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 The Confession Box, Piper’s Corner and The Flowing Tide. Our destination today is Briody’s, a pub whose otherwise-unremarkable exterior seems to be missing its top floor (along with its twin in the centre of the Georgian terrace)…but it simply seems to get on with things.
Inside, it’s really a single room, though there is a bookable upstairs space (don’t worry, there is a ceiling)…and while it doesn’t have the lavish cut-glass and mirrors of pubs like The Hut or Gaffney’s, it does share a common feature with those two: it’s a proper Old Man Pub. If Old Man Pubs are a new concept to you, I highly recommend picking up Ali Dunworth’s A Compendium of Irish Pints – we did also interview her on the Beer Ladies Podcast about the book – to get the full lowdown, but you certainly know one when you enter one. While I can no longer claim the honour of having been the only patron under 50 (maybe, though, 65 or so here), the number of women was vanishingly small, but in no way was it an unwelcome feeling. I have absolutely been in pubs where being the only woman was Not Great, though, interestingly, it’s never happened to me here in Ireland. Whether that’s a feature of the local scene or a function of me being too old to notice or care may be up for debate, but in any event, Briody’s felt warm and inviting, though also left me to my own devices, which was very much what I was looking for. Solo pints in some Old Man Pubs seem to turn into social occasions – looking at you, The Boh – which is all well and good when you’re in the mood for that, but it felt much more optional at Briody’s – it would have been easy to slip into conversation about the racing, but it felt equally acceptable to relax on one’s own.
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.
And so, on their behalf, I’ll suggest you stop in for that quiet pint or two, maybe alone, maybe with 1-2 friends, but don’t overwhelm the spot with a coach tour – let Briody’s keep that ‘local pub’ vibe. With so many varied pubs to choose from in this part of town, you can mix and match styles for a unique pub crawl.
Where: 97 Marlborough Street, Dublin, IE D01 PP92
Access from the city centre: Luas Green Line, Buses 9, 13, 14, 83, 122, 123, 8-ish minute walk
Food: Toasties & similar fare
Sport: Horse racing, football, GAA & more; if you can wager on it, you can watch it
TVs: All around the small pub
Music: Very much a background soundtrack…you’ll hear the race calls over the music; also occasional live sets
Family-friendliness: More Old Man Pub
Pub-crawl-ability: High – The Flowing Tide, The Confession Box, The Palace Bar, The Morris Bar, Piper’s Corner, Bowes, JR Mahon’s, The Oval Bar, Mulligan’s and Mooney’s of Abbey Street; also not too far from The Silver Penny if you need a ‘Spoons
Local sites of note: Abbey Theatre, Gate Theatre, The Spire, NATIONAL WAX MUSEUM, GPO, Ha’Penny Bridge, Trinity College
Haunted: Perhaps by the missing top of the building? Would love to know the story there…the usual newspaper searches didn’t turn up much
Other notes: No need to bring your own Racing Post – there will be plenty of copies
Socials: Facebook, Instagram (both seem very quiet)
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 
We’re still just warming up for all things Autumnal, so while we wait for Spooky Season to properly kick off, we’re visiting a very ‘normal’ pub this week – we’re back in 
As it happens, there are a lot of positives: the interior is a tidy version of ‘traditional Irish pub,’ with dark colours – lots of deep greens and reds – and a variety of snug-like seating options. Independent beer is represented by Kinnegar’s Scraggy Bay, and there were a variety of non-alcoholic and cocktail options on offer as well. There is Guinness, of course, and a frankly great €10 pint-and-toastie deal – ‘Not The Brazen Head‘ notes the chalkboard proclaiming the deal.
Now, my personal favourite Jonathan Swift-themed pub is, oddly enough, 
This week, we are journeying to one of those ‘needs no introduction’ pubs that’s simply part of the fabric here in Dublin, and sometimes, you just need a pint and a toastie. And so, 
And, speaking of podcasts, there’s an entire episode of 
Despite its Viking-era foundations, Dublin rarely feels like an ‘old’ city by European standards – something we can, in large part, blame on the 
Built as a house in 1734, Toner’s has been continuously operated as a pub since 1818, and to quote the 
And Toner’s does have an interesting history; it’s alleged to be the only pub Yeats ever went to, and his brief? occasional? presence in the front snug seems to be one of the connections that gets Toner’s onto the list of Dublin’s 
As tourist season seems more or less nearly in full swing, we’re sticking with Dublin city centre this week and O’Neill’s Pub and Kitchen – a tourist-friendly but also authentic pub that caters to a range of tastes and preferences – and one that’s large enough to offer a different experience depending on where you are in the pub (and just how crowded it is on the day or evening).
I recently had the unpleasant experience of stopping in a pub I’d never tried, and which shall remain nameless here, that was so aggressively 
Happily, O’Neill’s is nothing like this, and visiting it not long after The Pub to Remain Nameless made its positive features stand out all the more. Yes, there are trad sessions – good ones are always welcome – but the usual background music is quiet enough to chat, not painfully loud. Yes, there are various old photos and signs, even some barrels as you head upstairs, but they seem like a more natural accumulation over 
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But as of this writing, Bowes seems to be doing just fine as-is: in addition to the usual well-kept Guinness, there’s always an excellent whiskey selection, rivalling that of 
For me, Bowes
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 
