Every Pub In... Dunboyne

The first of these trips to go beyond the county I live in, Dunboyne lies just over the border from both Kildare and Dublin in to Meath. It is accessible by Dublin Bus or Irish Rail, and is within the commuter fare zones, unlike some of the extremities of County Dublin!

With a 7,155 population in 2022, Dunboyne is notionally smaller than Kilcock; but supports four pubs (and a hotel) unlike Kilcock's two.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Every Pub In Dublin (@everypubindublin)

 I started in Brady's, specifically in the bar, which I suspect would have people raving about if it it was in Dublin. A plain, traditional bar with no TVs, this provides precisely what you'd want from a traditional pub. Further in, they do have TVs, but it is still very traditional. This is apparently CMAT's local too.

Slevins was up next, and sort of unfortunately I don't have a lot to write about it - because its absolutely fine. There was just nothing that particularly jumped out to me.

O'Dwyers, basically next door, ticked a lot more boxes for me. It has a more coherent layout, despite still being split up in to many areas, and its outdoor areas step out from a sort-of conservatory to some coherent outdoor seating bays that somehow make you forget that they're actually in a car park. There was also a bouncy castle for kids today, but I suspect that's not a permanent feature. 

Across the square from both of these was Mulvanys Fingal House, which I just didn't quite warm to. Repeated signs inside the bar about photos and videos being banned raised massive questions, and the pub just didn't feel great for me. However, it was busy enough, and there was also signage about needing to book tables (despite them not doing food); so presumably it has a large regular crowd.

I didn't drop in to the bar of the Dunboyne Castle Hotel, not because it was particularly awkward to do so (it isn't), but because I'd already been there. This mid 2000s hotel was built around a former mother and baby home, itself a Georgian manor house; and as a good place to have a wedding relatively close to where I live, I have already attended a wedding here. Plenty of pints were purchased there, so I don't need to return to tick it off!

Every Pub In... Kilcock

I still have a total of one sort-of normal pub to do a first visit to in Dublin, so I will continue my trips to nearby suburban towns to visit their pubs. This trip writeup covers a very brief trip to Kilcock on a sunny, yet also rainy, April afternoon. 

Kilcock had a population of 8,674 as of the 2022 census - easily over 10k now, particularly when you include the large Millerstown housing estate that is actually in County Meath. And it has two pubs.

It had five pubs, in recent-ish memory. Three are currently gone. I'll give a quick roundup on these first before getting on to the two open pubs; but that the town has declined in provision so much is unfortunately not a surprise.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Every Pub In Dublin (@everypubindublin)

Kilcock has been blighted with dereliction for my entire life, and while some improvements have happened - the Leaf / Chewits factory has been replaced by housing, and the derelict school buildings on and behind the Square have been renovated and replaced by a large Supervalu; there are still multiple derelict or underused buildings in the town centre, ranging from the extensive Kellys Bakery complex (once a major Guinness bottler) through to two of the closed premises I'm about to mention.

O'Keeffes had a significant fire in February 2023 and has yet to reopen, although occasional social media posts by family members promise that it will. 

The Lion House is to be converted to apartments with a licenced restaurant on site. Work was stopped in Summer 2025 for safety reasons. The building lies extremely derelict.

Corscaddens Hotel closed down a long time ago - it was for sale in 2002 but already looked slightly derelict in the sales photo, and it is unclear if it was trading at the time; but I can find references to events there in 1998. It was definitely shut by 2004 as I have photos I took of various derelict buildings in Kilcock back then, somewhere I can't current lay hands to. Aldi are planning to build a store behind here, and restore the building; but not as a pub or hotel.

But there are still two open pubs here, and the town has a lot of vibrancy to it - it is not all doom and derelict gloom

The Gregory Tavern is a large, rambling, comfortable pub; with a substantial choice of areas to sit and drink inside. It feels like somewhere that might do food, but doesn't - from what I've read, it just doesn't seem to take off when they have tried it in the past. This is a perfectly acceptable outer suburban - or provincial town, take your pick - conventional pub. I'd be more than happy to have this as my local, basically

Murphys is a picture postcard traditional rural pub, with a bar to match - but also has a fairly plush lounge and large well equipped beer garden as other options.

Both pubs could do with offering some independent Irish beers, and should probably first look to the brewery founded in - but which has since moved away from - the town, Rye River, which is widely available in all the neighbouring Kildare towns. 

Drinkers in Kilcock do have, as is often the case, the option of drinking in the local GAA club. In this case, it sits amidst housing estates fairly close to the town centre, and has extensive food offerings in its bar. This may depress demand for pubs in the town, but definitely gives another outlet.

(Almost) Every Pub In Maynooth

There's an (Almost) on this - because I'm not particularly in the mood to wait until I've justified spending the money required to go to the Michelin starred restaurant in KDP0052 Carton House to tick off its licence. But otherwise, I completed the set of Maynooths pubs over 20 years ago, and then picked up the only addition since. 

KDP0215 O'Neills

My local, so I need to be nice about it!

