  

Rental ads from early 2026 showing as the Mardyke Bar (with more mainstream decor), and prior to that it was Cartys.

ATP022 Careys

Small-ish bar, but with a suntrap outdoor area on the street. Also has a snug, not something you see that often outside Dublin these days

ATP026 Peddlar Macs

A large pub with lots of areas, which I initially felt was faux-old in design. However, an early licence number means it may not be quite so fake - but this is a fairly recent name, and the premises was previously marketed as a nightclub - so I'm probably on track with thinking its pastiche. Or the interior was once in another premises!

Showing GAA club football on the TVs when I went in, which is something I have very rarely seen before. 

ATP041 Connaught Lounge

The absolute gem of the lot here, this pub has been run by Willie McGrath since 1971; and has not particularly changed since then. Opens late in the evening (8/8:30), is cash only and has a limited range of drinks.

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ATP045 Walsh's

The rare in big towns thing of a bar-and-shop - there's only two in County Dublin - pops up here. What we get here is a modern Centra, and a rambling bar and lounge with a snug and piano.

Sensible rules in Walshs in Athlone

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— Cian Duffy (@everypubindublin.ie) October 18, 2026 at 12:00 AM

ATP047 McNeills

Large but fundamentally single room pub, a common format in the town. Oddly laid out, with a pool table inside the front door and the bar to the back. Still displaying 125th birthday signage from May this year, this is a pub that could/should have appeared on the VFI 100-year-in-the-family pubs list from 2002 that I recently wrote about, being 101 years in the family at that time.

Like their neighbour across the road having a "country pub" thing of a pub and shop; McNeills have a pub and funeral directors. We are very much in the built up area of the town here, but have two of the most common rural pub combos.

ATP055 Castle Inn

A large but traditional pub, a good escape from the tourists that may be mobbing its nearest neighbour.

ATP056 Seans Bar

Don't bother, unless it's quiet. It isn't worth being around that number of tourists being confused about how old stuff is.

Is it old? Yes, even by Irish standards. Is it the oldest pub in Ireland / the world as is claimed? Probably not. Is it as old as it claims? Probably not.

ATP064 Biddy O'Dowds

Another big-yet-one-room pub, which somehow reminds me of pubs in Donegal a lot. Decent enough.

ATP065 Nuts Corner

The name here is a little apt, but this was fairly fun when I dropped in for a pint.

ATP252 Val Beaumonts

As close in style as it is physically to the Connaught Lounge - they are a few doors apart - this is another gem of a traditional pub, but a bit more modern. There's a jukebox,  a card machine, and the toilets are more 1970s Spanish hotel than 1940s primary school.

And there's a cat.

Still Athlone. Next pub has a seat blocker.

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— Cian Duffy (@everypubindublin.ie) October 17, 2026 at 10:47 PM

ATP304 Dead Centre Brewing

Every visit has also involved going here, Athlone's own brewpub. There's a core range of their own beers here, supplemented by a few guest draught and a lot of bottle/can beers; and decent food. The outdoor area is a deck overhanging the Shannon, and is a glorious place to be in good weather, which I've had on every visit somehow, even in October!

ATP305 The Dark Horse

Modern - well, 2000s - style bar. Advertises craft beer, sells two. Still, a comfortable enough modern bar with food and pool tables which seems to be popular with families and younger (20s) drinkers.

ATP310 Shamrock Lodge Hotel

Older hotel - a 1950s build on to an 1814 country house - but extended repeatedy with fairly modern rooms, and known for it's carvery. A lot of family events have been held here over the years, and I've stayed here at times.

ATP313 Sheraton Hotel

This is my regular place to stay, as it's central, and has free underground parking. The bar is... fine for a hotel bar. There's not really much reason to use the bar here when you have all the other pubs to chose from, such as Careys practically next door.

Sort-of analysis

Licence number nerds may notice gaps in the lower numbers here, which suggests that there may previously have been a lot more than the ~35 pubs that are currently licenced. Licences were numbered by area, when numbering was introduced; and while ATP001 and some other very low numbers are in Abbeyshrule; Athlone itself seems to have started at ATP008 and runs to ATP073; but may have had a few more on each end depending on whether they vanished before my archive (16 years currently).

