While The Flowing Tide serves as Northside Dublin’s premier theatrical pub, with its close associations with the neighbouring Abbey Theatre (and its short walk to The Gate), Neary’s takes on that role on the Southside for the Gaiety Theatre. Alas, though, one of the finest theatrical tales about Neary’s seems to be a bit of a myth. In Donal Fallon’s excellent new book, The Dublin Pub: A Social and Cultural History (a must-have for any pub nerd), the story of Alan Devlin storming offstage at the Gaiety during a production of HMS Pinafore* and demanding drink at Neary’s is only true…in part.
In reality, it seems Devlin only made it as far as Sinnott’s, just steps away…so while Neary’s have claimed the (delightful) story, it’s actually more accurately one that belongs to the whole street. But Neary’s has featured in other legendary activities, too – Nell McCafferty famously led a protest here in 1974, demanding that women be served pints (THINK OF THE CHILDREN), and a version of the story makes its way into the book as well; the good news is that once again, there’s more than a grain of truth here.
And it is, perhaps, fitting that Neary’s is a pub that attracts this kind of lore; its beautifully-maintained interior hearkens back to the 1880s – well, at least in the main bar downstairs – while upstairs, it’s a slightly more updated restaurant feel, but still elegantly understated. The working gas lamps and dumbwaiter inside are well-known historical features, but the literally hand-held lamps outside are iconic.
Despite its history and location next to the Gaiety, it doesn’t feel quite as ‘theatrical’ as The Flowing Tide – the subject of its own chapter in The Dublin Pub – but it wears its literary heritage very well indeed. Pints-wise (and yes, anyone of age can have those pints now), O’Hara’s is the independent option, with the usual Guinness as well. Our small quibble would be the unused/possibly not real hand pumps – regular readers know we feel A Way about cask ale – but they do seem part of the furniture here.
Of course, we’ve only scratched the surface here; Dublin’s pubs have so many fantastical stories – some more fact-based than others – and we cannot recommend Donal’s book highly enough. Consider this your call to action to pick up a copy if you have not already done so!
It’s an ideal read for an afternoon with a book and a solo pint.
Where: 1 Chatham Street
Access from the city centre: You are in it
Food: Sandwiches (toasties and more), salads, oysters
Sport: Not here
TVs: None at all
Music: Quiet jazz upstairs in the Lounge, occasional live sets
Family-friendliness: A surprisingly large number of babies and toddlers mid-afternoon
Pub-crawl-ability: High – The Hairy Lemon, Caribou, Bar Rua, The Long Hall, Grogan's, Peter's Pub, Sinnott's Bar and more are all within a short wander
Local sites of note: Gaiety Theatre, Craft Central (absolutely a landmark for the beer nerds), Little Museum of Dublin, George's Street Arcade, St Stephen's Green, Grafton Street
Haunted: There’s a story of a deceased punter…so perhaps!
Other notes: While there is the dreaded (by us) Changing Times Hazy IPA, there’s still the aforementioned O’Hara’s
Socials: Instagram, Facebook
*FWIW, your fair scribe has been in many productions of HMS Pinafore, and could easily step into essentially any role if need be, as long as some transposing down were a possibility for anything higher than mezzo. But Sir Joseph? Yes, could absolutely do it. And so could our sisters and our cousins and our aunts…
On our perambulations around Dublin this week, we visit what feels like a proper dive bar…that is, assuming proper dive bars all have a few good local taps and a killer playlist. If so, then Anseo is, indeed, in that category. But its slightly-scrubby-yet-cheerful interior doesn’t entirely hide the building’s history: this is a mid-18th century house, complete with a few extant interior features, that’s been repurposed as a pub since the mid-19th century. If you 
You are most likely to be visiting Anseo to catch a gig from an up-and-coming band or artist, or, perhaps, seeing some stand-up comedy upstairs; you may also be doing a 
As regular readers know, we are always on the lookout for 
While the ‘since 1793’ date is a little shaky, given the current building’s construction 
So, ghosts aside, what is the pub like? Well…most definitely not creepy. If anything, it’s a bit too polished to feel at all like a liminal space. There are several very different sections of the pub with their own character, but none are especially dark or gloomy. The front is much more ‘pubby’ and the rear more of a restaurant or hotel bar vibe (the many large TV screens are part of what gives that impression), though it’s worth knowing that the back bar is where the sole local-craft-beer representative is; there’s a Rye River tap if you know where to look. Indeed, the food was very good – a step up from a lot of pub food, though the enormous portions are perhaps created more for tourists than locals. There’s also the usual Guinness – and Murphy’s – plus some Warsteiner.
There’s a covered outdoor space too, more 
Perhaps surprisingly to some (certainly, to us), Dublin pubs do not contain a wealth of ghostlore. There are, of course, 
We’re less inclined toward the flashy, big-name haunting at 
But we also want to shine the spectral spotlight on another pub whose apparitional associations are often overlooked: 
The 1884 is so called after 
And like many pubs in the more suburban parts of Dublin, it’s absolutely enormous inside – indeed, somewhat barn-like. But it’s all very tidy, and there’s plenty of space to spread out. There are much-appreciated coat hooks under the bar, which really should be standard everywhere, but here we are. Only a few years ago, this pub was known as Grainger’s, and it had, well, a 
And while the beer selection is mostly the usual Guinness-and-Heineken-and-so-so-much-Rockshore (despite being listed as a stockist of Hope, brewed just a bit further north), there is also the lesser-spotted Kilkenny, which has been popping up here and there of late, and it’s a nice alternative. The real hidden gem of The 1884, though, is the enormous 
While it does have a theoretically reasonably interesting drinks lineup, like its fellow Bodytonic-managed bar, 
It is, of course, entirely possible that it’s simply aiming for a younger/cooler demographic, which is fair enough…though it does beg the question as to why there’s a mural of Peter Fonda on one side of the building…it’s not something that resonates with GenXers like us…are the younger Millennials into Easy Rider? We’ve been told it’s a ‘no’ from Gen Z: ‘…it’s no Taxi Driver.’
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 
Yes, it's cheating a bit, since we just visited a new-to-us cask ale spot last week in 
The Black Sheep
Cask ale, as we have often complained, is something of a rarity in Ireland. While there are a few more pubs with a regular cask offering up in Belfast, here in Dublin, it is simply not a regular feature in most pubs. Happily, though, a tipoff from a reader (cheers, Ciaran!) alerted us to a beer engine in regular use at Harty’s Bar. Naturally, we dropped everything to go investigate.
One reason this pub had not been on our radar is that, appearances notwithstanding, it’s a fairly new establishment (but also not; bear with us) – until about 18 months ago, it was the Dingle Whiskey Bar. But like its neighbour, 
While it doesn’t have the selection of beers next door in Tapped, with its enormous bar, for a small space, it has a good lineup of some of the more standard Porterhouse beers – the Plain Porter, Yippy IPA and Red – as well as Trouble’s Ambush. There’s also Guinness, of course, and Beamish. But as you know, we were here for the cask option: this week, it was 
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