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 

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).