This week, we remain on the south side of Dublin with a visit to Sheehan’s, a very central pub indeed. Despite its close proximity to Grafton Street and the Gaiety Theatre, we confess to never having particularly noticed it – though, granted, we are rarely near Grafton Street on purpose, and when in this part of town, we are typically headed to Caribou (after the inevitable stop-in at Craft Central).
It can feel a bit like running a gauntlet over there these days; the now-constant massive queue of Young People waiting for pizza slice at Bambino (and then Instagramming it all over the footpath) is a non-trivial obstacle. One imagines that the queueing is part of the ‘experience,’ though while it’s a perfectly fine pizza slice – at least, it was when we tried it at first opening, just before the hype kicked in – it’s not something we would wait for when there’s nicer pizza at Rascals or Vice, and you can sit down or have it simply appear at your house (or at Doyle’s Corner, in the case of Vice)…but we digress. The nearby crowds meant that we’d never really had cause to walk in the direction of Sheehan’s, but after seeing that they had recently become a venue serving Trouble Dark Arts Porter (see, we can be influenced by The Socials, too), it became a priority spot to try.
And it was a very pleasant discovery indeed – the Dark Arts was as fresh as promised, but there were other independent offerings as well, notably Sullivan’s Black Marble Stout from Kilkenny. There were several Changing Times beers, and while we remain unconvinced about them in general from both a cost and taste perspective, as long as there are other options, it’s fine to see them. There was also Beamish, for the ‘split the B’ enthusiast in your life, plus the usual suspects.
It’s a very ‘pubby’ pub, with the usual dark woods and a lovely decorative ceiling. The atmosphere was very calming, certainly a change from the post-holiday shopping and pizza lines outside. It wasn’t quite full Old Man Pub, but was heading in that direction, in the best of ways, though it also felt fresh and up-to-date, with a good mix of clientele. It definitely feels like it’s been in the family for a good long while, and, indeed, it has. And if it’s one of those days where The Hairy Lemon or The Long Hall are absolutely overrun with tourists, Sheehan’s has a bit more of a calm, local vibe – it’s worth the very short walk around the corner.
Rather like TP Smith’s and Delaney’s, it seems that if we just wait around long enough, we’ll find independent beer in unexpected places (albeit of the more normal, core-range variety). But let’s hope we continue to be surprised…in the good way!
Where: 17 Chatham St, Dublin 2, D02 X923
Access from the city centre: Right in the mix
Food: Pub grub, pies
Sport: One imagines occasional sport
TVs: A few around the pub, though all were off on our visit
Music: Very chill on our visit
Family-friendliness: Not one for the kids
Pub-crawl-ability: High – Neary's, The Hairy Lemon, Caribou, Bar Rua, The Long Hall, Grogan’s, Peter’s Pub, Sinnot’s Bar and more are all nearby
Local sites of note: Gaiety Theatre, Craft Central, Little Museum of Dublin, George’s Street Arcade, St Stephen’s Green, Grafton Street
Haunted: Please?
Other notes: Basement toilets, but also a dedicated whiskey bar upstairs
Socials: Instagram, Facebook
While Dublin city centre certainly has plenty of pubs, we are fortunate in also having additional parts of town that are also jam-packed with excellent options, especially when 
So, it’s taken us a while to get to Delaney’s, which has very much a ‘pubby’ pub feel, but it was worth the wait. There’s a wonderful fireplace for our current season, and a large back garden for less-chilly temperatures (though it is also heated); it is truly a pub that caters to the ever-changing weather – just mind the suit of armour by the back door. While the building was 
Dublin – indeed, Ireland – is not over-endowed with glorious (or even ‘fine’) train stations. Having recently 
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 
In our effort to fill in the blanks when we see you getting lost in our search results, we’re aiming to visit some of the more common pubs on the tourist trail here and there, now that the bulk of the summer holidaymakers have gone home. Indeed, this week’s pub is one we’ve only ever previously visited in that capacity, years before moving to Dublin: The Long Hall.
