Our Favourite Pubs
- Break For The Border
Break for the Border is a super-pub with everything! Great food, 12 large screens showing all sporting events from around the world, a large bar area, a night club and a restaurant. There is a fun loving atmosphere inside with all the latest chart sounds being played. It is open late with a great niteclub venue downstairs. FOUR COURTS HOSTEL guests can gain free entry and can avail of 1 hour free pool. €4 all pints! - Brazen Head (www.brazenhead.com)
Essential stop on the tourist pub trail and a handy stop on the trek back from the Guinness storehouse! Oldest pub in Dublin, on this site since 1198 ad !!! Usual Irish food , ie stew , carvery etc on offer and traditional music most nights. Tis only round the corner from us and has a nice heated courtyard out the front for the smokers !!!
- Sin é
For a relaxing drink, try Sin è on Upper Ormond Quay. It's just across the river from the hostel. Sin-è is decked out in the simple style of an old Dublin pub, with comfortable seating at the front of the bar and a space at the back for trad sessions and DJ sets at the weekend. The bar is dimly lit creating a friendly, unobtrusive atmosphere, leaving you the chance to enjoy your drink and your friends in a relaxed setting as you'll actually be able to hear yourself think in here. Absolutely our favourite , our home away from home.
- The Cobblestone
The Cobblestone, a traditional Irish music bar, on the edge of the renovated Smithfield Plaza. about a 5 minute walk from the Hostel .The décor of the bar has all the charm and musty elegance of a country pub. The atmosphere is chatty, convivial and unpretentious. The Backroom downstairs hosts one of the city's finest little venues. The Cobblestone holds gigs throughout the week hosting some of the country's finest traditional and roots musicians.There are also traditional sessions in the bar every night with trad musicians from every part of the country playing quality music. So if you'd like to get away from the big city for a night and enjoy a bit of gossip over a pint, head down to The Cobblestone. The difference between a session and a gig is that people are paid for playing gigs and usually they are professional musicans , people who play in sessions are not paid ( although they won't mind if you send over a pint ) and they usually just enjoying playing with whoever else is about . So if you want to join in there's no problem . Very few pubs in Dublin have a session like this left anymore , they are found much more frequently down the country. - Whelans (Web: www.whelanslive.com)
Whelans has been the standard-bearer for live venues in Dublin for years.It's a pub and live performance venue that was extensively renovated in 1989. The original wood and stone surfaces were uncovered to return the licensed premises back to the grand old-fashioned pub it is now, after an over-extended affair with formica-topped bars and synthetic tiles dating from the '50s.The current music venue part was originally a warehouse and remains a favourite place to play amongst countless musicians. It's an intimate venue where you can perch in various positions like at the bar, in front of stage or at the balcony and see (and hear) the performers perfectly. Very popular place with Dubliners ( well the younger ones who jump around like crazy and the old ones who just stand at the back now nodding their heads in unison ) , we've all spent many a night in here chasing skirt and being chased by it.
- The Foggy Dew
Longhairs and suits both congregate in this bar , it has an eclectic mix of people but is allways a good place for a pint. Old fashioned pub decor makes it nice and cosy and there's usually some fairly weird & interesting characters to chat to . Good music ususally on offer too , none of that chart rubbish.
