It’s that time of year when we begin to get the ‘where should I go before Croke Park?’ question. The answers will depend on whether you’re pre- or post-gaming an actual game (and, of course, which sort of actual game – the occasional rugby crowd isn’t necessarily the same as the more usual GAA crowd) or a concert. Fortunately, as a household within the ‘so close to Croke Park we get free tickets to things* from time to time’ radius, we’ve got some educated opinions on which pubs to hit up before, say, Oasis. (I was going to say ‘before Oasis hit each other,’ but it was too lazy, so it’s parenthetical instead).
There are a few ways to approach the Croke Park Pubs question: proximity, food/drink options and, well, vibes. If wanting to be in the closest possible pub is your key consideration – and on a day when it’s 70,000 plus in attendance, it’s not unreasonable – your best bets are Gill’s Corner House (if it’s open) or Phil Ryan’s The Hogan Stand. There’s Guinness a-plenty at both, though that’s true of nearly every pub in the country, but you can also snag a sneaky O’Hara’s bottle at Gill’s Corner House, or a Beamish at The Hogan Stand.
If combining food and drink is of paramount importance, casting a wider net can help, but you can still start quite close by. Juno/Hera has their gorgeous restaurant menu, but on big event days, they frequently fire up the grill for more quick-service options. You can also head further up the canal into Phibsborough, with The Bald Eagle and The Botanic House offering full meals (both are kid-friendly as well), or there’s excellent pizza from Vice now at Doyle’s Corner. The Boh has their combination Indian/pub grub menu, or there’s the little food market at The Bernard Shaw. And like The Bald Eagle, Hedigan’s The Brian Boru has a lovely beer garden, so it’s a pleasant place to relax with your pre-event meal and pint(s) if the weather cooperates. You could walk that little bit further down to The Back Page, too, if you’ve got the time. Or, away from Phibsborough, The Cat and Cage is just far enough away to avoid the worst of the crowds, but still close enough that it’s an easy stroll to Croke Park – it’s another family-friendly option with good craft beer choices and food for all. Fagan’s is on the way back toward the stadium, though still in Drumcondra, and on a busy day, the crowds spread into the park across the road or into Kennedy’s, just a few doors down (which, incidentally, is open for breakfast).
Heading back toward Croke Park, McGrath’s Pub also fills up on game days with the usual Guinness-and-Heineken offerings, but its handy off-license maintains a very nice selection of local craft beer, including options from Whiplash, Rascals and more. I’m not suggesting you might want to grab some cans to sip along the canal or in one of the nearby parks, I’ll just say you wouldn’t be alone in that sort of endeavour (but please don’t dump your empty cans in my front garden, we get enough of that on busy days). There is also The Big Tree, seemingly only open when something is on at Croke Park, but it seems to be catering more to the crowd staying in the attached Dublin One hotel for said events in most regards. We should not, of course, ignore the other end of Croke Park – Clonliffe House is another option for Guinness and a beer garden, and it gives one the chance to take in the Luke Kelly Bridge as well, if that’s of interest. In Fairview, Gaffney’s and The Strand House can also set you up for the day (or night) – with food on offer, too, at the latter.
And from the vibes perspective, you can choose a spot like The Hut (also in Phibsborough) or Gill’s Corner House if it’s an Old Man Pub you’re after. For families, we’d suggest The Cat & Cage or The Bald Eagle, or if you’re looking for great music, good beer and a cosy setting, perhaps Juno or Doyle’s Corner is your scene. But in any case, if it’s a table and possibly food you seek, do book in advance, and keep an eye on the socials of pubs you might want to check out for specials or other big-day changes.
But for us locals, the email that comes ahead of Croke Park events, giving advance notice of crowd sizes, street closings and so forth is handy not just as a reminder of what time to run out to buy essentials before the visitors descend, it’s also a good excuse to wander to pubs slightly further afield. It’s worth knowing that Underdog is far enough away to be a safe bet, even on the most hectic concert days…
*To answer the obvious questions: 1) no, you can’t sell the tickets on for vast sums and 2) sometimes it’s something you’d never dream of seeing, like Garth Brooks, and you simply politely decline.
