The Palace Bar: Sanctuary of Flann O'Brien and Kavanagh

Why is it significant?

Stop right before the brass door handle and stained-glass fanlight of The Palace Bar on Fleet Street.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stop right before the brass door handle and stained-glass fanlight of The Palace Bar on Fleet Street. Step onto the threshold: unlike the noisy tourist pubs of modern Temple Bar, this Victorian gem has remained virtually unchanged since eighteen twenty-three, with dark mahogany partitions, gas lamps, and brass snugs where Dublin's sharpest pens gathered.

In the nineteen forties and fifties, the back room of this pub was practically the unofficial parliament of Irish letters. Legendary Irish Times editor R.M. Smyllie held court here every afternoon, reviewing galleys of poetry over pints of stout alongside satirist Flann O'Brien, author of At Swim-Two-Birds, and poet Patrick Kavanagh.

Look at the high mahogany screen dividing the bar: it was designed with frosted glass so that bank clerks and journalists could drink unnoticed by their superiors. Flann O'Brien famously remarked that a pint of plain was your only man, immortalizing the philosophical warmth of a Dublin pub snug.

Soak in the timeless aroma of aged wood, malt, and whiskey. Walk southwest through Dame Street toward the ancient seat of British rule, Dublin Castle.