Weirdo Guide to Dublin Pubs: The Bald Eagle

The bar at The Bald EagleIt’s time for the first instalment of my Weirdo Guide to Dublin Pubs.

You guessed I’d start off with my own local, right? While *technically* I have several other pubs within much easier strolling/stumbling distance, one of the many benefits of city living to someone like me who is essentially incapable of living anywhere non-urban, is having a number of choices and opting for the one that’s a slightly further walk, simply because it’s more what I’m in the mood for on a given occasion. So, today, it’s a look at The Bald Eagle, which stands next to the Cross Guns Bridge on the Royal Canal in Phibsborough (or, if you prefer, Phibsboro – it’s a thing).

For the uninitiated, Phibsborough is one of the World’s Coolest NeighbourhoodsTM, at least according to Time Out, and as a former staffer from back in the 1990s, I have to agree, right? Well, having lived or worked in a few of them, frequently long before they were cool (side note: Walthamstow was most certainly Not Cool when I lived there, but hey, why not now?) because I am An Old, I do (mostly) agree in this case. Although I am not personally cool enough to live in Phibsborough itself, I’m in and out of it several times a day – it’s just a short walk up the canal for me, so I get all the Cool Neighbourhood benefits without the full Cool Neighbourhood price. And Cool Neighbourhoods need cool pubs, but it’s all about being just the right level of cool, and not trying too hard – and that (finally) brings me to what I love about The Bald Eagle.

Dalek mural at The Bald EagleWhile the interior is, at first glance, your ‘typical’ Irish pub with a lot of dark wood, a lovely snug, some old pictures, mirrors and a wee bit of taxidermy, it’s spruced up with a splash of pop culture and nerdery: Star Wars and other action figures that seem aimed squarely at my demographic, as well as a tattoo aesthetic toward the back and outside on the sun-trap deck – well, on days when there is sun, that is. There’s also a life-sized mural of a Dalek out back, again, targeting My People very directly.

Of course, it’s also about the beer: there are almost always local beers from Hope, Rascals and Trouble on, and not infrequently another guest tap or two, along with the usual Guinness and Friends lineup you will find everywhere else. There’s always a warm welcome from the staff who make a point of saying hello whenever we appear, even if it’s busy, and it’s the kind of place I can go for a quiet solo pint on a rare afternoon off, an evening out with friends or for a family dinner with the kids in tow – the desserts are always crowd-pleasers, and the seasonal cocktail offerings are a nice change from the beer on occasion.

Solo pint at The Bald Eagle, in the snugIf this all sounds too much ‘of the now’ for you, there is also a heritage here: although it’s only been The Bald Eagle for a few years, there has been a pub on this spot – or, at least, very near – since the 1740s, though maps from the 1830s onward seem more certain about this being part of the origin story of the current pub; one has to assume the workers at the mill just a bit further along the canal would have wanted a drink. But sometimes it’s nice to leave a bit of mystery, too – something to come back to later, which suits a pub like this perfectly.

I do come back often.

Where: The Bald Eagle, 114-115 Phibsborough Rd, Phibsborough, Dublin, D07 VX23
Access from the city centre: Buses 9, 40, 46A, 83, 140; Luas Green Line; 30ish minute walk
Food: Pub grub, pizzas, desserts
Sport: Most bigger Premiere League, Rugby and GAA matches are on
TVs: Visible from most of the pub, including the deck, but not overpowering
Music: Usually excellent ’90s jams on the speakers, though not live music
Family-friendliness: Useful kids’ menu and friendly welcome at reasonable hours
Pub-crawl-ability: High. Multiple options within the immediate area: Doyle’s Corner, The Boh, The Hut and The Back Page in one direction, with The Botanic, The Gravediggers and The Tolka House in the other…
Local sites of note: Royal Canal, Mater Hospital, Mountjoy Prison, Dalymount Park
Haunted: Not obviously
Other notes: Handy for a Guinness 0.0 when needed, also some cans and bottles of other local craft beers
Socials: Instagram

A Theme for 2023: My Weirdo Guide to Dublin Pubs

The Underdog - just one upcoming feature!It’s a new year, and as I’ve become wildly undisciplined about writing outside of work, I’m giving myself a prompt for 2023: semi-regularly writing about some of my favourite pubs here in Dublin.  Now, there are already several excellent, long-running blogs that focus on the full spectrum of Dublin pubs: Every Pub in Dublin and Dublin By Pub are out there doing fantastic work, so this will be a much more idiosyncratic approach. If I were a Terrible Person, this would be A CURATED LOOK AT DUBLIN PUBS, but because I can, on occasion, reign in in, you will be spared that kind of nonsense.

Instead, I’ll focus on what makes the pub especially welcoming, handy or interesting for me, so do expect a bit of a Northside bias: proximity helps, but it’s not the only determining factor; regular readers and followers know that I will travel for cask, though alas, compiling a list of all cask pubs in Dublin would be an all-too-swift task (though if the pub does do the odd cask event, it will be noted). You can expect that the majority of the pubs covered will have at least a few local/Irish/overseas guest craft taps, but we simply don’t have dozens of craft beer pubs to choose from as you might in London or Philadelphia.

Can you guess the pub?And while not all pubs need be family-friendly – indeed, at least a few on my list are very much Grownups Only – I will be including the options for kids, including children’s menus and family events, where relevant; after all, those are the ones I tend to get to more often, and new entries will, broadly speaking, be written based on how recently I’ve been to a particular pub and grabbed a few photos (so hey, recency bias, too! Let’s ignore the fact, for now, that the last time I was out with only my nearly-adult kid, they kept trying to give him the pint and me the Coke, but I digress).

I’ll only include some of the ‘usual suspect’ pubs that typically appear in tourist guides to Dublin if there is something about a particular venue that does stand out for me – there’s no need for me to write up a Temple Bar pub if it’s something I typically avoid, but there are some ‘must-do tourist pubs’ that are actually very pleasant, though it may be some time before I get around to those.

Do expect some of the usual off-theme posts as well…I’ll still be doing some (hopefully) regular travel-related updates, plus some things related to work, beer festivals, breweries and the Beer Ladies Podcast, so do come back to check those out as well as they appear, and a big thank you to Boak and Bailey for (possibly unwittingly) getting me to finally commit to this!

Expect the first entry in the Dublin Pubs series later this week…and hopefully, a few will surprise you.

Updated to add direct links to entries:
The Bald Eagle, Phibsborough
The Cat & Cage, Drumcondra
Doyle's Corner, Phibsborough
The Underdog, City Centre-ish
The Black Sheep, Capel Street
Juno, North Inner City
The Back Page, Phibsborough
L. Mulligan. Grocer, Stoneybatter
The Big Romance, Parnell Street
The Hut, Phibsborough
BRÚ House Fairview, in, uh, Fairview
Fidelity, Smithfield
JR Mahon’s, City Centre
The Oak, City Centre
Rascals HQ, Inchicore
The Palace Bar, City Centre
The Flowing Tide, North City Centre
The Beer Temple, City Centre
Cassidys, City Centre
The Underdog (yes, again – new location), Capel Street
Bonobo, Smithfield
Kimchi Hophouse, Parnell Street
Piper’s Corner, North City Centre
The Porterhouse, Temple Bar
The Old Spot, Beggars Bush
The Brickyard Gastropub, Dundrum
The Botanic, Glasnevin
The Gravediggers, Glasnevin