But all too often on recent visits, there are multiple taps out of service or perhaps not as fresh as they might be – a real contrast to years gone by when this was a destination for beer nerds for the variety and vibrancy of the beers on offer, both from Galway Bay itself as well as other independent brewers from near and far. And it does seem that Galway Bay are making some especially interesting seasonal, one-off and collaboration beers of late, so it’s a shame that they rarely seem to be highlighted here.
And to be clear, I haven’t had a bad experience here, but the pub does look and feel, well, tired. It’s possibly unfair to compare it to a brand-new Galway Bay pub like 
Although the branding is different, Urban Brewing is an outpost of 
But what I particularly enjoy about Urban Brewing is that each part of the venue feels very different – the outside space is the go-to when the weather is good, but the modern bar in the old building has a lovely look and feel, while the vaults below are great for events – cosy and always beautifully decorated. And as a newer business in an older building, they’ve had the space to get their accessibility figured out in the retrofitting; there are lifts as well as stairs.
This week, it’s another relatively rare visit into the more touristy part of town as we visit 
Kennedy’s is another pub I’ve walked past many times without entering, but I finally had a bit of free time in the area this week, so stopped in for a sneaky daytime glass after visiting the National Gallery. While not nearly as extensive a list of craft beer taps as nearby 
There’s a lovely tiled bar in the basement for live music and events, and this space as well as the terra cotta decoration on the pub’s exterior add unique touches, while the rest of the interior feels a bit more ‘standard Irish pub.’ All told, it’s probably more of a destination for those on literary walking tours than anything else, but it’s nice to find a spot in tourist-land with a few craft beers; it’s not necessarily a given in Dublin.
Sometimes, it really is all about The Socials.
And while you’re not really here for the beer – labelled moderately-pretentiously-but-it-works as ‘pale ale,’ ‘lager’ and ‘stout’ in lower-case cursive on gold tap towers – they are, for the record, the Changing Times pale ale, Birra Moretti and, of course, Guinness. But if it’s good beer you’re after, you can do what we did and stop off at 
We didn’t have time to get to a ‘new’ pub this week for a conventional entry, but given the (strange) glorious sunny weather, we’ll do a quick round-up of the nicest 
And so, with definitions out of the way, here are some of our favourite proper Dublin 
Then, to the other side of the Liffey: 
Next, on to 
Last week, we asked whether 
The pub has been here since the 1850s, and in the Hedigan family since 1904, and you can’t miss their name in neon, either. Of course, like so many pubs along this route, it’s name-checked in Ulysses, and has a useful write-up 
Well, there have been proposals to 
We are back this week with a ‘request pub’ – one that’s much further north than our more common north-of-the-Liffey-but-still-pretty-central stomping grounds. We’re heading out of Dublin City proper to Howth; it’s an easy trip on the DART, but a bit of a pain if, for example, you needed Dublin Bus to deposit you to a nearby spot at a predetermined time. Dublin Bus is not always especially good at the concept of ‘on time’ (but it’s pretty great on ghost buses), so the journey in this general direction involved more taxis than I typically take in a 6-month period, but we got there in the end. Our (eventual) destination was 
I’d recently had an exchange on the socials lamenting the lack of railway station bars in Ireland, and while we have nothing here quite like the small-but-mighty 
We enjoyed excellent food and service when we stopped in, which isn’t necessarily a given in some pubs mid-week in the middle of the afternoon (hardly a fruitful time for most), so it was much appreciated. There is outdoor seating as well around both ends of the pub, but we kept to the more dimly-lit interior on a lovely sunny afternoon. Having offspring who actively avoid the sun may be odd to others, but hey, at least their vampiric ways are preventing long-term sun damage, and the pub interior really is lovely, all stone and dark wood.
A proper ‘Pubs of Croke Park’ roundup is long overdue, and with so many events on this summer, we may as well finally start working on that. While we’ve already covered a few handy ones like 
It’s very much a ‘locals’ pub most of the time, but a welcoming one; I’ve had out-of-town guests wind up there and have great chats with the barstaff. No frills, but no pretention, either. If you are looking to pre-game before an event at Croke Park, it’s hard to be better-placed for an easy walk in to the stadium. And, of course, the pub’s name