Dublin Dossier Pat Keenan on happenings in and around the capital
Good, bad or unredeemable, Dublin can’t live without its pubs.. We appear to be returning to whatever our normal was, at least that’s what it seems as I write this towards the end of June. Our routines have been affected in many ways, we have coped in differing ways and will no doubt return in different ways. Overall it has been strange experience, living in a Dublin without pubs, its very soul, good, bad or unredeemable. Will they all survive and what changes might happen; will we embrace more outdoor sidewalk drinking or continue to drink at home. Our pubs have changed over time, mostly for the good. Was a time when pubs were largely 'men only' places; granted in a few, a woman could quietly sip a glass in the snug and perhaps, in so doing, might also risk her reputation. A pub would only serve women a drink in a glass - never a pint. And more than likely there would be no female toilet facilities. I remember a time when lady friends, if needs be, would have to leave Gaffney's on Fairview Strand and walk to a neighbouring pub. Liam Collins writing in The Irish Independent under the wonderfully inventive heading 'Drinker, Taylor, soldiers, spy' told of Richard Burton, during the filming of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'(1965) in the Liberties, popping into The White Horse on the corner of George’s Quay and Corn Exchange Place for a 'quick one'. When his wife Elizabeth Taylor tried to join him she was refused entry. The owner told her it was a 'men only' pub. On another occasion, Liam recalled, Liz was on set as Richard was filming near Fairview and, as Liam put it, became 'short-taken'. They took her to Cusack's pub on North Strand, which in those days had no female toilet. Showing true gentlemanliness, locals stoutly stood guard while she used the mens.
Davy Byrnes on Duke Street was able to open outdoors for Bloomsday this year. Joyceans gathered, guzzled down pints, gobbled dozens of Gorgonzola sandwiches and many sups of Burgundy, all celebrating that original day, immortalised in Ulysses
Before 1962 a pub might be called upon to act as a morgue. I grew up in Baldoyle where Duff's pub on College St. (no longer there) was often used for this purpose. The Coroners Act of 1846 stipulated that dead bodies found on a public road or washed up on the shores should to be brought to the nearest tavern until further arrangements were made. Thankfully this practise ended in 1962. While on the subject of the departed, Billy Brooks Carr, owner of 'Mama Hattie's Irish Hamburgers' in Houston,Texas died in 2011. He so loved the pint he remembered in Mulligan’s pub in Poolbeg Street, he requested that some of his ashes be deposited there. Those ashes are still in the pub's grandfather clock and some of his family return in pilgrimage every year. Some of his ashes were also scattered near hole fourteen at Clear Creek golf course in Houston, site of a hole-inone remembered. (Further reading: Mulligan's Grand Old Pub of Poolbeg Street' by Declan Dunne, Mercier Press)
Oldest pub in Dublin In times long past, Dubliners may have consumed more wine than beer. The Brazen Head, still with us at 20 Lower Bridge St, Usher's
The Brazen Head, still with us at 20 Lower Bridge St, Usher's Quay, claims be the oldest pub in Ireland - dating from 1198
Quay claims be the oldest pub in Ireland - dating from 1198 which would roughly coincide with the arrival of the Normans. They and their anglo allies were invited here by the deposed King of Leinster Dermot MacMurrough, to help him win back his kingdom. The Normans arrived Senior Times l July - August 2021 l www.seniortimes.ie 77
