It’s true we have a tendency to stick to pubs that are north of the Liffey, but we rarely venture out into the true suburbs – we are usually still within reasonable walking distance of Dublin city centre. This week, however, we take a longish bus ride out to the wilds of Kilbarrack to visit The Bayside Inn.
Although Kilbarrack itself does date back to the medieval period in some form, it is almost certainly best-known now for its alter ego, Barrytown, in the works of Roddy Doyle. And while we’re very much Roddy Doyle fans, there’s not much about the pub that we’d call a direct callback to one of his novels (or any of the films thereof), but it’s very much the kind of local spot that seems to have simply grown out of its nearby surroundings.
Indeed, The Bayside Inn is so ‘of this place’ that it sits in the car park in the shopping centre, next to the church – all of a thoroughly 1970s vintage. One gets the feeling that not much has changed in the internal décor since the doors opened in 1974 (per the painted gold letters on the half-glass doors. Some fairy lights have been added to the open rafters, and a taxidermied bear is observing proceedings from above, but beyond the TV screens, we doubt that much has been altered. It might not be a perfect time capsule from the 1970s, but it’s also not terribly far off. And while there may be very slight visual and architectural similarities to this particular vintage of ‘estate pubs’ on the Neighbouring Island, the feeling is still very much ‘neighbourhood Dublin pub’ – it doesn’t have a ‘locals only’ vibe, even if it does have plenty of regulars (which can, of course, be said of many estate pubs in Britain, even if that’s not the popular reputation).
And some things have changed with the times; there is good support for local independent beer here, with fresh selections from Hope, brewed under 2 km away at Howth Junction, on tap. Yes, there’s Guinness and all the other usual options, but it’s nice to see smaller local businesses giving each other a helping hand. We confess we’ve only made it up here when we’ve been visiting local friends (or doing a spot of cat-sitting), but we’ve always felt very welcome here, even as only occasional drop-ins.
With so many Dublin pubs working hard to maintain a late 19th century look and feel (even if they are thoroughly modern establishments), it’s refreshing to see a spot that is simply itself; The Bayside Inn wears its 1970s font and decoration with pride.
Where: Bayside Blvd N, Kilbarrack Lower, Dublin
Access from the city centre: Dart to Bayside, H3 bus – this would be well over a 2 hour walk from town
Food: Pizza (more of the frozen and reheated variety)
Sport: So much sport!
TVs: Screens visible throughout the pub – an ideal spot for a match when several are on
Music: Television sound on the most recent visit, but we’ve heard 80s faves in the past
Family-friendliness: Kids welcome at the usual times
Pub-crawl-ability: Low – there is a scattering of ‘nearby’ pubs like The Elphin Bar or The Racecourse Inn, but it would make for a tough pub crawl; otherwise, hop the bus or train further out to Howth for The Harbour Bar or The Bloody Stream
Local sites of note: The Lamb Chop, Sutton Park, Bull Island
Haunted: The old fireplace looks to have been rescued from an older establishment; perhaps it brought a spooky friend?
Other notes: Dogs welcome; main floor toilets
Socials: Facebook, Instagram
We venture south of the Liffey again for two purposes: bagels and beer. Whilst our main goal on our visit to 
Inside, what could have been a tired 1970s-era renovation in a 19th century pub has been thoughtfully updated, keeping a bit of the old for camp and comfort, with a blend of fantastic local art, memorabilia and the finest Pride gear (not just in June, we are told, but all the year round, and it’s wonderful) well-placed on all the walls. It’s one of the most cleanly-designed pubs we’ve ever been in, but it still feels packed with personality – these aren’t the ‘hotel bar’ vibes you get 
And there is truly something for everyone – sport, including an emphasis on women’s sport (FINALLY), is on various screens, there’s a monthly folk club, drag bingo and pub quizzes galore. But you’ve likely come to read about the bagels, and we wouldn’t leave you disappointed. Ireland is not generally known for its strong bagel game – see also: 
This week, we make a trip not only south of the Liffey, but nearly into the heart of Dublin 4, with a visit to 
It’s very much a neighbourhood spot, welcoming local families, game day regulars and guests – you can even stay in the pub. And while its renovation of the past decade means it’s got a bit more polished wood and stained glass than many of its counterparts on the other side of the river, it never feels snobby. There are some lovely snugs – again, more stained glass – and various different spaces to spread out around this large pub. Local independent beers are well-represented (from Trouble and Wicklow Wolf on this most recent visit, though we’ve also seen Hope in the past), but this is another spot where the stout enthusiast can do the full Guinness–Beamish–Murphy’s taste test.
