Why I've decided to drop three licences off my target list. Post is safe for work I guess, but the bars are not: everypubindublin.blogspot.com/2026/05/actu...

Bambino, the pizza place, teasing a "big announcement" in a few weeks. I wonder is it anything to do with a company with related ownership holding the licence of the former Soup2/Taproom47/The Tap pub on North King Street for the last few months...

There were two attempts at establishing tatty English chain pubs in Dublin before Tim Martin sort lf successfully did it, although that still took him two goes. Read about Berni and Toby (and Tim): everypubindublin.blogspot.com/2026/05/toby...

The baffling 1980s regulations that have lead to so many restaurants being licenced as pubs: everypubindublin.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-...

Frank Ryan's music choices will forever remain as baffling as the lighting choices..Van Morrison in to Agnelli & Nelson - El Nino.

Have seen two bars today with uncovered, lit Franciscan Well tap heads on them. I'm not sure I dare risk seeing if any still have ancient kegs attached.

Returning to a pub 19 years, and a fundamental change in format, later: everypubindublin.blogspot.com/2026/05/revi...

Ticking off a pubstaurant built for photo taking. So I didn't take any: everypubindublin.blogspot.com/2026/04/1022...

Writeups of two trips to the edge of the city are on the blog - I'll link to the Dunboyne one here as it has more actually open pubs in it than Kilcock. That's all the quick to access towns done now, Clane/Sallins/Naas are all planned for the future everypubindublin.blogspot.com/2026/04/ever...

Shakers nightclub in Donaghmede, which only opened in early February, and which changed from over 30s to over 18s two weeks ago; has closed citing low attendance numbers.

The Sandymount Martello Tower, fitted out but never used (as far as I know) as a restaurant and also intended to be an early for Ireland brewpub, is up for sale. Slightly Mary Celeste vibe from some of the photos. www.daft.ie/commercial-p...

The upstairs bar in O'Neills on Suffolk Street has 36 taps - 34 unique. I'm not aware of more taps on a single bar anywhere in the country, but I'd love to be corrected on that.

One of the two remaining pubs that in the bit of Bray that used to be, but no longer is in Dublin has reopened after a few years closure. I'll go out and visit it and the other (The Coach Inn) at some point to cover these edge cases. www.independent.ie/life/food-dr...

Had an extremely cagey interaction at the bar somewhere else that lets me know that this is going to continue to be a thing forever. I will always look like a plain clothes cop.

Dollys in Terenure appears to open tonight. I've updated my pub pipeline list, and the 2026 Opened section is starting to look a bit healthier: everypubindublin.blogspot.com/p/pub-openin...

Friend I was out drinking with got asked if we were Guards. Still got it, where It is a general impression I'm going to ask you questions about your vehicle.

Reasonable chance this'll lead to significant counter protests: www.independent.ie/business/dow...

I finally tick off a new-to-me pub visit for the first time in some months; but its on my Donegal side-project, not Dublin: everypubindublin.blogspot.com/2026/04/epit...

Somehow, despite having walked past it about two weeks ago; I hadn't noticed that the former All My Friends (and before that, Graingers The Fountain) on Meath Street was being renovated. It has now opened as Lynotts.

We finally get a third pub (re)opening of 2026 in Dublin, as the new era at McDowells in Inchicore started today. Only closed since January, but has had significant renovation works done tl it by the operators of Peadar Browns.

Dave showing a "new" episode of Frankie Boyle's New World Order which is riffing on Teresa May in Government, and features the late Benjamin Zephaniah as a guest. What is the limit of claiming a recent purchase is "new" on a repeats channel?

I'll never consider anything to be a replacement for Underdog, but a second outlet for the operators of Dudleys - to be called Bar Anam - is going to open in its space. Dudleys is a well run pub with a reasonable craft selection and decent food, so it's far from the worst we could get using that pub

9 Dublin pubs/bars opened or reopened by mid April 2025, and 10 in 2024. Very much looks like it'll be 2 in 2026. Have heard of delays in getting fire certs, but even that wouldn't explain this much slowdown.

Raising a glass to Alex Lawes this evening, with the magnificent beer I will always associate most with him.

I've been sort of trying to revisit the Dublin pubs I hadn't been to in decades. Tonight has ticked off two that I last visited on 16/06/2007, an extremely rare case of precision as I know what gig I was going to The Point for the night I first, and last until today, visited them.

