Living Dublin Pubs

Cassidys

Camden Street

Hats off to Cassidys. In response to the non-smoking law they've opened a fine beer garden at the back of the premises. Small in the way that any city garden is, there's only seating for about 20 people, but every effort has been made to make this an attractive place, despite the looming office blocks surrounding it.

It's not that Cassidys should need to work to attract customers. Long before it achieved worldwide fame as "the-place-where-Bill-Clinton-dropped-in-for-a-pint", Cassidys was known as one of Dublin's best pubs and renowned for the quality of its pint (of Guinness, that is).

A lovely pub in the long, narrow Victorian style, Cassidys has been refurbished slightly since my student days, but without losing the essential character and ambience that has made it a favourite of Dubliners since 1856.

Step outside and look at the front of the pub again. Much of Camden Street and the road into Rathmines was built as grand suburban dwellings. In the 19th century many of the occupying merchants erected single-storey retail outlets in their spacious front gardens, moving the streetscape forward by about 25 metres. Look up, and try to imagine the street as it must have been in 1800.

Staying in the Camden Court Hotel, in nearby Harcourt Street or in Rathmines? Cassidys is well worth a visit.

Footnote: Bill, whose grandmother was a Cassidy, didn't have a pint; he had a glass. And it wasn't of Guinness, but of Murphy's (a Cork brew).

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