We will eventually do a ‘Best Pubs for the Aviva’ roundup to complement our ‘
This week, we are visiting more of an event venue than a pub, but needs must.
And it may be that this vibe is a direct result of this new space: surrounded by bland offices and corporate apartments, it now feels like an after work ‘enforced fun’ spot for company meetings. The prices certainly fall into the ‘someone else is paying’ category with an ambitiously-priced pint of Scraggy Bay on offer for €8.20 (and a service charge added to food orders, despite it being relatively difficult to find someone to take your payment when you want to leave, even at the bar).
Although it’s part of the same ownership group as 
While we are 
There was a strong cocktail game as well, and while we didn’t have time to sample the food, it did look rather more interesting than many other pub options…perhaps something we’ll revisit to consider adding to the 
Upstairs there is a glorious sun deck, so rather than 
It’s finally happened.
And 
The cask offering is also a point of contention here – as cask nerds, we’ve noted before the very small number of pubs in Dublin that have 
Which, of course, leads us to the other reason we tend to not go there very much – it would be horrifying to the Young Adult member of the household to run into us at a place that is very much a usual haunt of His People; best to leave it to the Youth most of the time, but it is handy for a cheap pint before a gig nearby, and you can always make paper airplanes from the Wetherspoons magazine if you are so inclined. Just consider 
Broadly speaking, it’s more common to find food (beyond crisps) in Irish pubs, compared to their counterparts in the UK. This is, of course, a huge generalisation – 
This is a ‘best’ post, so we’ll focus on a few favourites for each of those broad categories mentioned above. For more-than-just-reliable pub grub – especially with kids – we love 
Moving on to pizza, it’s a shorter list, but there are a few pubs that are flying under the radar for their pizza. 
Finally, we move on to the pubs that we go to for special occasions, because the food is just that good, but that you can equally go to for simply a pint or some nibbles – airs and graces are not required. We love 
It must be New Pub Season – everything around Dublin seems to be 
It’s time for another pub re-brand, but this one does seem to be purely a name swap and a bit of a paint job, rather than anything more drastic. We speak, of course, of 
The Read family did run their business from what is now 
In truth, beyond some more sober colour choices and nods to both the Read family and a portrait of Michael Collins, little has changed – but this is no bad thing. The more recent trend around Dublin has been for pubs to remove their independent beer taps when they renovate, but happily, Thomas Read’s remains a Galway Bay Brewing pub, so there is the usual range of their beers and a few guests, although there are, perhaps, a few more Guinness and Heineken taps than there used to be. 
And it’s a change that makes sense from a tourism point of view: if we’re being honest, 
We are back in action this week, now that the Paddy’s Day crowds have moved on, and, as so often, we find ourselves in 
With one recent glorious afternoon of sun, however, making the most of it was a moral imperative – and so, we repaired to Lucky’s. The main pull was their large and well-appointed 
As a sister bar to 
Beer-wise, there’s a nice, rotating mix of local independent options from Whiplash, Rascals and Hopfully (among others recently on tap), along with the usual Guinness; bottles of flavoured cider seemed to be the thing the Young People were going for. Rather unusually, there’s also Hoegaarden, plus a range of cocktails and non-alcoholic options.