Dublin Literary Pub Crawl: What to Expect and Where the Writers Actually Drank
The door of Davy Byrne's Pub on Duke Street opens and closes all evening. Inside, the snug at the front — the same snug where Leopold Bloom ate a gorgonzola sandwich and drank a glass of burgundy in James Joyce's Ulysses — is full of visitors reading the passage aloud off their phones. A few doors down, The Duke pub still has the corner where Brendan Behan propped up the bar and held court until closing. Further along, The Palace Bar on Fleet Street has the same Victorian snugs where Patrick Kavanagh, Flann O'Brien and the Irish Times literary set argued about poetry over pints of Guinness.
This is the Dublin literary pub crawl. Not a museum visit — a working tour of the city's most famous pubs, each one still serving, each one still full of the same atmosphere that drew the writers in the first place. Some tours are guided. Some you can walk yourself. But all of them follow the same route: through the streets and pubs where Irish literature was written, argued about, and drunk into existence.
This guide covers every pub on the literary Ireland trail through Dublin's city centre, what each writer actually drank and wrote there, and how to experience it properly.
Davy Byrne's Pub: Leopold Bloom and the Ulysses Connection
Davy Byrne's on Duke Street is the most famous literary pub in Dublin for one reason: Joyce put it in Ulysses. In the Lestrygonians episode, Leopold Bloom stops in for lunch — a gorgonzola cheese sandwich and a glass of burgundy — and spends several pages observing the other customers, the barman, the pub's routines. The passage is one of the novel's most grounded, a moment of quiet observation in Bloom's day.
The pub itself dates from 1872 and has changed very little since Joyce's time. The front snug is preserved as it was — dark wood, etched glass, the small tables where single drinkers could eat without being disturbed. The pub now has a larger bar section and an upstairs restaurant, but the front area is unmistakably the same space Joyce described.
What makes Davy Byrne's different from other "literary" pubs is that Joyce genuinely drank here. He lived around the corner for a time and knew the pub well. When he wrote Bloom's lunch, he wasn't imagining a setting — he was describing a place he knew from experience.
Practical note: the pub is busy at lunch and early evening. The front snug fills first. If you want to sit where Bloom sat, arrive before noon or after 3pm.
The Duke Pub: Brendan Behan's Corner
Two minutes' walk from Davy Byrne's, on Duke Street close to Grafton Street, The Duke pub was Brendan Behan's local during his years living in Dublin. Behan — playwright, IRA veteran, alcoholic, author of Borstal Boy and The Quare Fellow — held court in the corner nearest the door, where he could see everyone coming and going.
Behan's connection to The Duke is one of Dublin's most reliably told stories: he would sit in that corner, drinking whiskey, and if anyone recognised him he would buy them a drink in exchange for conversation. By all accounts, he preferred talking to writing. The Duke was where he did most of his talking.
The pub itself is a traditional Victorian bar — no music, no television, no food emphasis. It's a drinker's pub, and it has kept that character despite sitting in the middle of Dublin's busiest shopping district. The corner table by the window is still the best spot, though you won't find a plaque marking it. Dubliners know.
Behan died in 1964 at the age of 41. The Duke was where he spent his last productive years as a writer, before his health failed. The pub has barely changed since.
The Palace Bar: Where the Irish Times Literary Set Met
The Palace Bar on Fleet Street, just off Temple Bar, is the most important literary pub in Dublin that most visitors walk past. From the 1940s through the 1960s, it was the regular meeting place for the Irish Times literary circle: Patrick Kavanagh, Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan), Myles na gCopaleen (his pen name), and the paper's editor R.M. Smyllie.
The arrangement was informal but consistent. Smyllie held court in the front bar every evening after the newspaper went to press. Kavanagh would arrive later, often already drunk, and the arguments would begin — poetry, politics, the state of Irish writing. O'Brien would sit in the back, watching, occasionally contributing a one-liner that stopped the conversation.
The Palace Bar opened in 1823 and is one of Dublin's oldest surviving pubs. The interior is original Victorian: mahogany counters, cut-glass mirrors, snugs with etched glass partitions. The bar has a collection of literary photographs on the walls — Kavanagh, O'Brien, Smyllie — though no single "shrine" to any of them.
