1014121 Lucky Duck

The Press Up Group gets quite a bit of negative media coverage for just how many venues they have opened in Dublin; reaching out across the majority of the city centre - and now the southern suburbs - in a relatively short period of time; and tying it to the wider cultural loss issues in the city.

The most detailed piece of writing on it that I've seen was in the Sunday Business Post - which is paywalled online - so I can't link you to it; but it contained a short statement by a representative for Press Up pointing out that many of their new venues were derelict rather than replacing something else active. And this is the case with The Lucky Duck.

The Aungier House pub on this site operated for over a century; but closed in the late 1990s and rapidly fell in to significant dereliction. Press Up acquired the premises in the late 2010s and announced it was to reopen as "The Dutch Billy", a reference to a type of house construction which was once common on Aungier Street. There was one problem with that name however - this is a Victorian replacement building!

Many Dutch Billys had their distinctive roofs covered or replaced to give the then-fashionable squarer lines - an example of an actual Dutch Billy here shows that - so its an easy enough mistake to make; and one that was corrected before opening. But not before the interior fitout had begun; as a major element of the decoration are "KLM Houses", knick-knacks handed out to business class customers on KLM. These are supplied containing Bols Genever; and according to the barman I spoke to, the ones filling a display window and scattered around the bar are all full.

There is a surprising amount of Victoriana to the interior here; although what is original and what is repro or recovered from elsewhere I don't know. The gents toilets - situated under the street with a skylight in the pavement - are full of what must be original fittings restored to a functional level at least.

The drinks offerings are similar to other Press Up venues; but its both smaller and less forced "Instagram Ready" as their other ones, so even if you dislike those it may be worth a visit.

S1494 Morriseys

A very run-down locals pub on Cork Street - the only survivor of the significantly higher quantity of pubs this area of Dublin had before road widening and redevelopment destroyed buildings and moved some of the population away. At least five other pubs were on this end of the road, and many survived even until the early 2000s.

The most interesting event on this visit was seeing someone being told they'd had too many; shaking hands with the barman and promptly leaving! There's nowhere else that close by to head to other than here - I even got the bus to the next pub - so presumably they headed home.

N2581 The Brass Fox

I used to work in Tallaght and there were frequent attempts to organise "nights out" in the town - that usually ended up with everyone just going to (the now closed) S1593 The Cuckoos Nest nearer the office and leaving by about 8. The usual intended destinations were either S3176 The Abberley Court Hotel - or Blu Bar. Blu Bar closed down before we ever managed to actually get there, though; and remained closed for a while.

That premises is now The Brass Fox - or at least the bar area is, as they are not operating the nightclub that was the main attraction in the Blu Bar and later Madison eras of the premises.

The Brass Fox started off in Wicklow Town and this is their second premises. Its a food-centric offering, as is now becoming quite common in suburbia; and the food and drink lineup are quite similar to what you'll get elsewhere - 1012552 The Maple Tree in Saggart from a few weeks ago comes to mind.

With the offering being food-led in mind; I headed here for lunch. I actually went for two starters from the menu rather than any of the mains; one of which was voluminous enough to be a main course, if anyone would actually order a goats cheese and pastry concoction as main!

Despite being defeated by the sheer quantity of goats cheese in front of me, I enjoyed it, and the buttermilk chicken strips that were the other order. The tap lineup isn't the most thrilling, but there were Franciscan Well products at least.

S1588 The Dragon Inn

I wonder was there ever much confusion caused here during the years that S3871 Nolita was called The Dragon? People wondering why their taxi ride was taking them in to suburbia or why the bar appeared to have rather more bears and rather less house music than expected for instance.

A restaurant reviewer - which Google is completely failing in finding for me; so it was probably in the Sunday Business Post - has written about confusion between 1014544 The Ivy and N0147 Ivy House before, so I'm sure it must have happened... anyway, back to the still named Dragon.

There's two pubs in the old Tallaght village that predate it becoming the vast outer suburb it is now - the previously mentioned S1589 Molloys. Molloys has expanded to a superpub but The Dragon is still (comparatively) small and seems to have kept more of the community spirit of a village pub. Their Facebook page focuses less on promoting the pub and more on featuring life events of regulars and other community info - including a recent link to a blog entry on a long-gone (1913) pub in Tallaght I had not been aware of.

Molloys was actually marginally cheaper for a pint, which I found a bit odd as usually pubs like this are cheaper - but its still nothing compared to city centre prices.

S1589 Molloys (Foxes Covert)

This is the original core site of the Molloys chain of off-licences (and previously other pubs), which started as the off-sales section of this now giant pub.

Tallaght has a very limited number of pubs originally - there are some newer licences around The Square though - due to the difficulty of opening pubs near existing pubs in "rural" areas, those outside the old Dublin Corporation area effectively. This has ensured that many of the pubs reached the size of barns, with the now demolished S1709 Belgard Inn being claimed to be the largest pub in the country at one stage.

Some of that still remains here, as Molloys is vast. The premises is branded as two separate entities - Molloys and The Station (presumably a reference the former tramway offices that made up part of the site); but they are internally joined. There's a large enough outdoor area enclosed within the building and this is where I sat reading the papers on what was an unseasonably sunny afternoon.

My parents lived nearby here in the early 70s - I forgot to ask my Dad last night if he drank here or S1588 Dragon Inn. That's the next entry to go up so I may remember to ask before I write that!

S1508 Kennys

I grabbed this one sort-of unexpectedly when I was suddenly at a loose end on a late weekday afternoon in this part of the city. I'd done the other pubs this end of James Street on previous visits but hadn't dropped in here before.

This is quite a large pub once you get inside; with a small lounge to the front leading in to a vastly larger one to the rear; and a decent sized smoking area/suntrap out the back.

There seems to be a good mix of locals and hospital staff (St James's is across the road - and the NCH will join it if its ever finished!) as regulars here. Prices are on the surprising side of reasonable, which is always nice.

I think this was closed for a while recently, as it was off the licence register for quite some time; and it was definitely up for sale via Younges, but everything is in full flow again.

The building was the birthplace of WT Cosgrave, with a plaque unveiled by his son in 2013 (as an aside, that genealogy site touches on many Dublin pubs through arms of the covered families; and I really must dig through it properly at some stage)

S1428 Marble Arch

Nice pub, shame about a subset of the customers.

It actually has a lovely fitout inside - traditional enough bar, modern well equipped lounge and so on; but there were customers there I would not want to be in the same pub with for long; so I finished my pint and left.