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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