A mid 2000s new build, replacing in part the owners former butchers store - the shopfront of same has been preserved and is used as the access to the keg/plant room from the smoking area. Heavily food based trade, but consistently busy enough. Not particularly student friendly or popular, which is a good thing when you're getting old and decrepit and don't want the noise, or the constant reminders that you're ancient.

KDP0088 The Roost

A Louis Fitzgerald pub I no longer darken the door of. I've made my opinions on Fitzgerald pubs clear on other writeups.

KDP0145 McMahons

The sister pub to the McMahons in Celbridge I mentioned, I sometimes call this my "backup local" - my local does not open on Mondays and can sometimes be either exceptionally busy, or exceptionally noisy - there are occasions where there are different live musicians inside and out. McMahons does not (often) do this.

Massively refurbed in my teens from a fairly run down pub in to something high end, it has held up well and is still a good condition and well run premises.

KDP0151 Bradys

Literally next door to McMahons, everyone who watched Virgin Media News during the pandemic will know Bradys, as the owner was one of the four or five pub owners continually interviewed as representatives of the industry - helped heavily by one of the Virgin reporters living in the town!

1010273 Donatellos / Oak Alley Cocktail Bar

Maynooth has a Pubstaurant. Or more specifically, a restaurant with an occasionally separately open cocktail bar, with a full pub licence. Ironically, the restaurant down the road with a bar that is much more commonly open is not legally a pub...

KDP0073 Glenroyal Hotel (and formerly Happy Out / The Fizz / The Fitzgerald / Club G nightclubs)

A sprawling hotel complex, which started as quite a small hotel but has had more extensions than I can count, this is where everyones 21st was. Also the hotel bar was briefly very popular in the mid 00s, and the nightclub was inexplicably popular up until three pubs grew music bars (The Roost, Bradys,  briefly O'Neills), and then it fell off a cliff. 

The nightclub is now a cafe, and the bar very sedate in the evenings. But it is still public.

Newtown Inn

Maynooth also has an estate pub, which doesn't seem to have renewed its licence yet this year; and I don't retain all the old files for the rest of the country. But it is open.

Last time I was in here was a good few years ago, and the pub was exactly the same as it had been when I was drinking there underage in 2003/4. A very high end fitout for the early 00s - honeyed wood, white leather, chromed metal - all basically pristine, because the pub was never particularly busy.

I believe it has been extensively modernised since, but as it's in an estate on the other side of the town, I basically forget it exists. I do sometimes drop in to its surprisingly good off-licence though.

Closed:

The Red Door / The Duke & Coachmen / Cathedral / Mantra / The Leinster Arms

Possibly the oldest pub in the town, this late 18th Century coaching inn continued to operate as a small hotel in to the mid 1990s; but during my youth the Leinster Arms was mainly known as quite a rough pub with quite a rough nightclub. Didn't stop me going there, occasionally.

Mantra was a Celtic Tiger horror show, and Cathedral and the Duke & Coachmen both attempts to round off the edges after the inevitable financial failures. The Red Door was a temporary COVID era opening to allow The Roost to overspill. 

The bulk of the premises has been converted to student accommodation now, but the bar is still physically there, and retains planning permission to open as a "licenced restaurant". 

Dowdstown Hotel

This had a few minorly different names over its surprisingly short life. Built by the family of some classmates in school, I never actually went here; and now it's a nursing home.

Moyglare Manor Hotel

I *think* this had a public licence. Closed in the 00s, bought to become a branch of The Priory rehab clinics (or so the local mythos went), and now a high end self-catering venue. It's also Maynooth, Co. Meath rather than Maynooth, Co. Kildare; but it's closer to Maynooth than anywhere else.

Every Pub In Celbridge

It should be clear that I've mostly run out of topics here, having finished off "normal" pubs in August 2025 and only having new openings, reopenings and edge-case mop-ups left to actually visit.

So I need to find something else to do. I actually live in Kildare, and have done so for this entire time; but Every Pub In Kildare would need a driver and some exceptionally long trips to the South of the county. It's never going to happen.

But I may as well sweep up the towns around me. I had already drunk in *some* of the pubs in Kildare, and I revisit one on this trip just to confirm what I thought about it, but one other previously visited place did not need another so quickly. 

edit: On further digging through the licence file, I have found that the Lyons Demense in sort-of Celbridge also has a full publicans licence, 1010946. I have not been here.

So here are the pubs in Celbridge, closest to Dublin to furthest:

KDP0077 McNamees Abbey Lodge

Really worryingly quiet, in the bar at least, with a small crowd in intently watching the Liverpool game. I assume it gets busier at other times. This pub has a large car park, which used to be leased to the council; and has used this to develop a (food) cafe and coffee shop business since the pandemic. But the bar itself might need a bit of work - in particular, the door to the street is shut up and you need to enter through the car park. Or maybe it's going just as well as they want

KDP0175 Village Inn

I have eaten in, or picked up takeout from the restaurant upstairs here (an absolutely fantastic Indian, formerly located above the old Quinnsworth - I've been going there that long) so many times I couldn't even try to count. But I've never actually gone in downstairs before today.

The lounge was rammed. The bar was little better, but I found a table which had limited view of either the racing or football screens - hence why nobody was sitting there. 

