In one of the longest-awaited (or, for the more cynical among you, most-doubted-to-ever-happen) Dublin pub re-openings, Quinn’s Pub has finally thrown wide the doors, some six years after its closure, and after several intervening years of decay, delays and general development hell.
It’s something of an infamous pub, known just as much in the past for its brushes with poor drainage, health and safety issues and even a murder as for its reputation as a gameday location for those descending upon Croke Park from the countryside for the GAA. It was also a popular (if, apparently, ‘smelly’) student bar in the 1990s and 2000s, from back when DCU students could afford to live in nearby rental properties; not really an option now that those houses are nearly all airbnbs, but that’s another story.
We even get a bit of folklore in the demise of the previous incarnation of Quinn’s – the story goes that then-owner, Seán Quinn – devastatingly referred to on the pub’s current website as a ‘former billionaire’ – caused his own misfortune when he moved the Aughrim Wedge Tomb, a megalithic tomb of c. 2000 BCE, in order to make way for some quarrying (and to create an ersatz tourist attraction at a hotel he formerly owned, where it remains). This, as one might expect, upset the Good People, and it was all downhill from there. (Your fair scribe has not-dissimilar thoughts about this, as a former archaeologist). In any event, Quinn himself has not been associated with the pub for some years, but it’s taken the new ownership group a long time and a somewhat-controversial investment scheme to get back up and running.
Originally slated to open ‘for Paddy’s Day’ about 2 years ago, it’s finally been close enough to done to start getting customers in – just in time for the All-Ireland Final which saw Mayo break a 75-year curse to win, so we should probably never assume there may not be more occult forces at work, somewhere. This is important context for the outsider, as it’s difficult to convey just what a sellout day at Croke Park is like for the neighbourhood, whether that be a concert or a GAA final: you suddenly have an extra 82,000 people to contend with, mostly in good humour, but they will be spilling out of every local pub, café and shop, not just across pavements, but into the roads – good luck getting your bus through. One can imagine that the custom on a single big day must be a massive part of the annual revenue for our local businesses, so getting something open before the last big GAA event was, well, kind of a big deal.
So what we do see now is by no means the finished product, but as a local resident, it was Important to go check out what was on offer, once it was possible to do so. Quinn’s is a very large building by local standards, and the new owners have divided up what was the ground-floor bar into a café – opening during the day for coffees, etc, and as a wine bar in the evenings – with the other side maintaining a more traditionally ‘pubby’ feel. This is probably a very sensible approach, especially for out-of-season operations, but it does make that ‘pub’ side seem a bit small (if comfortably furnished). The theme is, of course, GAA, and there will also be hotel rooms upstairs, all decorated in different county colours, so that continues throughout.
Perhaps most surprisingly – and this is a pleasant surprise – there’s even a local independent beer on offer. This is not a given at most of the more ‘sporty’ pubs in Dublin, so it was great to see a Whiplash tap, even if it wasn’t up and running yet on our visit. The Carlsberg, however, tasted just as fresh as it does in Copenhagen, so clearly, considerable work has gone into completely reworking the tap lines (and plumbing in general – no smells!). There is Beamish as well as Guinness, so if Cork are playing, their fans will be well-catered to.
It looks as if it will be a while longer before more food offerings and upstairs bars come online, but a planned outdoor food market has already been advertising for vendors, so it will be interesting to watch the progress continue to unfold. And while the (men’s) GAA is done for the season, there’s still a series of late-summer concerts to get through (not that we’re complaining – Croke Park does a good job of keeping locals informed about expected attendance numbers and timing, and we’ve had free tickets on a number of occasions, including for last year’s Oasis gig, so it’s by no means a bad system) – will fans of The Weeknd [sic] enjoy Quinn’s?
Time will tell…
Where: 42 Drumcondra Rd Lower, Botanic, Dublin 9
Access from the city centre: TBD
Food: TBD, but some light snacks on the cafe side now
Sport: GAA, presumably more will be featured, albeit in a more casual way
TVs: Still getting set up, but a few already in situ
Music: A mix on our visit, but one imagines All Sport on big match days
Family-friendliness: Daytime, perhaps…but not so much at night
Pub-crawl-ability: Medium; there are other pubs within a 10-15 minute walk, with Juno, McGrath’s, Phil Ryan’s The Hogan Stand, Fagan’s and Gill’s Corner House nearby, though it’s also worth it to head to The Bald Eagle, The Brian Boru or The Cat & Cage
Haunted: It’s had a murder, dead rats…surely, there is a story or two to be shared
Local sites of note: Croke Park, Royal Canal, Mater Hospital
Other notes: The drainage has been remedied
Socials: Instagram, TikTok
A quick entry, this week – perhaps fitting, as it’s a tiny pub, but one that’s right in the centre of things. Indeed, it would be hard for Peter’s Pub to be much more central – just off Stephen’s Green, and steps from the Gaiety Theatre, it occupies a busy corner-ish spot.
And there are some much-needed 
We’ve been rather remiss in not getting to Kavanagh’s in 
We took a break from the partying to relax indoors with some pints – the sun was ‘too bright’ for the youngest in our party – and to have a general nosey around the pub. Inside it’s every inch the Victorian/Edwardian pub – there are public and lounge bars that have separate outdoor entrances, but that are also connected inside via the stained-glass-adorned doors that (also) lead to the toilets – you’ll just need confidence walking through that you know where you’re going.
But as imposing as it looks outside, it’s pleasantly warren-like inside – there’s a semi-snug near the front on one side, and a variety of cosy spots on the other, including a tiled inset that seems to have appeared from the 1930s, while the rest of the bar remained in about 1901 (the date on the façade outside does 
There aren’t any independent beer offerings (and no, Beavertown certainly doesn’t count nowadays), but it is possible to do the Big Three Stouts here for those who enjoy doing their blind Guinness/Murphy’s/Beamish tasting; we tend to prefer Beamish of the three, but all were in excellent shape. As an aside on the ‘comparing stouts’ point, this is a handy area for it – 
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.
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.
Yes, it’s yet another new pub this week, replacing one more short-lived but much-loved Dublin spot – we venture back to 
Indeed, it seems to have hit the sweet spot between newly-opened 
And while we couldn’t find any direct connection between Phil Lynott and pubs in this part of town – it would be a bit of a walk to 
Regular readers know that we tend to keep 
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 
That said, we are more likely to take ourselves to
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 