This would suggest that the town probably had 65+ licenced premises in the not too distant past; more than half of which are gone due to how many of the remaining licences are new builds.

Also, oddly, not a single premises I visited has a post-2008 series licence number, but this is just because I didn't get everywhere - some exist. 

2025>2026 year-on-year Revenue register comparison

The licencing year for pubs (and all liquor licences) runs from October to September, not January to December, for reasons I do not know and have never looked up. But considering the financial year used to start in April, and annual leave years still legally do; it may just be some legacy oddity we are left with

Anyway, this means that the October published register - which is to end of September - is the one to use to get the closest to reality list of liquor licences. If you pull the November list, you will be missing hundreds of premises - and I have seen some bonkers claimed numbers of pubs in Dublin or Ireland that are clearly based on early year lists. And most years, I remember to publish a year-on-year comparison of pure numbers, and also use this to prune closed premises from both my personal list, and my public maps.

It should be noted that some premises may be trading and not listed due to admin errors, or long-running deferrals of renewals; but they will rarely (I can name exceptions of close to a decade...) be missing for more than a year. 

2025's October Revenue list had 978 premises in County Dublin, and 2026's has 981. I have often forgotten to put this number in the year-on-year post, but checking old posts shows 953 in 2022 and 969 in 2023; so the trend of a slight increase in total licenced premises continues. However, it must be noted that most new openings in this time period are hotels; so really the number of conventional pubs continues to creep downwards

Premises which did not renew since the 2024/5 licencing year, and which are not trading, and as such will be removed from my personal list and marked as red on the map, are:

1001203 - Fern & Co, Stepaside - closed for some years
1003994 - TGI Fridays, Fleet Street - closed and due to be changed to a Popeyes Chicken, without a bar. I had visited this premises.
1014208 - The Baths, Clontarf - closed for some years
DG0490 - Caffe Italiano, Skerries - closed and being converted to housing
N0002 - Madigans, Connolly Station - closed, allegedly becoming a Taco Bell. I had visited this premises
N0138 - The Hollybrook, Clontarf - closed and being converted to housing
N2081 - Ripley Court Hotel, Talbot Street - bar being converted to more rooms
N2123 - The Living Room, Cathal Brugha Street - being converted in to the bar of the Holiday Inn Express which already has its own licence. I had visited both of these premises.
S3276 - Red Cow Hotel, Clondalkin - hotel not open to the public in recent years.
S3504 - Tramco, Rathmines - not traded for years, comes and goes off the register as plans progress to rebuild and reopen as a hotel
S4253 - Flying Duck, Dundrum - closed. I have visited this premises.

Additionally, a cross-check against my own list for licences I had left standing there has found one other to be trimmed:

S4187 Ukiyo, Exchequer Street - had left this here despite non-renewal as I assumed Madame Pho would use the licence. Madame Pho does not appear to sell alcohol, and certainly cannot claim to be a theatre as Ukiyo was licenced (due to its karaoke pods). I have visited this premises. 

 

This leaves me at 944/999 on my register; with 34 marked as some form of impossible - nearly all that the premises is not actually open at all, or trades in a completely atypical manner.

The Fate Of The Irish Pub - 24 years of change to a not very random selection

In 2002, journalist Cian Molloy published "The Story Of The Irish Pub", a book consisting of about ninety pages of the history of pubs (and brewing) in Ireland, but two hundred pages of history of 106 individual pubs. This book was produced in collaboration with the Vintners Federation of Ireland.

These pubs specifically were all recorded at that time as having been held by the same family for >100 years. It was not, nor intended to be, an exhaustive list of every pub with this status however.

He included only one pub in Dublin - N0078 Kavanaghs / The Gravediggers in Glasnevin; which may actually be the only one in County Dublin that was >100 years in 2002 specifically; but there is also the factor that the VFI are the union for publicans outside of Dublin & Bray; so would not have members in Dublin to cover. There are however also five listings in Northern Ireland, which is also beyond the VFIs membership scope.

But how many of these survive in family ownership, nearly a quarter of a century on? Or survive at all? The last quarter century has been exceptionally hard on pubs, with estimates of a quarter to 30% of pubs closing - and as these estimates are made on raw licence numbers, which include new hotels and pubstaurants - it is likely that even higher numbers of "real pubs" have actually closed.

