While today Whelan’s is best known as one of Dublin’s best venues for live music, its history as a pub stretches back further than one might imagine, and it’s a much more storied history at that. We’d recommend you go read Gerry Farrell’s excellent post on the subject, but a few highlights to tempt you with include the fact that it’s actually older than suggested by the ‘1894’ above the door (nearly the opposite of the usual situation when a pub chooses a date with which it claims some sort of association), and it also has significant associations with Dublin’s political history. There’s also the almost-standard Ulysses nod, too.
But it’s really its modern status as a place to see fantastic bands of all genres that bring nearly-nightly crowds to Whelan’s, and it’s been serving in that capacity since the 1990s. And while it’s a great spot for a gig as we’ll discuss shortly, you don’t need a ticket to wander in for a pint. It’s still very much a pub on the ‘pub’ side facing onto Wexford Street (as this part of the street is called – it changes names several times, incorporating Camden Street, Aungier Street and Richmond Street, depending on who and where you ask). And there’s good support for local independent breweries at Whelan’s, which is rarely the case at other local venues. But there are often taps and bottles from the likes of O’Hara’s, Rascals and Kinnegar, though of course you are covered if it’s just a Guinness (both 0.0 and full-fat) or Tuborg you want with your show.
And we find it an absolutely ideal spot for a gig: you can grab a pint on the pub side first, then head into the performance space, which we’ve seen configured in a variety of ways, for artists of all sorts. Relatively recent highlights for us include seeing The Wedding Present again, as well as the fantastic show put on by Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan. The sound is great (though earplugs are never a bad idea), there are no bad sightlines and it’s (typically) not a crazy price for tickets.
It’s on our Best Pubs for Music list with very good reason.
Where: 25 Wexford St, Portobello, Dublin 2, D02 H527
Access from the city centre: Buses 9, 14, 15, 16, 27, 56A, 65B, 77A, 83, 140, 151, 15-ish minute walk
Food: Not a food spot
Sport: None here
TVs: Screen-free (unless the show calls for it)
Music: Obviously, the main reason you are here
Family-friendliness: Most gigs are 18+
Pub-crawl-ability: High – The Bleeding Horse, Devitt’s, Anseo, Barebone, The Camden, The Portobello Bar, Egan’s, Ryan’s of Camden Street, The Swan Bar…and the local ‘Spoon’s, Keavan’s Port
Local sites of note: Iveagh Gardens, St Stephen’s Green, National Concert Hall, Marsh’s Library, St Patrick’s Cathedral
Haunted: Alas, just, er, this
Other notes: Keep an eye on the socials for surprise gigs
Socials: Instagram, Facebook
While Dublin is not, on the whole, a destination for pizza, there are some excellent choices – if you know where to go.
We adore 
Heading out to the southern suburbs, Bonobo’s sister bar 
Back in 2021, The Dublin InQuirer ran a feature 
This is especially interesting as The Libertine is a near neighbour of one of Dublin’s most famous fictional characters: 52 Clanbrassil Street was the home of Leopold Bloom in Ulysses, just steps away. One would think that after being mentioned explicitly in such a well-known work there would be agreement on where we are, but it would seem not.
Opening earlier this year, The Libertine replaced 57 The Headline, a renowned spot for local food and beer, under its new name and management, it also now includes a small hotel offering. It’s very much on the ‘gastro’ end of the scale, and while it was already very well-appointed inside, it’s been beautifully refinished. There’s a mix of subway tiles and patterned wood in various shades, as well as colourful seating and a variety of spaces for groups large and small.
We’re staying on Aungier Street this week, but not for any specific ghost stories – rather, it was the pumpkin beer that brought us to 
But a bit more about the pub: although it looks like your typical 
At least of an evening, it was louder than most places middle-aged people like our little group tend to go – and we certainly don’t want to run into our Young Adult children out and about, that would be cringe-worthy for everyone involved – but it may well be worth a return visit for their tasty-looking brunch.
This week, we visit 
Ah, you have no doubt thought, this reminds me of Sheridan LeFanu’s classic short story, ‘
Inside, it has the typical dark wood, highly polished glass and comfortable snug common to pubs of the 
Despite having ‘The Capstan Bar‘ spelled out in large letters on the side of the building, this pub is more commonly knowns as 
Indeed, nothing in Fallon’s looks much older than the early 20th century, which makes sense – it was rebuilt in 1911 after a fire, and most records seem to indicate a firm 
But back to Fallon’s – it’s wonderfully quiet (or, at least, was on our afternoon visit), and the snug at the front might be a good addition to our 
Editorial note: This post was originally published on 2 October, 2025, but we have updated with some new spooky notes for 2026.
We’re less inclined toward the flashy, big-name haunting at 
Sticking with one of the more well-known spots for spooky vibes, we can’t miss 
But we also want to shine the spectral spotlight on another pub whose apparitional associations are often overlooked: 
We briefly name-checked Brogan’s in our roundup of the 
But this pub was also an important spot for more recent social history; before becoming Brogan’s, it was The Viking Inn, one of Dublin’s first reasonably 
And local craft beer nerds may not find much to get excited about here nowadays (though there is a well-used Ambush tap – it just looks a bit lonely amongst all the Guinness memorabilia, unless you count the Beamish tap as ‘other’), the basement was the original home to 
To very, very broadly paraphrase 
But having been reliably informed by 
Perhaps the real draw, though, is the Kinnegar tap – a reliable Scraggy Bay, and for a mere €7.20; this is an entire euro cheaper than you’ll find it at some nearby pubs, so certainly noteworthy. There’s also Galway Hooker, but we’ve never been fans of any of their beers (even before their rather confusing recent history of ownership and recipe changes), so no need to explore that option. And while we haven’t been in the pub much before this occasion, the attached off-license is quite a useful one, with a nice selection of beers from local stalwarts like Hope and Rascals. Again, it’s something of a time-warp with the need to be buzzed in the door, but for a small shop, it has a pleasantly surprising range of choices.
This week’s Dublin pub is another frequently-requested one that we’ve put off visiting for far too long, and we were quite wrong to delay. Although previously labouring under the misapprehension that 