Stoneybatter has an abundance of riches when it comes to pubs, with classics like The Glimmer Man, Walsh’s and L. Mulligan. Grocer, all within steps of one another – and that’s before you include other fantastic spots like Hynes’ Bar and The Barber’s Bar, just a bit further apart from those three. As a result, it’s taken an absolute age for us to get around to profiling The Belfry, despite it long being on the to-do list.
While the handsome, all-black-painted building has the kind of also-dark colours, subdued lighting and cosy reclaimed furniture that you might find in broadly similar pubs from Carroll Gardens to Dalston, The Belfry – like all its neighbours – feels very much part of the fabric of Stoneybatter. Indeed, one of the reasons we haven’t been able to write it up before now is that on previous attempts to visit, it was too crowded to get halfway-decent pictures; certainly not a bad ‘problem’ for a pub to have. And on every occasion, the lively crowd has been a great mix of locals of all ages, students from the nearby TUD campus and even Olds like us.
And the attractions are many: great support for local independent beers from the likes of Hope, Kinnegar, Trouble and The White Hag, as well as a notable cocktail list. For the more ‘traditional’ drinker, it’s possible to get Guinness, Beamish and Murphy’s, so if you’re one of those who enjoys doing the blind taste test of all three, The Belfry has you sorted. There’s also a wonderful little beer garden, and plenty of events that are very much rooted in the local community. It was an absolute oasis for this year’s instalment of the always-busy-but-great-vibes Stoneybatter Festival (yes, you could park your child inside for them to have a sit-down and a snack). This being Stoneybatter, there are always lots of dogs as well. It’s also important to point out that not only is there a main-floor toilet, it’s a properly-accessible one – something of a rarity in much of Dublin.
Our only other ‘complaint’ is that The Belfry tends to open later than some other pubs, so it’s not always handy for a quick weekend lunchtime pint. All the more incentive, really, to get there as they open to secure a comfy leather chair and a refreshing beverage…
Where: 37 Stoneybatter, Dublin, D07 X029
Access from the city centre: Buses 37, 39, 39A, 70, 83, 83A; Luas Red Line, 30ish minute walk
Food: Keep an eye on the socials for food trucks and pop-ups
Sport: More music-forward than sport-led
TVs: Well-hidden, if they are there
Music: More modern tunes; even the occasional rave for dogs
Family-friendliness: The hours are not particularly child-friendly, but everyone is welcome during the Stoneybatter Festival
Pub-crawl-ability: High – L. Mulligan. Grocer, The Glimmer Man, The Cobblestone, Delaney’s, Hynes’ Bar, The Barber’s Bar & Bonobo are quite close; Fidelity isn’t too much further away
Local sites of note: The Lighthouse Cinema, Arbour Hill Cemetery, TUD Grangegorman
Haunted: Some of the décor does have the ‘haunted object’ look to it (in the best possible way) – perhaps a storytelling jumping-off point?
Other notes: Dogs are welcome, obviously, and the accessible toilet is important
Socials: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
The staircase formerly connected floors in Trinity College, and the beer garden out back can even be heated when necessary (though as with so many of the more interior-feeling beer gardens in Dublin, it can tend toward feeling very smoky). All told, it feels very ‘pubby,’ but what strikes me is the very noticeable vibe shift when the tour groups leave. It took a few visits to realise that it wasn’t just the freeing up of part of the pub that made the real difference; rather, it was the music. When the groups are in, the music is not just trad (there is, after all, plenty of good trad out there), but full-on diddly-eye trad – the sort of music that might have been featured on an American PBS station 40+ years ago. But once they go, there’s a break – either no music, or a change to something a bit more current. Perhaps it’s coincidence, but it’s something we’ve noticed on multiple visits – and it’s no bad thing!
Now, this is not to say that some of the more touristy pubs are doing their customers a disservice in any way; to the contrary, they are doing a great job of catering to multiple demographics, and more power to them. And Nancy Hands also does a great job of supporting local writers – 
Inside, the look is all Old Man Pub, but with a more diverse clientele of all ages, genders and dog breeds. There’s also good support for local independent beer from Rye River, but they also get accolades a-plenty for the Guinness here. On our visit, the hurling was on (ironically, I was trying to get as far from 
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 
If combining food and drink is of paramount importance, casting a wider net can help, but you can still start quite close by. 
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.
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 
Back in the day – you know, perhaps 3 years ago – this week’s pub was The Porterhouse Central. It was a very handy spot in that you could enjoy a mix of interesting beers from Porterhouse and various guest options, but you avoided 
However, I happened to be in the area and had a bit of time after a meeting, so I gave Tapped another try. I’m pleased to say that the interior, while still feeling just slightly too ‘taproom’ has been softened and improved. There is now much more comfortable seating and the lighting is more dialled-in; it feels warmer on the whole. There are screens showing the beer lineup, 