The book is no longer available new, and the raw list of pubs it covers isn't the biggest bit of copyright lifting around, so I'm just going to list what was there and the current state. I say "appears" to be in the family where I am getting second hand or old info, rather than a website or other solid confirmation.

If you can get or borrow a copy of the book, the stories about these pubs - on average one page, but some are up to four - are well worth the read.

Connacht

Battles, Dromore West - Closed. 

Burkes, Colemanstown - open and appears to be in the family

McDermotts Castle View Bar, Castlebaldwin - open and appears to be in the family

Thomas Connolly, Sligo - open, but no longer in the family

The Country Club, Hollybrook - possibly open? Most recent publican, a Forde, appears to have died in August 2026

Cunninghams, Newbridge - open and appears to be in the family

Curleys, Portumna - open, but no longer in the family

Thomas Duignan, Drumsna - open and appears to be in the family

Green's, Kinvara - open and appears to be in the family

Keenans, Termonbarry - open and appears to be in the family

Kelehans, Bushy Park - open, but no longer in the family

Kellys, Monivea - appears to be open and in the family; poorly documented online

Kennys, Ballygar - open and celebrated 175 years in family ownership last year

McEvillys, Ballyheane - open and appears to be in the family

P. McManus, Drumshanbo - closed. Now a rental where you can have the bar stocked for you

Melletts Emporium, Swinford - open and in the family. 

Millers Inn, Bunninadden - open and appears in the family

Morans Oyster Cottage, Kilcolgan - open and appears in the family

Morriseys Loughrea - open, but cannot determine ownership at all

O'Boyles, Laught - open and appears in the family

Old Stand, Ballymote - appears closed

Rabbitts, Galway - open, but no longer in the family

Rustic Vaults, Tuam - open, but no longer in the family

Sheridans, Milltown - open and appears in the family

Waldrons, Athleague - closed

Woodfield Inn, Beltra - open, appears in the family but not for long (it is for sale as of writing)

Leinster

Birthistles, Arklow - closed, since the death of the owner in early 2025

Byrne's Irish House, Kilcoole - open and appears in the family (Doyle surname, but they already had this since the 1920s due to marriage)

Byrnes, Dundalk - open and appears in the family

Comerfords Mooncoin - open and appears in the family

O'Connors, Ballitore - closed

Drurys, Ballinakill - open and appears in the family

Dunbars, Ferns - open and appears in the family

The Glenside, Killeshin - open and appears in the family

Gonouds, Tyrrellspass - open and appears in the family

Harts, Campile - open, but no longer in the family

Hayes, Urlingford - open and appears to be in the family

Humes, Portlaoise - open, but no longer in the family

Hylands, Ballacolla - open, different name, no longer in the family (verified same pub, as the book helpfully has a photo of nearly every pub)

Kavanaghs, Glasnevin - open and in the family

Larkins, Cainsbridge - appears to be open and in the family

Muldoons, Drumconrath - open and in the family. This is also a shop and filling station, and I have actually filled my van here, in a previous job; I think the only premises on the list other than Kavanaghs that I've been to!

Nallys Corner House, Ballymahon - open and appears to be in the family

O'Briens, Athy - open and in the family

O'Dwyers, Kells, Kilkenny - closed

O'Gradys, Stoneyford - open. renamed to Malzards, but this was the family name anyway.

O'Keeffes, Kilcock - closed, but in the family - this pub was burnt out in 2023 but may yet reopen.

The Real Unyoke, Blackwater - closed

The Riverview Inn, Cadamstown - closed. Was renamed to the family name, before closing in the pandemic, being auctioned in 2022 and converted to housing

The Salmon Pool, Thomastown - open and appears to be in the family

Shaws, Summerhill - open and appears to be in the family

Smyths, Newtown - closed, was for sale in 2022

Soraghans, Dundalk - open and appears to be in the family

Sycamore House, Killurin - open and appears to be in the family

Tallons, Tinahely - open and appears to be in the family

Treacys, The Heath - open and appears to be in the family

Vine Cottage Bar, Saltmills - open and appears to be in the family

M.H. White, Clara - closed. Now a doctors and a pharmacy.

