October 2025 Revenue register update and year-on-year cleanup

This was both a very quick to process update as very little changed; and very long - as this is the last file of the licencing year, so any pubs missing for the entire year* are removed from my master list and demoted on my maps to closed; and I also update registered company names etc on said master list

That said, it's the smallest year on year change list I think I've ever ended up with - and a lot of it is still sweeping up pandemic era closures.  

I'm also going to use this post to announce that I've decided to drop passenger vessel licences - that is boats - from my target list. I had already excluded Irish Ferries and Stena ships on the same basis that I've excluded planes; but realistically you can't just go for a drink on any of the boats, so there isn't any reason to include them. N2741 Cill Airne, aka "The Boat", has a conventional pub licence.

*if the pub is actually still open, I leave it there - sometimes renewals don't get posted to the file 

Monthly changes: 

New:

1022516 Moxy Hotel, East Wall - new hotel appearing on the register only days after it opened.

Reappearance:

N2588 CHQ Building, Georges Dock - this was the licence for Ely CHQ, but now appears to be assigned to the entire building, which is becoming a food market in the near future.

Year-on-Year changes

Additions

N0282 Michael Collins, Rush - I'm pretty sure this is still closed. This got re-added in August but I missed it.

Removals:

1003456 Shipwright, Ringsend - burnt out, but was unlikely to ever reopen due to being converted to accommodation
1013026 Dominick Inn, Dominick Street - never reopened after the pandemic 
1018936 Napper Tandy, Merrion Row - never reopened after the pandemic, although it was relicenced in the interim with a new number
N0022 Hill 16, Gardiner Street - likely to reopen soon enough as works have been ongoing for a while, but not renewed in 2025 
N0185 Index (formerly Voodoo Lounge), Arran Quay - erratic opening history in recent decades means this will likely return
N0273 Smyths, Donabate - replacement pub may turn up in the redevelopment here
S0004 Xico, Baggot Street - closed quietly in late 2023/early 2024

 

Revisited pubs: September 2025

A month interrupted by other beer events - the Beoir AGM and the Dublin Beer Festival - so there was only a single new visit, and limited revisits despite having made a specific aim to return to places I had neglected for decades

S0018 Bowes - deliberate revisit after 20 years

S0164 Horse Show House - another one of those

S0172 The Waterloo - more for phone charging than for pints, but some of those were consumed along the way

N0063 Cumiskeys - to monitor my personal inflation calculator, the pint of Beamish in here. Reported to me at €5.00 in April, it was still €5.00 in late September.

N0097 Underdog - rarely a month goes by without this appearing

S0083 Beer Temple - another fairly common stop.

Revisit 20 years on: S0164 Horse Show House

I mentioned this in my RetroReview of this pub - my first, and until now, only visit here was a few weeks before my 18th birthday, when they served me while I was wearing my school uniform. 

During the Young Scientist which was being held across the road, so the area was *full* of teenagers.

That said, I've been the same (abnormally tall for Ireland) height since I was about 13, I've been able to grow a beard if I wanted to since about the same time; so the sum total of places that refused me service underage is one (Pravda, now the Grand Social)

There's two bits of context that are probably more important in why they didn't even think I was that young - with the jumper off, my secondary schools uniform looked like a bank clerk uniform; and AIB's HQ was next door to the pub at the time. And I'd ordered food.

So I'm letting them off for not checking my ID in 2005; and I'm pretty certain there's a statute of limitations on the offences!

Unlike the first of these long-term revisit writeups, this pub has changed quite a lot - internally and externally - with modern and well appointed outdoor areas (uncommon as early as 9 months after the smoking ban when I first visited) and a recent interior refit also.

Revisit 20 years on: S0018 Bowes

My previous post her set out an intent to try revisit some pubs that I'd last been to over 18 years ago; or least where the last time I can remember was that long ago.

In the case of Bowes, I cannot recall being in here since meeting someone to watch a football match in 2005. I wrote the RetroReview in 2020 when there was planning being attempted to merge the pub through the former Irish Yeast Company building behind; and thankfully this plan seems to be dead.

As you'd expect with a pub with a Victorian interior, very little has changed in the 20 years since my last visit. The TVs are newer, and there's various craft beers on the taps and in the fridges; and a lot of the smaller distilleries they have whiskey from didn't exist in 2005 - but the fundamentals are still the same. 

This is a nice pub in a very central location. I'm not sure why I wasn't in here in the past 20 years; but I'll try make sure I get back in before 2045. 

