Regular readers know that we tend to keep north of the Liffey, or else head more toward The Liberties when we must cross the river. However, we had occasion to be in the area on a weekday afternoon, and so finally made it a priority to call in to O’Donoghue’s – a pub we’ve had a few requests to cover.
Now, while it’s been on the list for a while, we’ve not made it in for a few reasons – not just our general laziness when it comes to heading south. We tend to avoid the more ‘touristy’ areas of town, not only because of the price of a pint in them (though we’re not quite talking Temple Bar pricing here), but because there also tends to be less going on in terms of food and beer selection in a lot of the pubs that pop up on the usual tourist trail recommendation lists. Add in live trad to the equation, and it can be a potent mix that signals ‘tourists only!’ – a combination most keenly felt in many of the pubs in Temple Bar, but that also applies to places like The Brazen Head. And on a recent walk past, the specific tunes and crowd spilling out of O’Donoghue’s that evening seemed to be, well, that.
However, our midweek daytime visit was quite a different affair, and all to the good. Both the interior and the large beer garden were calm, though not empty – as we write this, it is Cheltenham week, and that tends to mean fairly full Old Man Pubs – the resulting crowd was a good mix of locals and visiting Yorkshiremen, most with an interest in the racing. It was also encouraging to see Lucky Pale Ale from Trouble on tap; so many of the ‘must-visit’ pubs here in Dublin – notably Toner’s, just across the street – only have Guinness and/or Heineken products, so seeing at least one local independent beer makes things much more interesting for us.
And the music heritage at O’Donoghue’s is a very real aspect of the appeal; The Dubliners are forever associated with it, and they are looking at you from a range of portraits and photos around the pub. The dark, scuffed (but not uncomfortable) wooden furniture adds to the atmosphere, and while it’s not as large and maze-like as its neighbour across the street, it’s still a much larger pub than you’d guess from the outside. And although the building may not be quite as old as claimed, it’s certainly in the general Georgian ballpark. But it’s the pub’s association with trad music over the last half century that makes it unique. And, like The Cobblestone, it still has a reputation for drawing trad musicians and fans from near and far – it’s not the frequently diddley-eye mix of tunes aimed only at tourists you get in certain quarters.
That said, we are more likely to take ourselves to The Cobblestone or Dudley’s if we’re in the mood for music and pints, but that’s more a function of proximity (and beer selection) than anything else. We can certainly see why O’Donoghue’s is still a real destination for trad, for visitors and locals alike, even if we don’t get down that way particularly often.
No Temple Bar vibes here!
Where: 15 Merrion Row, Dublin
Access from the city centre: Stephen’s Green is just around the corner
Food: Crisps
Sport: Rugby, horse racing, etc…
TVs: Screens both inside and out for the sport
Music: Live trad every night
Family-friendliness: More of a grownup spot, but children/families are welcome to stay in the guest rooms – no kids after 9 pm in the bar area, though, as standard elsewhere
Pub-crawl-ability: Medium-High – Toner’s, McGrattan's, Kennedy's and Doheny & Nesbitt are all very close, though we like to head further on up toward Tapped, Cassidy’s, Bowes or The Palace Bar
Local sites of note: Huguenot Cemetery, Little Museum of Dublin, St Stephen's Green, Merrion Square, Fitzwilliam Square, Royal Hibernian Academy, Oireachtas, National Library of Ireland, National Museum of Ireland (Archaeology and The Dead Zoo), National Gallery of Ireland…etc.
Haunted: A strange lack of spooky tales…
Other notes: Main floor toilets
Socials: Instagram, Facebook
This week, we remain on the south side of Dublin with a visit to 
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 
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 
Rather like 
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