We’re back safely on the north side of the Liffey this week, and have returned to Glasnevin for a visit to The Tolka House. As with The Cat & Cage in nearby Drumcondra, there’s a better claim to being a realistically ‘old’ pub here than with, er, some pubs closer to Dublin city centre that like to trumpet an older pedigree. And while by ‘old’ in this instance, we don’t mean medieval, there has been a pub here since at least the 18th century, and quite possibly earlier. The Tolka House, so named as it is, indeed, right on the Tolka River, began documented life at The Bull’s Head.
While it was likely something akin to a coaching inn in that earlier phase – again, like its not-too-distant neighbour in Drumcondra – having a tourist site spring up nearby in the form of the National Botanic Gardens in the 19th century was a boon to business, similar to the relationship between the nearby Gravediggers and Glasnevin Cemetery. While the name and ‘look’ of the pub has changed over the decades (it’s just had another touch-up in the last year), much of what we see today comes from a major renovation in the 1990s. There’s quite a large covered deck in the back, and ‘bar’ and ‘restaurant’ sections inside. I’m not sure the most recent update has had time to bed in yet; it still has a bit of that somewhat over-designed feel to it, especially in the restaurant portion, but that may fade as things get a bit more of a patina again, and having things err on the side of ‘tidy’ is no bad thing.
Despite it being relatively close to me, The Tolka House had not been one of my more usual haunts – largely because it lacked a good independent beer option. Fortunately, that has now changed, and they are proudly pouring beer from the excellent Four Provinces Brewing Co. For you, dear reader, I have taken it upon myself to try both the Féile Pale Ale and the now-renamed True Blue Lager (formerly The Poddle, with some minor recipe tweaks), and I am pleased to say that both are in excellent condition. I do need to visit the Four Provinces pub in Kimmage itself at some point soon – perhaps when their absolutely gorgeous Gob Fliuch Dark Mild is back on tap (or on cask? A lady can dream).
But back to the pub at hand; while I will never personally understand the appeal of a carvery (see also: Fagan’s), the one here at The Tolka House seems to be quite popular, and there are other options as well. For me, though, it’s knowing that there are some interesting local beer options that make me more likely to stop by; one hopes that other pubs can respond to the ever-increasing pricing from the macro brewers by making more room on their taps for independent local beer.
There’s room for all sorts.
Where: 9a Glasnevin Hill, Glasnevin, Dublin 9, D09 VH02
Access from the city centre: Buses 4, 9, 11, 83, 83A
Food: Breakfast, bar menu, larger plates, carvery
Sport: All the big sport options, especially football and rugby
TVs: Several throughout the pub, including big screens
Music: Live (chiefly non-trad) music most weekends
Family-friendliness: Children welcome in the restaurant, not in the bar
Pub-crawl-ability: Low-Medium, depending on your taste for walking; The Gravediggers is just across the cemetery, and The Botanic around the corner, but it’s not a terribly long walk into Phibsborough for The The Bald Eagle, or across Griffith Park to Fagan’s or further up into Drumcondra for The Ivy House and The Cat & Cage.
Local sites of note: National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin Cemetery, Met Éireann building
Haunted: Not a single ghost story in active circulation; someone should really remedy this
Other notes: €6.80 a pint (for the Four Provinces beers) is not at all bad by local standards
Socials: Instagram, Facebook
We kick off our 2025 pub-visiting endeavours with a stop off at 
Its more 
Some of that may also come from its beer selection; there’s the usual Guinness-and-macros lineup (plus Murphy’s), as well as two new taplines from 
It’s been a minute since we’ve been to an entirely new pub, so it was good fun to make it in to 
While much of 
The best news for beer fans is that unlike several of the ex-Galway Bay pubs, we have their core lineup, and there will be other guest beers as well in the future. But you can also bring your Guinness nerds and other macro-beer friends here – they are by no means left out, and there are cocktails as well. On our visit, everything was lovely and fresh (as you might expect) – the Lush and Full Sail were both in excellent form. Food, too, was more varied than the standard menu, or else it’s changed again – either way, the addition of the charcuterie board was most welcome, and the halloumi fries are as good as ever.