Munster

Armshaws, Cappawhite - open and appears to be in the family, although there is a Property Price Register entry that would refer to accommodation portions of the pub being sold.

Ashe's, Dingle - open and in the family, but slightly refocused as a restaurant. 

Barrets, Kanturk - open and appears to be in the family

Begleys, Ballydavid - open and in the family

Bohans, Feakle - closed and up for sale

Bolands, Castlegregory - open, I think, appears to be in the family; but also up for sale

Brownes, Parteen - open and in the family

Cahalanes, Skibbereen - closed

Cahills, Rathmore - closed, sold, was meant to reopen in 2024 following renovations (which have visibly begun in 2022 Streetview passes) but as yet, has not

Dessys, Ballineen - closed

P Donnellon, Kilkishen - closed. I think. This appears to still be licenced, but that is no impediment to being closed! Has looked closed on Streetview for the past 17 years.

Fitzgibbons, Fermoy - closed

Herberts, Castleconnell - open and appears to be in the family

Jacks, Newmarket - closed. A bookies by 2009, this took comparing buildings with the old photos to find

Jack C's, Killarney - open and appears to be in the family

Kirbys, Ballheigue - open and appears to be in the family

Lonergans, Fethard - open, but no longer in the family. A sales ad from 2022 is still up currently, but new owners are in place

Luceys, Bantry - closed

Albert Lynch's, Mallow - open and appears to be in the family

Mansworths, Cobh - open and appears to be in the family

McCarthys, Clonmel - closed... ish. Now a B&B and seems to be in the family, but no pub

Moroneys, Glen of Aherlow - open and appears to be in the family

JC Murphys, Macroom - open, but cannot verify ownership

Norrie O'Briens, Tipperary Town - open and appears to be in the family

O'Rourkes, Roscrea - open and appears to be in the family

O'Sullivans, Lisselton - open and appears to be in the family

O'Donovans Hotel, Clonakilty - open and in the family

Patrick Power, Clarecastle - closed and up for sale

Ramble Inn, Abbeyfeale - open and appears to be in the family

Roadside Inn, Lisdoonvarna - open and in the family

Halpins, Croom - closed, most recent owner died in June 2026; may reopen

Treacys The Nook, Youghal - open and in the family

West End, Fenit - open and in the family

Youghs, Latteragh - open and appears to be in the family

Ulster

Blakes, Derrylin - open but very recently not in the family and renamed Maguires

Blakes of the Hollow, Enniskillen - open and in the family, the same family that sold the above pub in 2026 after 139 years

Brennans The Criterion Bar, Bundornan - closed. Famous enough to have a Wikipedia page

Brittons, Pettigo - open and appears to be in the family

Dohertys, Ardara - open and appears to be in the family

Harkins, Brockagh - open and appears to be in the family

McClaffertys, Churchill - closed

McDonells, Ballycastle - open and appears to be in the family, also famous enough to have a Wikipedia page

Mones, Keady - open, appears to be in the family for now, but up for sale

O'Donnells, Meenaneary - open and appears to be in the family

O'Kanes, Randalstown - open and appears to be in the family

Rosies, Drumkeen - open, but appears to have left family ownership

Sharkeys, Annagry - open, in the family and on my target list to visit

Traynors, Shercock - open and appears to be in the family

A very basic summary - these pubs have generally fared better than the market as a whole. There is worse survival rate in Munster than the rest of ROI; I don't have good figures for NI closures but 100% of our sample have stayed open there.

One thing we can take away is that if you are looking for a representative sample, using pubs which have already proven themselves to be long-termers is probably not a good idea! 

October 2026 Revenue register update

Not a substantial update this month

Renumbered:

1023372 House Dublin, Leeson Street - previously S2818

Revisited Pubs, September 2026

Slightly smaller list this normal month - had other things to do!