Sally O'Brien and the way she might look *like* you - Harp Lager's strange lookalike contest from 1983: everypubindublin.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-...

In a possible appeal to an elder millennial audience, the Beer Temple has been renamed back to Thomas Reads, the original name for the non-Oak side of the pub and once the name of a defunct pub group centered around it and other branches with the name: everypubindublin.blogspot.com/2024/06/dubl...

Tragic news of the passing of Alex Lawes from Whiplash/Fidelity, but who also was the head brewer at Rye River as they became a behemoth in the domestic industry: www.instagram.com/p/DWTmUMqjCs4

Commencement notice has gone in for the fitout of the Smithfield Brewing Company brewpub on Smithfield Square. This is connected to Drury Buildings which already sells beers presumably currently made - it is licenced as a brewery - in their brewery at the other end of the square.

Planning app gone in to convert the old Token unit (not the still operating one!) in to a two space comedy club.

The GBK on Castle Market, e.g. opposite Grogans has closed. Notably this has had a full pub licence for a long time so could probably reopen as a bar and get away with it, planning wise.

Ultimate recession indicator - I've accidentally found a shop that sells single cigarettes.

Gills pub on the NCR is an absolute balls to tick off with astoundingly limited opening hours, but this annual (at least it seems to be) event is an easy way around that: www.instagram.com/p/DVrSZH6jMl5/

Drop Dead Twice now have toilets so complicated to find that Tim Martin will send a training mission here

Ambush, lads, back on; etc. The Thomas House has two Ambush taps on the same bar like conventional pubs have two Guinness taps

Didn't expect it would be Plexamp to tell me The Best Album Ever Made (for trance fans) was released 20 years ago today; which has made me feel a million years old as I bought it new. Record label and artist have ignored the anniversary even though they did a big 15th www.discogs.com/release/6342...

Brewdog Dublin one of only 11 bars in the chain to survive the pre-pack administration and sale to Tilray today.

I have had no Normal Pubs left to do in Dublin for many months now, so today I did the two Kildare towns near me. Nothing exceptional but nothing bad, and a single blog post will come in the future per town just like others I've (sometimes only tried to) completed

The wonders of fashion cycles - doorman on a bar in Leixlip opening the door as I arrive in clothes that would have got me refused at the same pub 20 years ago. And yet its the same stuff I've always worn.

Drop Dead Twice on Francis Street, which was burnt out in Summer 2022, appears to have reopened (permanently) last night. They had a temporary reopening in the rebuilt building with no interior for Pride last year, and did takeout sales over Christmas.

Booked my annual "commemoration of the end of the world" trip to Rascals, on the anniversary of the last proper trip out before the pandemic in 2020. Gone back the same day most years (they've been open) since, but it hasn't portended doom any other time.

I didnt think Manchester Airport could possibly sink lower in my opinion of it, but somehow, they manage to outdo themselves every single time

~20 years ago, I worked on a satellite music TV station which frequently played a eurodance cover of Because The Night by an act called Jan Wayne. I do wonder if the director of Heated Rivalry saw that video before putting some exceptionally similar scenes in to episode 4.

There is a Shelbourne sticker in this pub in Manchester. And the damage suggests enough other patrons with anti Shels animosity

Brewdog Manchester seems to have the same playlist as iradio North East did on launch. Just waiting for Kate Nash - Foundations. Royseven might be a bit too niche for England.

There was a story of someone worried they'd lost 12k on Brewdog EFP recently, but even as a rare visitor, its the cheapest discount card I ever bought. Random free pint today. Made the entire value back in one go once on the old early morning discount for breakfast and pints for 3.

45 years of always wondering if a premises has enough exits. 45 years of never being sure you're safe in a pub or club. 45 years of FF connected individuals getting away with everything. www.rte.ie/news/2026/02...

Building/moving in beside an existing nightclub, then whining about the noise to get its licence taken off it is common in London, so now we get a hotel named after a bit of London trying the same thing here: www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/co...

The planning app that should lead to the renovation and reopening Smyths pub in Donabate has been approved. A growing town with only one pub currently, there should be demand for a second to return.

Processing the Revenue liquor licence file update for this month and I note that the former Soup2/Taproom 47 premises has been re-licenced to a company connected to Bambino pizza. Their Smithfield branch may yet happen in a different premises (was originally going to be in the old Token)