The movie lover’s pub crawl of Dublin
The home of Ulysses, Guinness, the Book of Kells, spontaneous jigging and arguably the best pub culture in the world: Dublin has a hell of a lot going for it.
As culturally rich as it is hedonistic, Dublin is small but mighty. The city sees a year-round influx of globe-trotting bookworms, many of whom are drawn to its connection to literary greats like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Patrick Kavanagh and Oscar Wilde. Though Joyce left Dublin and relocated to Paris as a young man, he set many of his novels and short stories here and drank his fill at pubs like Davy Byrne’s and Mulligan’s.
Its literary heritage, elegant Georgian architecture and innumerable watering holes have made it a favourite among directors looking for a touch of Old World charm. It’s also given birth to world-class music artists like U2, The Murder Capital, and Fontaines D.C. Dublin is a city where pleasure-seekers are as welcome as soul-searchers; a place you can spend the morning swimming at Vico Baths and the evening sinking pint; and where each neighbourhood offers something different.
Below, we’ll be taking you on a tour of Dublin pubs featured in films such as The Commitments, My Left Foot and more. We’ve even taken the time to work out the distances between pubs. Follow this itinerary, and you’re bound to have an unforgettable night. Don’t say we never treat you.
The film lover’s pub crawl: Dublin
J&M Cleary
Film: Michael Collins (Neil Jordan, 1996)
To Drink: Guinness, whiskey chaser
Nestled across the road from Connolly Station, Cleary’s is the perfect place to whet our collective whistle. This ruby-red watering hole – built in the late 1800s – has been a favourite among location scouts for decades and was once frequented by Michael Collins, Irish revolutionary and subject of the 1996 film starring Liam Neeson, Alan Rickman, Brendan Gleeson and Julia Roberts.
J&M Cleary was initially intended as a boarding house for construction workers building Connolly Station, but in 1846 it became The Signal House, which is mentioned in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Back then, the area around Talbot Street and Amiens Street were used as the city’s red-light district, and while many still regard Cleary’s as a tough-inner city boozer, it’s always struck me as one of the warmest and friendliest pubs in Dublin. Cleary’s has also hosted the cast of The Commitments (more from them later) and Lawrence Olivier, who drank himself silly there during the making of 1961’s Term of Trial.
Mulligan’s
Film: My Left Foot (Jim Sheridan, 1989)
To Drink: Smithwick’s Red Smithwick’s Red
To get to Mulligan’s from Cleary’s, head south on Amiens Street towards Lower Sheriff Street. After five minutes or so, you’ll hit the River Liffey. Cross over the bridge, take a right on Poolberg Street, and you’ll soon find yourself outside one of Dublin’s oldest (and most beautiful) pubs.
Mulligan’s makes a brief appearance in Jim Sheridan’s Academy Award-nominated 1989 My Left Foot, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis as Christy Brown, a paralyzed quadriplegic who, at the age of five, reveals an ability to draw using only his left foot. But that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.
Mulligans’ drinking license is the oldest in Dublin (it dates from 1782) and the establishment has been run by the Cusack family for three generations. It’s mentioned in James Joyce’s short story Counterparts (featured in The Dubliners) and is regarded as a site of pilgrimage by Joyce lovers, one of whom requested that his ashes be kept in the pub’s grandfather clock upon his death. In the 1950s, John F. Kennedy, then working as a journalist for the Hearst Newspaper, visited the pub and asked to see James Joyce’s favourite perch at the bar. Today, it remains one of Dublin’s most beloved drinking spots.
The Dame Tavern
Film: Educating Rita (Lewis Gilbert, 1983)
To Drink: McCardle’s
After a few swift pints in Mulligan’s, it’s time to head down to Dublin’s historic centre. The area around Trinity College Dublin Butterry, Parliament Square and the Trinity College Chapel appears in several scenes in 1983’s Educating Rita, as does the famously snug Dame Tavern.
Julie Walters is seen heading through the door of the Dame during the scene in which she joins her friends for a night out. The pub interiors were actually shot over the road at The Stags Head, where Rita and the gang begin sinking bottle after bottle of McCardles.
The oldest record we have of The Dame Tavern dates from 1884. In the ’70s, it was known as The Stags Tail and was owned by The Tyson family, who also ran The Stags Head. In an effort to combat the crippling economic climate of the mid-’70s, the Dame was briefly transformed into a French-themed bar called The Van Gogh. Clearly, nobody found the courage to inform the proprietor that the impressionist painter was in fact Dutch.
Jimmy Rabbitte’s
Film: The Commitments (Alan Parker, 1991)
To Drink: A Martini (Espresso or otherwise)
This modern speakeasy, our final stop of the night, owes its name to the ’90s film version of Roddy Doyle’s book The Commitments, which tells the story of Jimmy Rabbitte, an ambitious young promoter who decides to form an R&B group made up of working-class musicians in an attempt to bring a bit of colour to his drab hometown.
Pubs feature pretty heavily in The Commitments, and several famous appear in the film version, including Cleary’s and The Hairy Lemon on Stephen’s Street. Jimmy Rabbitte’s, on the other hand, only became a pub after the building was chosen as the location for The Commitment’s rehearsal space. Originally a pool hall, it was later turned into The Palace Bar and Nightclub before becoming Jimmy Rabbitte’s. Expect modern-retro interiors, ales-a-plenty and more gin than you can shake a lemon at.
Toners Pub
Film: A Fistful of Dynamite (Sergio Leone, 1971)
To Drink: Guinness
One of Dublin’s oldest pubs isn’t the likeliest setting for a spaghetti western. Still, Italian director Sergio Leone was so taken with Toners Pub that he chose to use it as a location for his final movie, Duck, You Sucker! – otherwise known as A Fistful of Dynamite.
Released shortly after Once Upon a Time In The West, A Fistful of Dynamite is one of the great forgotten westerns. It tells the story of James Coburn, an Irish revolutionary exiled to Mexico who ends up fighting in the Mexican revolution of 1910-1917. The pub’s mirrored walls are used to stunning effect during the scene in which one of Coburn’s fellow Fenians, having been tortured by the police, points out his collaborators. Coburn has his back turned, but they lock eyes in the mirror, at which point Coburn swivels around with a gun concealed inside a newspaper and shoots him dead.
Toner’s looks pretty much as it did when it opened its doors in the early 1800s, and some of Ireland’s most revered literary stars, including Yeats and Kavanagh, are counted among its alumni. If you’re looking for the “best pint of Guinness in Dublin,” look no further than Toners.
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