Aged Visits - revisiting pubs last visited >=18 years ago

As I'm all but out of places to tick off - and entirely out of conventional pubs until some open or reopen - I've decided that I should try figure out which pubs I've not been to for the longest and potentially revisit those, to update what are often extremely outdated "RetroReview" postings here.

I don't have dates and times for visits prior to starting the blog a bit over 9 years ago, and recording my re-visits from late 2019, so there's nearly 15 years and just under 100 pubs that haven't been recorded as visited on here, other than the RetroReview

Rather than post the full list here, and tie myself to actually visiting them all, I'm going to list a few places I know are approaching, at or beyond the 20 year mark since my last visit; and which I'll vaguely try to get to at some point in the next few years or so. I am deliberately leaving out ticketed venues (race tracks, theatres, cinemas)

* Hoxton Hotel (former Central Hotel) - I believe I was last here in 2004. It's reopening soon, which is a good excuse to visit
* The Bridge 1859 - 2005
* Horse Show House - 2005

These three above were all last drunk in before I was 18, so definitely deserve a legal revisit! The rest below are all a bit later; but still last visited so long ago, that someone born on the day would now be old enough to drink:

* Bowes, Fleet Street - circa 2005
* Fagans, Drumcondra - circa 2005/6
* Kennedys, Drumconda - circa 2005/6
* The Old Storehouse - circa 2005, when it was Eamon Dorans
* Quinns, Drumcondra - 2006. Also reopening soon
* IFI, Eustace Street - not sure I've been here since 2006. Yes, this is a cinema, but the restaurant and bar are open to all
* West County Hotel, Chapelizod - circa 2006
* The Old Boro, Swords - not been here since 2006, well before it was Wetherspooned
* The Betsy, Swords - 2006, as the Slaughtered Lamb
* Intercontinental Hotel - 2006, as the Four Seasons
* Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan - 2006, as the Stillorgan Park Hotel
* Mulligans, Abbey Street - 2007, as Madigans
* Madigans, North Earl Street - 2007
* The Grattan, Grattan Crescent - ~2007, as the Village Inn

N1205 Abbey Theatre

The "Serious Theatre" stage of ticking off had already begun a few months ago in Smock Alley, and has now continued to our National Theatre. 

My specific visit was to see a play on the smaller, subterranean Peacock stage. This features a small bar area which sells wine and bottled beers/ciders, primarily from independent Irish producers. The ticket check is after the bar area, so you could probably get away with ticking this one off without actually buying a ticket... but don't say I suggested that! You will not get in to the actual play without a ticket, however.

In terms of the grand old Dublin theatres and their history, the Abbey is a relative newcomer; having been opened in 1904; however it opened in the space of the former Mechanics Theatre - itself about a hundred years older. Only the Gate, founded 1928, is newer amongst the long-standing operations.

That old building was significantly damaged by fire in 1951, causing the Abbey to move to Pearse Street for a decade and a half, before returning to a then striking Michael Scott designed building on the original site in 1966.

Unfortunately, this building is now increasingly unsuitable for modern expectations. For instance, the Luas, which opened over 20 years ago, can be heard passing while inside the Peacock - as the room was not built with sufficient sound or vibration isolation to cope with trams that wouldn't arrive for almost 40 years; and which have got longer and more frequent even since.

A replacement building has been discussed since the 1990s; with a larger plot around the existing building being slowly assembled - this explaining the empty and derelict state of many of the buildings reaching from the theatre to the quays. Recent public progress on the new plans have been effectively non-existent, but the theatres 2025-2030 strategy does still plan for a new building. If this goes ahead, expect the Abbey to drop off any lists of licences for a number of years.

I still have double digit figures of theatres left to visit - attending plays had never been my thing, only certain venues amongst the serious/grand theatres also do music or comedy performances; and a lot of the suburban theatres (each County Council having at least one) are rather inaccessible without driving. So theatres make up the single largest grouping in my outstanding visits, and will obviously make up much of my future reports.

Revenue register update, September 2025

I still have no further writeups to post, so another routine posts gets moved to being a scheduled post! 

Reasonably large update to process this month, albeit a lot of it is just renewals of extant premises. However, there's still a few changes of note:

New:

1022169 Lane7, Chatham Street - already visited
1022390 CitizenM Hotel, Bride Street - already visited

Renumbered: 

1021887 Plunkets, Middle Abbey Street - formerly N1939

Removals:

1009401 Citywest Hotel, Citywest - this hotel has been purchased by the State and is extremely unlikely to ever reopen