S4236 RDS Arena - maybe? - see previous writeup for how it not entirely certain if this uses the stadium licence or a temp licence; but unlike previous eras of the beer festival where Madigans appeared on the card statements, this time it's the RDS.
S3467 Vicar Street, Thomas Street
S3103 The Christchurch, High Street
S0026 Lincolns Inn, Lincoln Place

N0006 Brew Dock, Amiens Street

S0077 Nearys, Chatham Street

S3840 Lynotts, Meath Street (last written up as Graingers The Fountain)

S1465 Dudleys, Thomas Street

S4905 The Bank, Dame Street

S4530 Turks Head, Parliament Street - first time in a very long time, but not long enough for a re-write. It's changed... a lot - but still not enough for a rewrite 

S3178 Street 66, Parliament Street

Revisit 22 years on: 1011804 The Bridge 1859

I last visited this pub about three weeks before my 18th birthday, and as I'm now approaching my 40th; that makes this the first 22 year revisit writeup. 

And quite possibly the last, as there's only one other 2005 and a handful of 2006's on my list, with nothing from 2007 and three from 2008 making up the entire rest of the more than 18 years since last visit category right now; and I don't think it'll take til 2030 to get those revisited.

I don't remember much of Bellamys, as it was back then, other than I was served here - during the Young Scientist exhibition in the very nearby RDS at that. While I imagine it has calmed down since, with the general decline in youth drinking, back then at least the Young Scientist had a bit of a reputation for underage drinking at the evening events!

 

In the defence of the no longer existing operators in 2004, I have been over six foot tall since I was 13, and had full bleached blond hair at the time, which may both have dissuaded them from thinking that I could possibly be a school student.

I can't say I'm a massive fan of the current pub - it just isn't the sort of place I'd go to regularly; being a suburban rugby pub in a suburb I will never afford to live in.

1010642 Odeon Cinema Blanchardstown

Another cinema. Another Odeon where the food/drink sales are before any ticket checks (and indeed, there weren't any) so you could probably tick this off without going to a film..

I did, though. Luckily there were three recent releases I wanted to see! 

This is another cinema I had been to before - a lot, actually. This was the closest modern cinema to my house growing up, and my parents particularly disliked the fleapit that was closer, so this is where I saw lots of stuff as a kid. 

Ster (now Vue) in Liffey Valley opened up closer, but with the Blanchardstown Centre just being a nicer place to shop back then, and I continued being brought here; and also driving here myself once I was old enough.

Despite probably having seen at least 30 films here since I was an adult, they only added the limited bar sales more recently (bottled beer and cider, premix G&T cans, wine), so I had never imbibed here previously. 

Two licenced cinemas left, both quite new and neither of which I've ever been in (although I did operate an outside broadcast on the opening day of one of them!).

August Revenue register update

Another month of nothing - the only changes of any note are an address clarification for one premises!

Revisited pubs, August 2026

I was expecting this to be a very short list, as the reasons July tailed off continued in to August. 

Yet I'm actually quite surprised by how many places I got back to this month. Pretty much all of these were for a single pint, fitting around the trips to the limited new ticks I got this month.

I'm expecting the start of September to be quiet enough too, but we'll see how that pans out. 

N0080 Quinns, Drumcondra
N0082 McGraths, Drumcondra
1008963 Tapped, Nassau Street - probably due a re-write, but this is really just a rename of the same thing as before.
S3178 Street 66
S0083 Thomas Read/The Oak
S3103 The Christchurch
N0007 Clearys, Amiens Street
N0121 Kyles, Coolock
N0006 Brew Dock, Amiens Street
S0264 O'Loughlins, Dun Laoghaire
S3965 Cassidys, Westmoreland Street
N0084 Black Sheep, Capel Street
N1620 BoCo, Bolton Street 

1017883 IMC Cinema, Dun Laoghaire

Another 90s suburban cinema. A bit newer than the last one, very well maintained, and with weirdly cheap draught beer - all IMC cinemas have weirdly cheap draught beer. 

I have been here before. A lot actually - one set of grandparents lived in Dun Laoghaire so I was brought here occasionally from when it opened; and I even went on a date here once, a now terrifyingly long time ago.

Another tick acheived anyway.

1020699 Odeon Cinema Coolock

A modernised 1990s multiplex cinema with a few bottled beers, premix drinks and wines available to buy at the counter. You could probably just buy one and drink it in the lobby, but there were actually a number of films out this weekend I wanted to see.

