Every Pub in Dublin
Friday 10 May 2024
1012141 Holiday Inn Express
Thursday 9 May 2024
Licence register update, May 2024
Big licence file change list to process this month, with a lot of late renewals (for whatever reason) needing to be filtered out of the results
Additions:
1020980 The Glasshouse, Point Square
1021092 Clink, Upper Abbey Street - Ireland's biggest tourist hostel and the third hostel with a full bar licence in Dublin
Renumbering:
1020988 Wild Duck, Sycamore Street - formerly 1014978. Currently closed and for sale.
1021081 Blackbanks Bar & Grill, Kilbarrack Shopping Centre - formerly N1352.
Licence type change:
(Normally, all licence type changes cause a new number to be generated; but this specific type does not appear to, and has happened before)
N2771 Metro Hotel, Ballymun - conversion to Publican Ordinary (Hotel) Public Bar from a Residents Bar type. This now means the public can be served alcohol without restrictions beyond that that applies to a pub.
Wednesday 8 May 2024
N0716 The Village Inn (Finglas)
Monday 6 May 2024
1000933 Bottom of the Hill
It takes quite a talent to renovate a pub after a fire and make it look like it hasn't been modernised since the Celtic Tiger; but they managed it here. Or possibly they just fixed the roof and reopened a bit that wasn't as badly damaged.
The Bottom of the Hill was gutted by fire in 2018 - it is notable that the section shown here is not the section I was in - but was quickly repaired and reopened in 2019. However, the owners have long-term plans that involve demolition; so I suspect the renovations may have extended to weatherproofing and cleaning up the bar that I was in to let it reopen...
So, going back to 2006 - but with two decades of wear and tear on top - I was greeted with a cash only bar; my second since the pandemic but first in an urban area. I was also greeted with many of the taps being off, including Smithwicks - forcing me to have a Guinness. Which was fine.
The pub has multiple fruit machines - both questionably legal and not that common a sight in Ireland - to add to its wonderful atmosphere. Thankfully there's other choices of pub in Finglas village.
Saturday 4 May 2024
N1312 O'Riordans / Drogheda Lodge / Full Shilling
Friday 3 May 2024
Shamrock Lodge
"Lounge to be vacated by 6pm, ticketed after 6pm" said the signs on the door - and I forgot to ask why; assuming I'd find it out online afterwards. It turns out that all I can find online is the special food menu that was offer for Good Friday here; not that it was easy to miss - the pub stank of fish.
The barman apologised for this without prompting - the chowder was specifically blamed - and I sat in the then still free to access lounge to have my Beamish.
This pub has a signed members/regulars only section, a pool room in this case - something I've only ever seen once before; and which I now believe to be gone, in N0199 Delaneys in Smithfield. It is a room between the bar and the lounge here, whereas in Delaneys it was the front bar of the pub.
I should probably have had food here - the regular menu was on offer for non-Catholics, so I didn't have to eat the chowder I'd already smelled too much of - but I assumed there'd be another pub doing food in Finglas village. There wasn't; but I survived.
Wednesday 1 May 2024
N0624 Abbey Tavern (Finglas)
Don't judge a book by its cover a pub by its history. In this case, the pub has a former operator that many would rather forget ever held the keys to the premises - Catherine Nevin (who I had forgotten was actually dead) - and a series of shootings, one fatal.
Back in the 1980s, this premises - as the Barry House - was the first pub that Catherine & Tom Nevin ran, before moving on to Jack Whites, where he was murdered at her behest in 1996.
A pub with a chequered history beyond that, and has been the scene of a number of shootings, each it seems under a different name best forgotten - including the Cappagh House, Cappagh Nua and the Finglas Inn (not connected to other pubs of this name).
After a fairly lengthy closure, and a full refit - including a new traditional pub shopfront to stop it looking like an oversized breeze block - the pub reopened in 2018 and has not hit the headlines since, thankfully.
What's here now is a fairly normal suburban pub, welcoming and open to all. There was a single craft tap on offer - my local Farringtons - but there were issues with the keg, so I had to slum it with a (bottled - I believe keg has finished) Macardles; what a terrible pity.