Revisited Pubs July 2026

A rapid few revisits in the start of the month were followed by very little later.

 

S1465 Dudleys

S1468 Thomas House

S1470 Swift

S1472 Liffey Saint (twice recently, meaning I should probably rewrite it as I last visited it as Pifko)

S0010 Dawson Lounge

1013579 Luckys

1010753 Open Gate

N0205 Ryans

N0213 Frank Ryans

S2949 Old Storehouse

S3965 Cassidys

S3013 The Christchurch

S0083 Thomas Read

1021997 Wild Duck

N0082 McGraths 

Revisit 20 years on: N0080 Quinns

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. 

1023199 Maldron Croke Park

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

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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. 

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. 

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 

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.

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.

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. 

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

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).

Revisit writeup because I feel like it: N0020 Juno / Hera

The third in a not-really-a-series of doing a new writuep for somewhere that has both changed drastically since its original writeup, and which I am likely to end up in often enough that it needs to be explained.

Unfortunately, both the previous ones have shut down since I did them; but both were in "cursed premises" of sorts... and this one isn't. So I don't think I'm going to strangle it somehow.

I end up having pre-train drinks in this end of Drumcondra quite a bit, and they nearly always end up being N0082 McGraths. However, this replacement for the Red Parrot has started becoming a bit more common, particularly if I have a longer time to wait, or I'm approaching Drumcondra from the South to begin with. 

Juno offers the now fairly common mix of having quite a few craft taps, but not being a "craft beer bar" - there are macro products aplenty here, albeit those may be slightly selected for the cooler end of the market too. By that I mainly mean Beamish, which is having an odd revival both as a cheap pint in "normal" bars and as something people half my age drink in "cool" bars.

The Juno part of the setup here is the bar of the former Red Parrot; with the larger volume of the premises - the former lounge areas - being the Hera restaurant. I quite enjoyed a meal here, which has full availability of Juno drinks during it.

My Classics knowledge is fairly limited so I had to confirm that yes, Juno and Hera are the equivalent goddesses in Roman and Greek mythology; the Queen of the Gods. 

On the worry about cursing places with these writeups - Juno did in fact "close" briefly already in late 2024, leading to some actually quite nasty gleeful posts on Facebook from people who wanted a more traditional pub there; and some more respectful but still wrong claims about there "not being enough hipsters". 

This closure was for less than two weeks and I believe was solely related to getting Hera ready to open; nothing else. If it turns out doing this revisionary writeups is a curse I'll stop, I promise!

Revisit 19 years on: S3727 Flight Club (visited as Samsara)

I was in Samsara once, for a work event in 2007.

I returned to the new entity in the same premises for a work event in 2026.

In the interim, Samsara became Sam's Bar, then closed during the pandemic for a redevelopment of the hotel it was in; which never happened. The hotel has reopened as a tourist hostel, and the bar has reopened as an "entertainment pub" as many of 2025's new openings were; this one themed around darts. 

Flight Club is a franchise, with the Irish Loyola pub/restaurant group licencing the format from a company that seems to also franchise shuffleboard bars - something nobody has yet taken as the core format here, albeit Lane7 premises do offer that.

The format on offer includes lots of games that are based on the concept of darts, but are not conventional 501 games; a bit like an advanced version of Bullseye without the risk of ending up needing to share a speedboat; and is fairly fun even if you're incredibly bad at darts.

The bar has a reasonable drinks range including one solitary Irish independent tap (Hope Hop On), and the food provided to the group I was with was top notch as goes pub finger food, quite possibly the best I've actually ever had.

Unlike the other "entertainment pub" setups, I'm not entirely sure if you can just come in here for a drink - the entire place is set up with darts boards and clustered seating areas around them; but I didn't ask.

Revisited pubs April 2026

While April did actually feature some new, in scope, Dublin visits for the first time in a while; it mostly consisted of revisits. Longer evenings, sunny weekends and a variety of reasons to be in Dublin meant this was an extremely productive month for those.

N0027 Annesley House
1000937 Bridge Tavern
N0024 Hogan Stand
N0018 Big Tree (Dublin One Hotel), fundamentally changed from my previous visit
N0020 Juno - I really need to do a writeup of Juno rather than the Red Parrot
S0088 Foggy Dew
S0106 Porterhouse
S3840 Lynotts (last visited as Graingers The Fountain)
1013579 Luckys
S1470 Swift - also needs a new writeup as this is drastically different from Agnes Brownes
S3953 DV8 (last visited as JK Stoutmans)
1022495 Old Royal Oak
S1510 The Patriots
S0031 O'Neills (Pearse Street)
S0009 Doyles (College Street)
S0080 Bar Rua (no longer a Galway Bay pub, Galway Bay having merged with Brú who merged with Carrig who ran the pub when the original writeup happened)
S0122 O'Neills (Suffolk Street)
N0082 McGraths
S0239 Murphys
S2288 Mother Reillys / Uppercross House Hotel
S0238 Rody Bolands
S0241 Graces
S0240 Martin B Slattery
S0237 Kodiak (last visited as Copan)
S0236 The Dunmore
S0235 Blackbird
S0234 Corrigans
S3727 Flight Club - last visited as Samsara

Revisit ~20 Years On: 1014760 The Grattan

I forgot to write this up after having revisted it a few weeks ago; and I definitely think it deserves a revisit writeup for having changed so much in the interim.