So this won't be the last cinema posting in the next while. 

Revenue register update, August 2026

This time of year, it isn't that uncommon to have a post that just says there *was* a register update, but it had nothing useful in it.

This is one of those posts. 

Revisited Pubs July 2026

A rapid few revisits in the start of the month were followed by very little later.

 

S1465 Dudleys

S1468 Thomas House

S1470 Swift

S1472 Liffey Saint (twice recently, meaning I should probably rewrite it as I last visited it as Pifko)

S0010 Dawson Lounge

1013579 Luckys

1010753 Open Gate

N0205 Ryans

N0213 Frank Ryans

S2949 Old Storehouse

S3965 Cassidys

S3013 The Christchurch

S0083 Thomas Read

1021997 Wild Duck

N0082 McGraths 

Revisit 20 years on: N0080 Quinns

I really didn't like this pub when I used to occasionally frequent it, when I worked in Swords and was getting trains back from Drumcondra frequently. The first time that is - long term readers will be able to tell that I've worked near Swords again in the over a decade I've been doing this.

The renovation for reopening here has been going along for *three years* at this stage, and when I visited, the main front bar had only just opened. The wine bar section - in what was the pubs smoking area - opened first, with the bar just getting open in time for the All Ireland final - the mens football one; they missed the hurling. And missed two previous years worth of finals, semi finals and gigs.

The pub is still a building site. The vast majority of the huge building is not yet open, meaning that the small area that is is actually entirely new to me - I only ever drank in the big lounge out the back in my 2006 era (I may have actually been here in 2007, but I left that job very abruptly early in 2007, so I probably didn't)

The front bar is clean and operational, but still smells of damp. The drinks selection is OK; and with brand new lines, well presented. 

It's already better than it was last time - it's not owned by Sean Quinn, it almost certainly doesn't have sewage in the keg room - but I'll still continue to drink in McGraths. 

1023199 Maldron Croke Park

Another Dalata hotel, another near identical experience at the bar - very few drink options, delivered very expensively.

However, the bar has a huge advantage most other hotel bars don't have - it has a massive, south-facing beer garden

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This is almost certainly deliberately done due to the pubs close proximity to Croke Park, and not because they want this to be a Barge-like sunny pints destination.

I'll never be back, I suspect. 

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: 1021997 The Wild Duck

This wouldn't get a rewrite under the normal rules I apply. It isn't somewhere I intend to revisit a lot; and it isn't >=18 years since I was last there.

It's actually ~17 years. So I'd probably end up doing one in 2027 anyway.

The main reason I'm doing it is that the place has probably changed more in the interim than any other still trading premises in the city.

When I used to go here - fairly frequently for a short few years - this was Sin; a mid sized mid range nightclub that varied between gay nights, some serious dance music nights and, particularly as the financial crash got worse, €50 entry all-you-can-drink nights. 

It survived the financial crash, and the hotelgeddon that killed many other nightclubs (possibly by being a smaller building than most), only to close in 2017 when the lease changed hands.

But the building - an 1850s Bewleys Tea warehouse conversion - stayed in licenced trade use; reopening in 2018 as a "theatre bar" (it is, in fact, a theatre in licencing terms and should not be serving drinks without food or a performance on...) by Gary Whelan, the Wild Duck.

This no longer looked or felt like a nightclub, with effectively a standard pub installed in the premises; and only the ceiling height in the back bar making it clear what it once was. 

This iteration of the pub closed in October 2023, but the pub reopened in December 2024 under the auspices of the former operators of Lanigans, and the Lanigans style of having lots of random stuff hanging off the ceiling has been repeated - indeed, I believe it is the same stuff they were able to remove from the hotel before the bar changed operators.

The main issue here now is the price. Temple Bar prices are charged for pints, as the pub is in Temple Bar. There are cheaper options nearby, however, and that's where I go normally to begin with.

Revisit 21 years on: S2949 The Old Storehouse (visited as Eamonn Dorans)

I "have" to go back to places like this, by rules of my own making.

You do not. 

Do not go here unless you want your wallet emptied and ears assailed.