In the immortal words of 
There can be a bit of a dark side to going all in on Christmas, though – a pub might attract groups of Twelve Pubs of Christmas revellers. Now, I like a 
Well, as mentioned, they have the ideal backdrop for the social media documentation of their special day – there is no corner of the pub lacking holiday decorations. They can also be sensible by getting a bit of food, and while the beers on offer aren’t terribly adventurous – their own-brand offerings look to be from Franciscan Well, so more or less a small step up from your standard Heineken portfolio plus Guinness, but it does give Beamish stans their fave, too. But The Ginger Man is the kind of place that’s busy no matter what – its proximity to Trinity College means there are always plenty of students and tourists, plus a big after-work crowd. There are likely smaller numbers of JP Donleavy fans coming to see a pub named after his novel, as there are 
I’ve never seen U2 live. But like everyone of my age and fighting weight, I saw Rattle & Hum a fair few times, and back in the 1980s, I rented the U2: Live at Red Rocks VHS not infrequently. And while I completely agree that a lot of the stuff of that era of the band still slaps, I can see that the kids might find certain things about U2 a bit, well, cringe. But as a transplant to Dublin, I also don’t have that immediate animosity some seem to have to anything Bono-related – I’m essentially U2-agnostic.
Why the U2 preamble? Well, because this week’s pub, The Dockers Bar, was 
And what do those current regulars find at The Dockers Bar? It must be said that they were there in numbers on a weekend evening, so clearly, it’s working for them – is it the combination of some excellent independent Irish beer options (Rascals, Kinnegar, Trouble, Wicklow Wolf)? Or maybe they are mostly there for the Guinness, or perhaps the cocktails? The more-interesting-than-usual nibbles? In any event, it was a packed after-work scene.
The Oval’s most recent refurbishment was only about a year or so ago, and while it feels fresh and tidy, there’s still enough of a patina to give it a feeling of the history of the place; the décor and grillwork have an authentic feel. The pub is divided up into multiple sections, with more of a dining-room feel upstairs, but even within the relatively small main bar area, there are distinct areas to sit and relax, either alone or to spread out with friends. And while you can, of course, have a Guinness and all the other usual big brands, The Oval has two house beers, a pale ale and lager, that are brewed for this and other 
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It’s properly Halloween season, and that means we need to take in a pub with a better ghostlore pedigree…even if its other, more, er, brazen claims don’t really hold up. And so, to 
And so to the second issue – is it ‘Ireland’s oldest pub,’ here ‘since 1189?’ LOL, no. While 
Happily – at least for a 
Indeed, devilish attachments (literally) continued with a stone ‘devil’ head formerly being affixed to the bridge – though whether the stories or the sculpture came first is open to investigation. In any case, the ‘devil’ has been 
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For anyone used to a reasonably trendy brewery taproom, the recent glow-up at the Open Gate hits all the marks – sleek-looking taps, photography-friendly spaces and industrial chic, though you do now get a better view of the brewing operations behind the glass wall. That said, this isn’t the sort of spot you’ll find 30 rotating taps; it’s still your core Guinness range, with a few more 
Perhaps my favourite thing about the Open Gate, however, is less about the beer and pretzels – though I love the Dublin Porter, and would happily drink it much more frequently were it available elsewhere around town – it’s the sign. Rather than the more common neon chalk or paint-pen listing of what’s on tap, there’s an old-school, railway station-style flipboard that resets periodically, and it is incredibly satisfying to watch and listen to. And despite being someone who once spent far too long each week in Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, I miss 
The Bleeding Horse gets the usual James Joyce namecheck in Ulysses, complete with a stone at the door to remind the visitor, but I’m personally more interested in the 
A 17th century ale-house would have been somewhat akin to our modern ‘wet pub’ (yes, it’s a terrible phrase), with drink on offer, but little else, while an inn would have offered accommodation as well as refreshment. And although ‘public houses’ 