An exceptionally long time ago, I went in to the pub in this building - at least three incarnations of pub name let alone operator ago - because the signage outside said they did food; and I wanted food before going to seen Finn Harps play St Pats down the road.

After buying my pint, I found out they did not sell food and had not done so for a very long time. The barman was quite snarky about the painted signs saying they did... 

The pub was dead quiet and astoundingly run down, neither a sign of somewhere that has a bright future ahead of it. I never returned; and soon enough that era of the pub closed down. 

It clearly reopened, and has gone through multiple incarnations since. I think the current one may be Brazilian led - that it has a sushi offering in the building now only further supports this as there is some inexplicable Brazilian sushi connection that we can see elsewhere in Dublin

The new operation bears no resemblance to my last visit. It's clean, its busy and it does actually serve food. I'd still prefer other pubs in Inchicore; but it is at least somewhere you might actually want to drink now.

Revisited pubs March 2026

A month with quite a lot of revisits, and absolutely no new visits  - because there's nothing easy to visit left.

N0006 Brew Dock, many times
N1111 Black Lion
1014760 The Grattan, last visited as the Village Inn
N1123 Slatts 
1017068 Rascals - These last four on a trip to Inchicore for my now annual commemeration of the last proper night out before COVID
S1468 Thomas House
S1447 Drop Dead Twice, freshly reopened after a devasting fire some years ago
S1456 Lark Inn
S1465 Dudleys - written up as Bakers but visited many more times as Dudleys
1008963 Tapped
S0077 Nearys
S0015 Ginger Man
Daphni  - Still unable to get a seat!
1008645 Molloys
N1061 Mooneys
N1074 Madigans North Earl Street
N0191 Pantibar
N1070 Nealons
S3383 Alexander Hotel

Revisit 19 Years On: N1074 Madigans North Earl Street

I last visited this pub the same day as I last visited the previous place - just before going to see Tiësto play in The Point in 2007.

We ended up here as the Abbey Street Madigans didn't serve food - then or possibly ever, I think; but the North Earl Street one did; and the bar staff suggested we go their then sister pub for our dinner.

It still does serve food. It also still looks quite a lot like the Abbey Street no-longer-a-Madigans, with a lot of coloured glass in the internal decoration; and also promo posters in the toilets for Fransican Well beers that neither pub can possibly still sell due to their recent shutdown. 

It's a very central pub, close to where I work and where I have worked most of the time since 2013; but it never comes up in my mind as somewhere to visit. And it likely still won't. 

Revisit 19 Years On: N1061 Mooneys

It's ten seconds before sunrise... or more accurately, its about 6pm on a mid summer Saturday evening; and you've just met up with an acquaintance (a good friends Best Man, eventually) on your way to see the then biggest DJ in the world play his last ever good show in Ireland; only about 7 months since his previous show in the same venue. The linked track is his set opener, starting as you're finally getting through the extremely slow security check.

You end up being appearing on the tour DVD for about three frames of video (I can't find this to link to anywhere, but trust me, it happened).

But beforehand, you go to two city centre pubs - one for pints, and another for dinner, before getting a taxi out to the Point Depot. This is the first of them. 

This isn't a particularly memorable pub - if anything, that it vaguely looks and feels like you're drinking in someone's conservatory is about all there is to remember; and my RetroReview writeup was exceptionally terse due to this.

It's now more notable, to me anyway, for pretending to be a former JG Mooneys premises - the actual Abbey Mooney was two doors down, but a little inaccuracy never hurt a Dublin pub in marketing terms.

Revisited pubs, February 2026

A month of no new visits, as is now normal; and quite a bit of revisiting.

N1194 West County Hotel, Chapelizod - I was so unsure as to whether I'd actually had a drink here, and that it was approaching if not over 20 years ago anyway that I decided to make sure

N1114 Sean Bar, Chapelizod - last visited as the Bridge Inn, when run by Carrig Brewing

N0215 Fidelty, Queen Street

N0213 Frank Ryans, Queen Street - back within weeks, but mainly because nowhere nearby or that I was planning to go to does food otherwise.

S1472 Liffey Saint, Ushers Quay - last in this when it was Pifko 

S1470 Swift, Thomas Street - last visited as the entirely different, insane, Agnes Brownes. No Clubland 2 CD this time

S1465 Dudleys, Thomas Street - last written up as Bakers, but I have been here since

S1468 Thomas House, Thomas Street

N0006 Brew Dock, Amiens Street

N0082 McGraths, Drumcondra