Two holidays, my continuing house renovation, and a job change really hit my trips to places old and new this month:
1015426 Rubys, Point Village - reopens for lunch just as I leave the area!
1001986 - Select Service Partner licence, Dublin Airport - T1 landside bar when flying out on the cheap
1006723 - Aer Lingus Lounge, Dublin Airport - when flying out posh (ish)
I've had quite a busy number of weeks/months, so forgot to write this up, as sparse as it is:
1013149 Urban Brewing - before (and likely during, as I expect it was still its licence) a George Motz smashburger demonstration done by Dash Burger
N0053 Graingers, Amiens Street - after this and before my train home
N0002 Madigans Connolly - before a train to Wexford - they still close too early to unseat Graingers for evening train-pints.
Anyone who follows S1447 Black Forge's social media profiles could easily get confused and feel that they have actually followed those of its owner, as he features in virtually every post - its owner being Conor McGregor, should there be anyone left who hasn't seen the bombardment of media posts about his purchase of that pub. He has also bought S1428 Marble Arch, N0162 Waterside and has been linked - probably inaccurately - to basically every other pub that is either closed or for sale in the entire city.
But what other celebs have owned pubs in Dublin? A fair few, albeit not many other are in the game currently. For whatever reason, it's mostly sportsmen, with a few musicians and actors in there for a bit of balance.
I'm not counting politicians, as most of those who run licenced premises ran them before becoming national names - Donie Cassidy, the McEniffs, the Beltons and Gary Gannon for instance.
So, considering listicles are the highest viewed posts on here by a huge margin, lets list them here, in some idea of chronology:
Early 1800s - famed boxer Dan Donnelly owned four pubs (one at a time), one being what is now 1008283 Fallons
~1963 - Josef Locke owned, and indeed lived above, S0116 Ha'penny Bridge Inn
~1977 - Brendan Grace, also known for his pub in Killaloe which he held until 2011, buys what is now the S1574 Blackchurch Inn, selling it in about 1981. Under his ownership the pub was called the Brendan Grace Place.
1980s - Gaelic footballer Paddy Cullen had S0163 Paddy Cullens pub in Ballsbridge. He later owned N1769 Manor Inn in Swords. Paddy Cullen died in February 2025.
1980s - Brendan O'Carroll becomes co-owner of the Abbots Castle pub in Finglas, which did not end well. The pub was demolished in 2018 after decades closed.
1989 - actor Gary Whelan buys what becomes S0120 Whelans with a business partner. He also owns S0281 Dalkey Duck and 1014978 Wild Duck.
~1992 - Limerick hurler Eamonn Rae purchased what is now N0204 P Duggans on Parkgate Street, selling it only a few years ago. Eamonn occasionally worked as a barman in S1478 Cherrytree afterwards.
1992 - members of U2 purchased S0140 Clarence Hotel. While plenty of potentially famous wealthy people would own hotels as investments, there was more direct operation here, and contributed heavily to the renown of The Kitchen nightclub in the hotel
1995 - Jack Charlton was part of a consortium that purchased the Baggot Inn (now S0004 Xico), selling to Louis Fitzgerald in 2000
2000 - Eddie Irvine owned 50% of Cocoon (now 1004917 Lemon & Duke, more of which later) and of S3132 O'Reillys on Tara Street. The latter 50% ownership seems to continue to this day, through Irvine's Channel Islands firm Tidswell Limited.
2000 - Huey Morgan of Fun Lovin' Criminals had financial involvement in two premises with The Dublin Brewing Company - N0215 Dice Bar and N0185 Voodoo Lounge
2007 - drag queen Panti takes over the running of the former GUBU with Jay Bourke, opening N0191 Pantibar. A second pub, 1015498 Penny Lane, opens new in 2019.
~2010 - Footballer Anthony Stokes bought the N0149 Players Lounge in Fairview with his father. It burned down in 2011. The less said about this the better, really; but the pub has never reopened.
2014 - four rugby players - Sean O'Brien, Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney and Dave Kearney - entered the pub trade along with Noel Anderson; currently operating two pubs (1004917 Lemon & Duke, on its second celebrity owners; and 1011804 The Bridge 1859) and have recently purchased the 1009755 Three Tun Tavern from Wetherspoons.
2019 - Hucks on Camden Street owned by Dublin GAA players Eamonn Fennel, Ross McConnell and Michael Darragh McAuley. Not sure if this is a standalone premises or part of 1011789 Flannerys as I've not seen a licence number for it.
Post-publication updates:
2024 - The rugby-plus-Noel Anderson pub group have added S0188 McSorleys in Ranelagh to their stable of pubs
2024 - Singer Gavin James has bought N0235 Doyles Corner in Phisboro.
Quite a lot of new-to-the-list pubs here - two, luckily, have already been visited; and two returns - one also visited.
New:
1018396 Premier Inn, South Great Georges Street
1018945 Travelodge, Townsend Street - replaced S0041 Ned's which was formerly on this site, likely using that licence as that surrendered for the hotel licence.
1018953 Fallon & Byrnes, Exchequer Street - a long standing restaurant and off-licence setup, a single pub licence likely makes life easier here.
1019034 The Samuel, Spencer Dock
Returns:
1018936: What was formerly 1010310 Napper Tandy, Merrion Row. Still closed to the best of my knowledge.
N0308 Quinns, Garristown - formerly the Garristown Inn which was closed for quite some time. Now open again.
Removals:
S0215 Corner House, Windy Arbour - closed for a very long time, has permission for change of use but hadn't started last time I passed.
For about 25 years, the only way in to this pub was to be invited. Or be the one issuing those invites.
Attached in terms of ownership to S0031 O'Neills at various points (this was D'Arcys pub when the corner section of O'Neills, not yet then part of the pub, was D'Arcys shop - same D'Arcy - in the 1840s); this was their private function bar and only opened when pre-booked. I had considered having my birthday here one year to get it ticked off; but a sale of O'Neills has changed things.
New operators and one renovation later, Moss Lane has opened here as a normal pub, in terms of access arrangements. The drinks offering here is heavily whiskey based; but with an interesting facet of offering a house beer that isn't just a rebadged stout or session IPA from a large independent brewery.
Instead, the offering is Moss Lane Red, from Barrelhead Brewery, an interesting red ale. There's some O'Haras products among conventional macro offerings.
Dublin has quite a few reopenings or deep renovations of pubs that have opened since late 2021, so it isn't that unusual to find a pub with an immaculate interior, new toilet facilities and so on; but you get all that here too, for anyone keeping track. I feel like I'll be conscripted to write Pub Spy if I talk about the condition of toilets too much, though.
When an otherwise Heineken Ireland Only bar doesn't even have the full range... Note the Islands Edge barmat. Surprised they had the branded glass even pic.twitter.com/uwKwWA5oXB
— Cian Duffy (@cian_duffy) May 15, 2022
The food was also good, albeit not the type of menu I was expecting - being very conventional pub food. There is another restaurant here open for evening service.