KDP0093 O'Connors / Kildrought Lounge

I had been to O'Connors before, in 2005 before going to see a school friends band play in The Mill across the road. 

I had also been to the Kildrought Lounge before, many times in fact, as a common location for fundraisers and other events. The function room upstairs here also performs as a small theatre, used by the local Insight amateur theatre group.

What I wanted to do was confirm that the small O'Connors, on the main street and in a traditional building, actually linked through to the modern Kildrought on the side street behind it. 

They do.

O'Connors is a nice, small, and fairly cheap old fashioned pub; and at least last time I visited, the Kildrought is a fairly standard big suburban pub.

The name comes from a different anglicisation / corruption of the original Irish name of Celbridge - Cill Droichead - than is accepted on.

KDP0161 Castletown Inn / Speaker Bar

Another twin setup with the bar having its own distinct name, but in this case, the Speaker Bar is beside the Castletown Inn rather than in front of it.

I have had food in the Castletown Inn before, but not drunk there. I headed in to the Speaker, rather than the main section and had a decent quiet pint here.

The bar name here references the same person as S2493 The Speaker Connolly in Tallaght, a rare enough case in my remit of two completely distinct pubs being named after the same person.

KDP0128 McMahons 

A branch, kinda, of one of my local pubs in Maynooth - or are they all branches of the NYC chain that provided the money to set up the Kildare pubs? Difficult to say.

This is the former Celbridge House and latterly Henry Grattan - Celbridge loves pubs named after 18th Century MPs - pub, an exceptionally UK style premises; being an octagonal-ish premises in a housing estate.

I was here recently enough - winning a fundraiser table quiz for the Catherine Connolly election campaign - that I didn't bother revisiting today. I'm not a fan, I prefer the "original" Maynooth pub. 

Closed premises:

KDP0132 Feehans / The Riverside / The Whistling Pig / The Duck / The Mucky Duck 

The pub with a million names... I've eaten here, a lot actually - they did a damn good breakfast during the Riverside and Feehans era - but I can't recall drinking here. Currently for let.

Celbridge Manor Hotel / Setanta Hotel

I've drunk here. It isn't open.

Every Pub In Lexlip

Some of Leixlip is in Dublin, so I have already been to its pub, airport bar and hotels, current and former.

edit: it turns out that 1019230 Leixlip Manor Hotel has a public licence. I will drop back to this at some point.

Most of it is not, and I had mostly not drunk there. Lets fix that:

KDP0170 Riverforest Hotel

A 2* hotel in a shopping centre - sounds enticing I'm sure - but the bar here is the main attraction for me and likely creates most of its trade. Indeed the door to reception was closed and told people to go to the bar.

It's a large single room bar and lounge in one, with a small - but not separated - secondary bar area that is vaguely nautical themed. We are on Captains Hill, after all, assuming I've understood the reason why they have portholes and ship steering wheels here. 

A hotel in a shopping centre is a *very* odd choice, but it appears to work for them - this is its 35th year open. The bar was very busy too.

KDP0018 TOWN Leixlip

A part of the RHK group, who run relatively fancy pubs in suburban areas; this is a relatively fancy pub in a suburban area.

As I walked up, the doorman on a pub - I don't like pubs having bouncers during the day, but let this one run out - moved to open the door in front of me. 

This reminded me that I'm fairly certain I was once refused entry here in a previous incarnation (and previous ownership) for not meeting the dresscode, and the pub was much less fancy then. 

I wear basically the same clothes I've worn since I was 18. Fashion has changed, not me!

They were seating people at specific tables here when I was in, but they offered me options for just drinks - high tables or the bar. I went to the bar, which does seem to specialise in cocktails, but also has a solid range of Irish independently brewed beers too. I'm not entirely sure its my kind of bar, decor wise; but I'd have no problems popping back in for beers anyway.

This premises was formerly Murphys, the Three Sisters; and prior to a major rebuild, The Captain's Inn.

KDP0120 The Middle Shop

I went in to the fairly tiny bar section here, but there is a larger lounge. Very much a racing bar, at least when I dropped in.

Previously visited:

Courtyard Hotel

A boomtime hotel development which includes the site of the original Guinness brewery (or does it? This stuff is so difficult to nail down properly, argue amongst yourselves in the comments).

The licence does not appear on the renewals list yet this year, and I don't hold archived Kildare records at hand, but it is open.

The bar here was weirdly popular with people from around the county in the time after it opened, so I ended up drinking here quite a lot. But I have only eaten breakfast here a few times in the past ~20 years.

Closed venues: 

Leixlip has more long term closed or completely gone pubs than the other surrounding towns. The Hitching Post, a famed music venue, was replaced by a Lidl in 2004/5; and Aldi later did for the Ryevale Tavern / Ozone nightclub buildings - which I suspect may actually have held separate licences at some stages.

The Leixlip House Hotel may have had a public bar, but was not commonly used as a bar by the locals, as far as I know.

It should be noted that Leixlip has two GAA clubs and I believe both bars are very popular, with one effectively serving as the pub-substitute (pubstitute?) for a huge area of 50s-80s housing developments to one side of the town. It even looks like a provincial town pub from the outside.