Dublin – indeed, Ireland – is not over-endowed with glorious (or even ‘fine’) train stations. Having recently visited Antwerp, with its beautiful Antwerpen Centraal, well….we have no equivalent. Many (if not most) of our Irish train stations don’t even have a bar, much less anything on the continuum between the wonderful Stalybridge Buffet Bar in Greater Manchester to the renowned Peronas Travel Bar in Vilnius. Connolly Station no longer even has its own in-station pub, as Madigan’s – one of Dublin’s few pubs with an alleged ‘active haunting‘ – has now been closed for some months, with no indications of reopening any time soon, if ever.
Fortunately, for those waiting for their trains near Connolly, there are alternatives to the mid or absent train station pub, starting with Grainger’s Cafe Bar (aka JJ Grainger’s). Built in the 1830s – with the nearby railway bridge (and, naturally, station) appearing some decades later – the pub has been in the same family since 1928. And while the bar area itself is quite small, it’s well-formed: dark wood, bar seating and some cosy tables. And there’s even good beer – a nice selection that included Trouble Dark Arts (one of our favourites), plus Ambush, as well as Hope’s Underdog and their Paddy’s Barleywine, a real surprise. Add in a Rascals tap or two – and there was at least one working – and this may now rank as one of the finest independent beer lineups in Dublin, now that Underdog has, sadly, left us. Your usual Guinness and Heineken options were available, too.
The staff were also friendly and welcoming – how many pubs would put on the ‘Airwolf’ theme when asked to do so (not, it must be said, by us, but we did enjoy it)? And while it’s true that this part of Dublin still has a bit of a ‘reputation,’ something we’ve discussed in our entry on The Morris Bar, just a bit further along Talbot Street, the positive energy in Grainger’s is further evidence that things are, gradually, improving.
And in any event, a quick pint here before a train from Connolly has much more to recommend it than sitting there with a poorly-brewed tea – allow yourself a little bit of extra time to relax in the pub before heading into the station.
Where: 51 Talbot Street, Dublin
Access from the city centre: Buses 14, 15, 27, Luas Red Line, Luas Green, 20-ish minute walk
Food: Breakfast, pub grub
Sport: If they happen to be on at the time
TVs: A few screens here and there
Music: Top-class ’80s tunes on our visit, from Squeeze to Julian Cope
Family-friendliness: Early on, before a train? Why not?
Pub-crawl-ability: High – Molloy’s, Mooney's of Abbey Street, The Morris Bar, Kimchi Hophouse, MeMa's, The Sackville, The Big Romance, The Flowing Tide, The Palace Bar, Piper's Corner, JR Mahon’s, The Oval Bar, Urban Brewing, The Brew Dock, Mulligan's and The Confession Box; also not too far from The Silver Penny if you must visit a ‘Spoons
Local sites of note: Connolly Station, O'Connell Street, The Spire, The Portal, GPO, Busáras, Connolly Station, Abbey Theatre, Gate Theatre, NATIONAL WAX MUSEUM, Ha'Penny Bridge
Haunted: Can it take in the poltergeist from Madigan’s?
Other notes: Basement toilets – not ideal from an accessibility perspective
Socials: Instagram, Facebook
We’ll say up front that we are very much not night owls.
It’s once again worth stating, though, that it’s entirely possible that we’re not the target demographic, and that the real action begins after, say, 9 pm…by which point, we’re generally in pajamas. In this particular instance, we wanted to continue to celebrate the footy win, and so hopped back across the street to 
We’ve not always been fair to 
The first point in its favour – for us, anyway – is its support for local independent beer: there are multiple 
While it’s true that when in this general direction we are more often to be found at 
While 
And it is, perhaps, fitting that Neary’s is a pub that attracts this kind of lore; its beautifully-maintained interior hearkens back to the 1880s – well, at least in the main bar downstairs – while upstairs, it’s a slightly more updated restaurant feel, but still elegantly understated. The 
As regular readers know, we are always on the lookout for 
While the ‘since 1793’ date is a little shaky, given the current building’s construction 
So, ghosts aside, what is the pub like? Well…most definitely not creepy. If anything, it’s a bit too polished to feel at all like a liminal space. There are several very different sections of the pub with their own character, but none are especially dark or gloomy. The front is much more ‘pubby’ and the rear more of a restaurant or hotel bar vibe (the many large TV screens are part of what gives that impression), though it’s worth knowing that the back bar is where the sole local-craft-beer representative is; there’s a Rye River tap if you know where to look. Indeed, the food was very good – a step up from a lot of pub food, though the enormous portions are perhaps created more for tourists than locals. There’s also the usual Guinness – and Murphy’s – plus some Warsteiner.
There’s a covered outdoor space too, more 
The 1884 is so called after 
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 
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 
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.’
Cask ale, as we have often complained, is something of a rarity in Ireland. While there are a few more pubs with a regular cask offering up in Belfast, here in Dublin, it is simply not a regular feature in most pubs. Happily, though, a tipoff from a reader (cheers, Ciaran!) alerted us to a beer engine in regular use at Harty’s Bar. Naturally, we dropped everything to go investigate.
One reason this pub had not been on our radar is that, appearances notwithstanding, it’s a fairly new establishment (but also not; bear with us) – until about 18 months ago, it was the Dingle Whiskey Bar. But like its neighbour, 
While it doesn’t have the selection of beers next door in Tapped, with its enormous bar, for a small space, it has a good lineup of some of the more standard Porterhouse beers – the Plain Porter, Yippy IPA and Red – as well as Trouble’s Ambush. There’s also Guinness, of course, and Beamish. But as you know, we were here for the cask option: this week, it was 
We know that we tend to be biased toward pubs on the north side of the Liffey, but this week, we travel (relatively) far into south Dublin – all the way to Blackrock and . Once a quiet fishing village with a sideline in 
And while the 
There are some lovely little snugs and the pub also has a bit of a nautical bent – the seafront is right here, after all – but it’s very welcoming to all; the standard Guinness (and Beamish!) is on offer, and there is good support for independent offerings like Hope and Wicklow Wolf, as well as 
Have we found Dublin’s darkest pub?
All told, though, the vibe at Frank Ryan’s is extremely laid-back, and it can be a respite from the sun on a hot day; it’s not the sort of pub that’s going to be to everyone’s taste, but with so many in the broader