The 1884 is so called after the year that the GAA was founded, and it is very much a sporty pub. And while the GAA is the most-represented sporting genre on the walls and in the niches, there’s plenty of (association) football on the screens as well, especially on a weekend visit such as our recent one.
And like many pubs in the more suburban parts of Dublin, it’s absolutely enormous inside – indeed, somewhat barn-like. But it’s all very tidy, and there’s plenty of space to spread out. There are much-appreciated coat hooks under the bar, which really should be standard everywhere, but here we are. Only a few years ago, this pub was known as Grainger’s, and it had, well, a reputation, and although there are a few reminders of that era, it seemed generally ‘neighbourhood-pubby’ on our visit.
And while the beer selection is mostly the usual Guinness-and-Heineken-and-so-so-much-Rockshore (despite being listed as a stockist of Hope, brewed just a bit further north), there is also the lesser-spotted Kilkenny, which has been popping up here and there of late, and it’s a nice alternative. The real hidden gem of The 1884, though, is the enormous beer garden out back. Yes, there is a Pavement Pints option out front, right on the busy road, but if you head to the back, there is a wide range of covered and uncovered seating options.
Marino may not be much of a tourist destination (despite its legitimately interesting history from a city planning perspective, as well as its outstanding – and free – Casino Marino), but for the visitor looking for an almost-certainly tourist-free locals’ pub, The 1884 might be what they are looking for.
Where: 74 Malahide Road, Dublin 3, Marino, Dublin, IE D03 XW54
Access from the city centre: Buses 9, 13, 14, 15, 27A, 27B, 83, 123, 151
Food: Pub grub, wraps, crisps
Sport: All the sport, though mostly-GAA decor
TVs: Many screens all around the pub
Music: Live music at weekends
Family-friendliness: KEEP THEM SEATED
Pub-crawl-ability: Low – a longish walk to The Strand House and Gaffney’s, or toward The Ivy House and The Cat & Cage
Local sites of note: Casino Marino, Griffith Avenue, Bram Stoker’s birthplace, Fairview Park
Haunted: Perhaps only by talk of the previous pub…
Other notes: Main-floor toilets
Socials: Facebook, Instagram
While it does have a theoretically reasonably interesting drinks lineup, like its fellow Bodytonic-managed bar, 
It is, of course, entirely possible that it’s simply aiming for a younger/cooler demographic, which is fair enough…though it does beg the question as to why there’s a mural of Peter Fonda on one side of the building…it’s not something that resonates with GenXers like us…are the younger Millennials into Easy Rider? We’ve been told it’s a ‘no’ from Gen Z: ‘…it’s no Taxi Driver.’
In our effort to fill in the blanks when we see you getting lost in our search results, we’re aiming to visit some of the more common pubs on the tourist trail here and there, now that the bulk of the summer holidaymakers have gone home. Indeed, this week’s pub is one we’ve only ever previously visited in that capacity, years before moving to Dublin: The Long Hall.
Visiting again with more ‘local’ eyes does make you notice different things, but the fundamentals remain the same: the beautifully-maintained – and, in this case, likely genuinely world-famous – exterior of the pub is unmistakable, with its signature red-and-off-white stripes. Inside, it’s the kind of high Victorian décor that is more commonly a pastiche these days, but The Long Hall comes by it honestly: its last real renovation was in the 1880s. And while the deep reds and dark woods are common to many other local Dublin pubs of this vintage – a subject to which we’ll return – there are unique features here, including the 
Yes, it's cheating a bit, since we just visited a new-to-us cask ale spot last week in 
The Black Sheep