eh, it is still closed but The Hoxton Hotel is going to reopen here and use the licence at some point soon - they were hiring for management grade staff in October 2024. Consider this a holding page before this becomes a RetroReview
I have drunk here, but not in the Library Bar - which may come back something a bit like its old state, but reduced in size. I can't remember much about it - I was 17!
Recently rebranded from the Baurnafea House in to the far less likely to get mistyped Purcells, this large 90s pub building replaced an older pub on the site.
That pub was originally Fyans - an absolute nightmare to look for in newspaper archives, as it defies OCR due to how often it gets 'corrected' to Ryans, or you find other Ryan's that have scanned as Fyans.
As a very 90s structure in a town full of much older looking pubs - the two previous writeups are thatched, and third was thatched until gutted by a fire in the 60s - it is a tad incongruous. Also a bit unexpected was the smell of new carpet when I went in - clearly the rebrand has also come with a reasonable spend on the interior.
Fairly quiet by comparison, albeit a group I had seen in the Rathcoole Inn did turn up as well (presumably not following me - they didn't go to the next pub anyway!), this seems like it would be a good place to go for food - albeit I didn't try the food - due to having plenty of space and being less busy than the Poitin Stil.
Another club, and indeed another club where I spent a considerable amount of time - but only really in one section of it. While places I visited often, often end up with shorter writeups - you can see how terse the RetroReview posts for my most regular pubs ended up, there's a lot to write about with POD. Thankfully, someone's already written up a lot of what I'd need to do otherwise!
The POD Complex - the "Place of Dance", although I suspect this is a backronym - was Dublin's first modern nightclub, but in a very not modern building. It was in the bulk of the former Harcourt Street Railway Station, including the actual train hall and much of the undercrofting; but not the ticket hall (this is the unconnected S3454 Odeon), or the elements of the vaults in retail use.
POD opened in 1993, founded by John Reynolds, the nephew of the provincial dance hall owner (and former Taoiseach) Albert Reynolds. Reynolds - John - was only in his mid 20s at the time.
The history is already documented elsewhere, and better than I'll re-research:
The making of Dublin’s The Pod and RedBox nightclubs - 909originals
Going on the physical setup side only, two additional areas were added to the complex, all within the train station - the Chocolate Bar in 1994 and RedBox in 1996.
The original Chocolate Bar became the more rock oriented Crawdaddy in 2004, with a "new Chocolate Bar" opening in 2009 in what I believe was originally a lobby area.
In 2006, the RedBox venue upstairs changed to Tripod; which is where I attended the most - if I have time, I'll dig up some of the many ticket stubs and wristbands I have from seeing some of the biggest DJs that there were in the 00s here. While POD was a dance music nightclub, open pretty much all the time you'd expect; RedBox/Tripod was a venue and hosted anything and everything stylistically.
The entire complex shut for good in 2012; and lay idle for many years before conversion to offices. Some of the space had been offices from the 60s to 90s to begin with. The end wall, once punctured by a runaway train, now has rather more openings in it than when it just had the door to RedBox/Tripod
POD still exist as a festival promoter. John Reynolds died suddenly in 2018, aged just 52. He had been planning a new music venue on Clarendon Market at the time of his death.
I have to wonder whether this pub went straight for its current superlative claim:
Or had to modify it over time - potentially adding "original" and "two storey" to a previous claim to being the oldest thatched; or just original on the two-storey bit.
Interestingly, it isn't even the only two-storey thatched pub in the town; but the other - the Potin Stil - is not particularly original and indeed I think hasn't been a pub for that long.
Rathcoole having very old pubs is to be expected - until the construction of the Naas Dual Carriageway in the 1960s, it was on the core road from Dublin to the South and West; and there would have been considerable passing trade. The Poitin Stil retains some of this due to its location right on the bypass.
The lounge wasn't open - externally anyway - when I arrived here, so I went in to the bar; which is quite traditional; and also gave me my second ever sighting of assigned TVs - specific TVs marked for racing, gaelic and soccer; presumably to prevent arguments about coverage. I must assume that an argument happened that was notable enough to not want to repeat it; or possibly the owners are very conflict averse!
And we're back to our regularly scheduled "dead club spaces of Dublin" feature, as this is mostly turning out to be. There's a storied history here too, though, so at least we're keeping some lineage between the previous post and this
This history is already documented well elsewhere on the net - built as a cinema in 1934, converted to bingo use (as so many were), damaged by fire and closed; and then eventually converted to a theatre in 1986 with a ground floor music venue.
Like Andrews Lane, I saw a play here while in school. Like Andrews Lane, I can't remember what it was - 1990s childrens theatre in Ireland produced a lot of very unmemorable plays; and I also have an incredible knack of forgetting what happens in movies, books and plays, even ones I've seen loads of times (for instance, I think I've seen The History Boys four or five times, can't tell you anything other than it has Richard Griffiths in it).
However, I was in the ground floor music venue rather a lot more often, for events ranging from sparsely attended charity gigs through to full crowds for trance events, and also to see Paradise Lost in what was my last trip there in early 2018. At this stage, it was known the venue would be demolished and replaced with a hotel; but the closing date - early 2019 - had not been confirmed yet.
Similar to Andrews Lane, in its latter days, the Tivoli was rather a dump. But with a continuing loss of places to hold club nights, stage plays or even stage pantos, holding on to what we have is more important than ever, and this was another major loss.
Two regular events have survived the closure - the Tivoli Panto is now the Stadium Panto in the National Stadium; and the District 8 club night now exists in different locations in Dublin and Kildare.
A hefty file to work through, as restructuring at both Press Up and Galway Bay Brewery; and ownership changes of some of their former assets filtered through. However, there's a good bit of useful meat here too:
New
1021725 Pitch Golf, Nassau Street - golf range themed bar
1021842 Bewleys, Grafton Street - theatre licence which allows operation of the "Seven Nine Dublin" cocktail bar amongst other service
Renumbered
1021694 The Windjammer, Townsend Street - formerly S0042
1021731 The Eagle, Glasthule - formerly 1010326
1021852 Super Social, Leopardstown Racecourse - was S3543. This premises was closed for approximately 17 years before reopening in 2024.
Reappeared
1019163 Twin Oaks, Castleknock - re-registered, still closed as far as I'm aware. Operating company was liquidated so licence is now in an individuals name.
Removed
N0029 Goya Lounge, North Strand - formerly (the original) Strand House, this has had some very odd recent uses and is currently closed.
Some odder ones this month:
1008283 Fallons, The Coombe - it was on the way between other places, and I hadn't been in for some time
S2119 Captain Americas, Grafton Street - I needed dinner, and of all the Press Up venues around, this is one I'm happy to see still going
S0077 Nearys, Chatham Street - regular meeting location
N006 Brew Dock - regular dinner location
N0063 Cumiskeys, Dominick Street - regular pre-Luas stop to its convenience for the Luas
