It’s September, and that means the Dublin Festival of History is nearly upon us; as ever, many wonderful events have sold out almost instantaneously, but there are more to explore. You can also create your own historic pub crawl – and maybe learn a little bit along the way.
For our purposes here, we aren’t looking for Dublin’s ‘oldest’ pub (we bang on enough about the bogus entries in the ‘oldest pub’ category across the country *cough* Sean’s Bar *cough*) or most literary pub, but rather, those with a reasonably legitimate historical claim to fame. Not of the ‘was once mentioned in Ulysses‘ or ‘Brendan Behan drank here’ sort, as we’d be here all week, but those with documented (or at least well-attested) historical connections. Given that the Wide Streets Commission knocked down much of medieval Dublin, we have no truly ‘old’ pubs (or even ‘old’ pubs that were once built as something else) to explore, so we’ll start off with pubs that have associations with the 1798 rebellion.
The Brazen Head and The Lord Edward both have arrays of 1898 memorabilia (although The Lord Edward is ‘only’ a late 19th century building, and feels much more like a 1960s pub than anything else), commemorating the centenary of the 1798 rebellion, though The Brazen Head goes a few steps further and claims – with at least some good evidence – that events were, to some extent, planned or discussed here – ditto Robert Emmet’s 1803 uprising. Indeed, we would love to see them lean more into this more interesting (and fact-based) history vs their entirely imaginary 1198 ‘founding.’ With so much real history – as well as a bit of related folklore – why not focus on that? (Yes, we know the ‘why’ is that many tourists are very willing to believe anything they’ve been told and it makes them feel good to see the ‘oldest fill-in-the-blank’ – it’s just a shame they are missing out on a much more interesting, if more complex, story). The Cat & Cage also claims a bit of 1798 action, as it was a postal stop during its time as a coaching inn; rebels seized a postal cart outside as a sign that the rebellion was on. We would still love to see a full historical survey of The Cat & Cage, as we suspect there may well be more going on there, archaeologically and archivally-speaking…and, frankly, we find it a much nicer pub than its city centre counterparts.
Moving on to pubs associated with the Fenian movement in the 1860s and 1880s, there are a few more takers – not particularly surprising, as so many Dublin pubs are late 19th century buildings at the earliest. The Bleeding Horse and The Long Hall (Cromien’s at the time) both trade on their associations to the movement without being entirely defined by them. Brogan’s (trading as Wrenn’s back then) is where the 1882 Phoenix Park assassinations were planned by the Invincibles; the event was organised just across the street from Dublin Castle, mere steps from the colonial establishment – whilst talk of a tunnel is likely no more than just that, the basement does flood from the old castle moat, as OG Underdog (RIP) regulars know all too well. The Hut also served as something of a Fenian meeting spot too, later in the 19th century, so it is said, though there’s little to tell the tale now amid the well-kept Victorian pub splendour.
A number of still-extant local pubs played roles in the Easter Rising and the War of Independence; The Portobello Bar (known as Davy’s) became part of the action, while The Oval was destroyed completely in 1916, and required years to rebuild. Cleary’s, meanwhile, was another meetup spot for Michael Collins and Harry Boland, among others, though Collins was also partial to The Palace Bar, and The Confession Box (previously The Maid of Erin) was another key locale for Volunteers. We highly recommend a viewing of this video featuring all-around legend Donal Fallon for more, and we always recommend his absolutely wonderful The Dublin Pub: A Social and Cultural History for further reading. We assume you’re all already listening to Three Castles Burning.
Finally, we’ll finish with something of an oddity, historically-speaking. As regulars know, most stories of secret tunnels or ‘ship’s timbers’ used to build pubs are Lies, and you should all pick up Historic Building Mythbusting by James Wright for more (or listen to us chat historic pub nonsense with James on the Beer Ladies Podcast). However, The Oak’s wooden panelling is said to have come from the RMS Mauretania, when its fittings were sold off in 1934. Is it entirely true?
Well, it makes a good story…and we’re willing to give this one a bit of credence. It looks the part, and the management doesn’t go out of its way to tell you about it.
And as mentioned at the start, there are plenty of local pubs with literary and journalistic associations, those with sporting links, musical legends and so on…just be wary of any advertising ‘early’ foundation dates or other overly-specific superlatives. A thoughtfully critical eye can be a fine companion to a nice pint, and a lovely way to begin a historic adventure.