Eamonn Dorans, and the Rock Garden before it, were interesting music venues, in Temple Bar when it was actually still clinging on to being something cultural rather than tourist. I lasted attended here in 2004 or 2005, at a "battle of the bands" contest featuring an acquaintance from school.

Opening in 1989, the premises was actually meant to be a brewpub called The Brewers - which I believe would have been Ireland's first by some years; but a late enough change in focus to a rock bar happened instead.

Between the Rock Garden and Dorans, this lasted until 2009 and the financial crash; but everything since has been a continual downgrade

The first replacement was "3 Crown Alley", one of a number of premises that have just used their street address as their name in the city. This cleaned the place up and changed the music to indie and dance, and seems to have reviewed OK; but the downstairs venue very rapidly became an 80s themed nightclub called Madonnas

By 2014, the premises is the Old Storehouse, an expensive tourist trap that no Dubliner needs to darken the door of.

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: S3103 The Christchurch

I could have written a previous entry in this theme about the same premises in its prior incarnation, as it was somewhere I had visited a number of times as The Christchurch Inn, but which I previously gave a very brief writeup as The Beer Market, pretty close to ten years ago.

But The Christchurch Inn was basically just a replacement of the name outside, and the addition of a few macro taps after it ceased to be a Galway Bay pub. Galway Bay have since added macro taps to all their remaining pubs; and changed a name on one of them, and those aren't getting rewrites - and that's why I didn't do one then. I believe The Christchurch Inn was actually run by a former manager of the Beer Market at that, but I may be wrong there.

But The Christchurch, no Inn, is quite different now.

In isolation, it isn't that different to what went before, in terms of being a primarily craft beer lineup. With the same blunt viewpoint, isn't that different to what went before that, in that it is run by a craft brewery - Third Barrel. 

The most obvious difference is actually decor - GBB are in to their craft greebling, and it appears that Third Barrel are not. The interior design is uncluttered and simple, but not industrial or dated as simple taproom setups would be. 

Additionally, and probably more importantly, the brewery it is attached to is more daring than GBB in what they produce; and does not have an existing pub estate, and a large former estate, with reputations to live up or down to.

I suspect that Third Barrel do not want this pub to be judged based on either of its predecessors; or compared to Underdog, which had some similar aspects - an online taplist, fairly minimalist decor, and an experienced member of staff in common.  However, I think the core audience of Underdog are very likely to cross the river and end up here. It's fairly convenient for the bus for me, whereas Underdog turned in to taxi time after a few pints and a lack of desire to do the walk, Luas and train combo home.

The pub had only soft opened a few hours before I turned up here for my visit, and I don't think will have have fully opened by the time this writeup is published. There will be food here, in time; but there isn't yet. 

Supermarket Pubs - decades before Lidl

Northern Ireland shares much of the core of our antiquated liquor licencing laws, as they were defined for the island of Ireland in 1902. One element of this, that our equivalent of has been removed, is a sufficiency test for any "new" licences - which, like here, are created on surrender.

Lidl were denied the option to open a new off-licence in Dundonald due to there being sufficient off-licences nearby; but some pubs nearby had closed. This allowed them to open a full pub; and full pubs in both jurisdictions can sell off-sales. So The Middle Ale was born, and we get news articles about this being the first supermarket pub. Often claiming "in the world".

It isn't even the first supermarket pub on the island of Ireland. 

You can try cut the definition of a "supermarket pub" lots of ways, but I can assure you that Ireland has had basically all of them; with Dublin covering most bases.

Even after deliberately excluding the extremely common (but not in Dublin) pubs-with-shops where the shop is now quite big, and weird cases like a co-op supermarket with an actual but rarely open bar (Inishkeel co-op Glenties); we have lots of examples.

These include the direct equivalent of Lidl Dundonald - a supermarket chain opening a pub to run as an off-licence; but also a supermarket chain operating multiple pubs while awaiting redevelopment, a supermarket chain running supermarkets *in* pubs; and some edge cases including Lidl themselves holding planning and a licence in Dublin.

Roches Stores

Over fifty years prior to The Middle Ale; Roches Stores did exactly the same thing, albeit not for quite the same reasons. Wanting an off-licence; they purchased the licence from the Princes Bar on Princes Street. However, this was initially moved to a unit at 23 Upper Liffey Street, fitted out with a bar but primarily operating as an off-licence. 