Visiting again with more ‘local’ eyes does make you notice different things, but the fundamentals remain the same: the beautifully-maintained – and, in this case, likely genuinely world-famous – exterior of the pub is unmistakable, with its signature red-and-off-white stripes. Inside, it’s the kind of high Victorian décor that is more commonly a pastiche these days, but The Long Hall comes by it honestly: its last real renovation was in the 1880s. And while the deep reds and dark woods are common to many other local Dublin pubs of this vintage – a subject to which we’ll return – there are unique features here, including the 
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 
Dublin excels at 
There’s a warm welcome, and not one, but two local independent beers offerings: Hope and O’Hara’s are always well-kept here. The bar serves two separate sections, each with their own respective snugs and other seating, and there are lots of little corners to duck into if you’re looking for that quiet solo pint. And it’s interesting to note that while everything you see now is very much hearkening back to the late 19th century, this is, in fact, an older pub – the original building(s) is/are Georgian, and its first license 
Our one knock on many Old Man Pubs is that they rarely offer any beers beyond the usual Guinness and Heineken (though to be fair, it’s usually an excellent Guinness from scrupulously clean tap lines), but as mentioned above, at Gaffney’s, there is good support for other choices, plus Beamish as another stout option. This beer selection, combined with the attractive interior, might just make it the perfect Dublin Old Man Pub.
This week’s pub is one that we’ve both been asked to profile repeatedly, and, in nearly equal measure, begged not to reveal it as a secret hidden gem. Is it possible to satisfy both of these audiences? Let’s find out – and so, we venture back to Marlborough Street, home to 
Also unlike many other Old Man Pubs, there was an independent beer option: Kinnegar’s Scraggy Bay. In some pubs that don’t have that kind of turnover for non-Guinness options, they aren’t always as fresh, but there were no such issues here. Guinness was, of course, plentiful, but there were many pints of lager being consumed, too – it is slightly unusual to see Tuborg on one of the taps in a Dublin pub, but I have a soft spot for many Carlsberg products, so it was quite welcome. The décor is, again, by no means fancy, but it’s very well-kept: red and cream paint, lighter wood tones and simple brass lamps on the bar. The crowd was clearly mostly regulars, and although most were deeply invested in the multiple channels of horse racing, there were other long-running conversations, too.
And while it may be true that this is not the cleanest nor most well-kept part of Dublin, that is presumably part of what keeps the tourists away, Georgian architecture notwithstanding. And although some parts of Reddit may be thoroughly convinced that we’re all just waiting to get murdered north of the Liffey, there are signs of positive development; newer pubs like The Morris Bar, just a short walk away, suggest that things are slowly improving. But for a pub like Briody’s that’s been here for over a century in various guises, it seems to be content to keep its current mix of regulars and semi-regulars who drop in whenever they are in town.
Although I’ve lived an extremely brief walk from James Gill’s Corner House for over 4 years, I have never managed to be going past when it was open – until now. Its ‘regular’ opening hours are nothing of the sort, but that’s part of this pub’s mythology. Gill’s Pub opens when Gill’s Pub decides to do so. So, what’s it like?
As mentioned, the opening hours are…erratic at best. But if the door is open, you’ll find the walls lined with match-day programs and event posters from previous games and concerts (for those of us who live nearby, we can simply hear everything in the garden – a blessing or a curse, depending on the fixture or artist). But inside there is also the mural of 
But during Behan’s youth, this area wasn’t merely residential – 
Some Dublin pubs are spoken about in slightly hushed tones, with an air of wonder; when you admit you haven’t been to one of those ‘classics,’ there are frequently two standard responses: ‘ah, you must, it's wonderful,’ or ‘well, I know it’s a certain type of a place,’ which may sound non-committal, but it conveys much more. And so while I’ve been told again and again that I ‘must go’ to The Lord Edward, also hearing the second line nearly as frequently had made me somewhat apprehensive. On the face of it, this is silly; what could be intimidating about a pub that is clearly beloved by so many? And I hasten to add this isn’t the sort of place that has a clear demographic type that would be genuinely something to avoid; I used to live near a fairly notorious football hooligan pub in London in the 1990s, and while it was my closest watering hole, the fact that I would walk nearly a mile to the Wetherspoons up the road instead should say everything about that.
But as I sat with my pint of Beamish (yes, I am aware that the Guinness was brewed just a short walk away, I’m just a sucker for Beamish and am glad it seems to be reappearing around town), listening to snatches of conversation here and there, I struggled to put my finger on just what it was about The Lord Edward that made it feel less ‘for me’ than the aforementioned 
And there’s much to be said for an Old Man Pub; there are plenty of friendly regulars (largely, though not entirely, from that specific demographic), quite often a more affordable pint and a some generally comfortable spots to sit and relax. There may not be any craft beer – the closest The Boh gets is with a few broadly-interchangeable Franciscan Well and Open Gate IPAs – but as the vast majority of their patrons are here for the Guinness and Beamish, it’s hardly surprising. First, though, a bit of context.
More properly known as McGeough’s – The Bohemian, and situated on one side of Doyle’s Corner (opposite, er,