 

Evening Herald, 6th August 1975

During the limited time it operated, it was reported that only about a fifth of their sales volume was at the bar. However, this gives us an example of a supermarket operating an almost Potemkin pub as a method to have off-sales.

 

Irish Independent, 26th November 1976

Despite denials that the intention was to move the off-licence in to the Henry Street store, this happened during expansion of the store in the late 1970s. 

Younger readers may not remember Roches having conventional supermarkets, as they had dropped this by the time they sold the stores to Debenhams; but they operated their own for some decades before franchising them out to Supervalu.

H Williams

In something even more challenging for younger readers, the next case of a supermarket chain operating bog standard pubs involves a chain that nobody under 40 can actually remember going to.

H Williams, a large chain which went bust in 1987, and one which retail architecture aficionados can still sometimes detect the influence on in terms of store design for the often Tesco or Supervalu stores that now occupy their units, had multiple pubs in Dun Laoghaire for at least nine years.

The best recorded of these is the pub at 108 Upper Georges Street, Dun Laoghaire, which they bought in 1964 - a pub very famous for having been host to a 14 year strike from 1939 to 1953. This pub continued to operate - as "Hibernia", named after the Dun Laoghaire<>Holyhead ferry MV Hibernia I assume, until May 31st, 1973.

Also closing on May 31st were the Albatross (probably named after the LV Albatross light ship) at 113 Upper Georges Street, which H Williams had owned since at least 1965 (Thoms Directory)  and the Glenburnie (no idea about the name origin) at number 106, first explicitly listed as H Williams owned in the 1972 Thoms. They are also recorded as the owners of 114 in 1969 Thoms, but this is a retail/office unit not a pub.

This coincident closure was for demolition for the development of Dun Laoghaire Shopping Centre. This makes it look like H Williams had been assembling properties here for this redevelopment; but I cannot find anything confirming that they were even involved in the proposal. They certainly did not develop it themselves - that responsibility falling to the still extant MEPC, with H Williams even pulling out of an agreement to operate the anchor supermarket at the last minute.

This supermarket eventually opened as a Quinnsworth, and Quinnworths HQ would end up in the upper floors of the building - Tesco Ireland remains there today.

The replacement shopping centre had at least two, possibly three separate licenced premises - latterly S1329 Farrells (closed 2017), Platinum formerly Paparazzi nightclub (closed 2000s) and S2206 Buck Henrys (closed 2000s). 

Farrells, at least, used a licence from one of these three pubs - confirmed by a 1977 licencing application referencing a 1973 court order preserving a licence or licences from the demolished pubs. A second bar, Dunelles, was open from 1977 also and I suspect this is what eventually became Platinium. Buck Henrys unit was initially licenced in 1983, rather late to have preserved a 1973 licence

Dunnes Stores

In the more modern era, we have Dunnes Stores operating a supermarket in a pub. Twice!

The former S0398 Playwright in Blackrock, after a period of being a TGI Fridays and a longer period of sitting empty, has been converted to a Dunnes Stores supermarket, and this still retains its pub licence. I actually ticked this off when it was TGI Fridays, so I do not feel any urge to try drink something from the off-licence on site; but they could allow this if they wanted to.

They also briefly had a branch in the former S0396 Magic Carpet in Cornelscourt, operating again under a pub licence, but have closed this down.

Other examples / edge cases

Outside of Dublin, Findlaters held pub licences on at least a few of their supermarkets, a business they came to late and which they eventually exited (all detailed in the excellent book on the family, available free to read online); but I would consider these to have been traditional grocer-pubs that developed in to supermarkets with pubs; rather than a supermarket explicitly operating a pub.

Dunnes Stores found themselves the holder of the licence for the former S2278 Baron Johns in Crumlin for some years, but never actually operated it.

Lidl have been trying to sell a site with planning and a licence for a pub outside their Belgard Road store - which replaced S1709 Belgard Inn - for some years now. 

Revenue register update July 2026

Another very small update this month, mainly consisting of ownership changes and little else. 

New: 

1023254 The Burton, Duke Street. Already visited!

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.

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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