What makes The Palace Bar essential to the literary pub crawl is that it represents the professional side of Dublin's literary life. These weren't bohemians drinking for the romance of it. These were working writers, journalists, and editors who met to argue about craft and commerce, and the pub was their office.
The Brazen Head: Dublin's Oldest Pub and Its Rebel Writers
The Brazen Head on Lower Bridge Street claims to be Dublin's oldest pub, dating from 1198. Whether that's entirely accurate depends on how you count a building that has been rebuilt several times, but it is certainly the oldest pub on the literary pub crawl route, and it has the best literary credentials of any of them.
Jonathan Swift was a regular — he lived nearby at the Deanery of St Patrick's Cathedral and walked down to the Brazen Head for his evening pint. Swift was the most famous writer in Ireland in his time (Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal), and the pub was one of the few places where the Dean of St Patrick's could drink without being pestered. The pub has a room named after him.
Later, the Brazen Head became a meeting place for Irish republican writers and poets, including Patrick Pearse and Joseph Plunkett, both of whom were executed after the 1916 Easter Rising. James Joyce mentioned it in Ulysses. Brendan Behan was a regular. The pub's connection to Irish literary culture spans three centuries — no other pub in Dublin can make that claim.
The pub today is unashamedly tourist-oriented. Live music every evening, a full food menu, and a gift shop. The literary history is presented on plaques and in the Swift Room. But the building itself is genuine — the same stone walls, the same cobbled courtyard, the same low ceilings that Swift, Pearse, and Behan walked under.
The Stag's Head: Victorian Dublin at Its Most Literate
The Stag's Head on Dame Court, just off Dame Street, is widely regarded as Dublin's most beautiful Victorian pub. Built in 1895, it features a carved wooden stag's head over the bar (the pub's namesake), an intricate mosaic floor, stained-glass windows, and a mahogany snuggery that runs the length of the bar.
Literarily, the Stag's Head was the regular of James Joyce's father, John Stanislaus Joyce — a man whose drinking habits his son immortalised in Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The younger Joyce later wrote that his father "drank the Stag's Head out of business" during one of the family's periodic financial crises, though this may have been an exaggeration.
Flann O'Brien wrote about the Stag's Head in At Swim-Two-Birds, where he described it by name. O'Brien was a regular there after his Palace Bar sessions, when he wanted somewhere quieter to drink alone. The Stag's Head has the atmosphere of a pub that has been respected rather than loved — it was never rowdy, never a "session" pub, but a place for serious drinking and serious conversation.
Today it serves excellent food and is popular with office workers from the nearby government buildings. The literary connection is present but not advertised. You have to look for it.
Neary's: The Theatre District Writers' Pub
Neary's on Chatham Street, a short walk from Grafton Street, was the pub of choice for Dublin's theatre writers. Its location — directly behind the Gaiety Theatre, one of Dublin's oldest working theatres — made it the natural meeting place for actors, playwrights, and critics.
The literary connection is less about a single famous writer and more about a culture. Neary's was where playwrights met actors to discuss productions. Where critics wrote their reviews on napkins after first nights. Where the Irish Times drama critic would hold court after the curtain fell.
The interior is one of Dublin's best-preserved Victorian bars: bevelled mirrors, brass fittings, a ceramic-tiled floor, and — unusually for Dublin — a cocktail bar at the back that was considered scandalously modern when it opened in the 1960s.
Neary's is smaller than the other pubs on this list. The front bar fills quickly. Go early, or go mid-afternoon when the theatre crowd hasn't yet arrived.
Why Take a Guided Literary Pub Crawl
Walking these seven pubs yourself — Davy Byrne's, The Duke, The Palace Bar, The Brazen Head, The Stag's Head, Neary's, and the Long Hall — will take you through Dublin's literary geography. You'll see the streets, the buildings, the pubs themselves. What you won't get is the stories — the arguments, the rivalries, the personal histories that connect the pubs to the writing.
A guided literary pub crawl gives you someone who has read the novels and knows the characters. Who can stand at the bar of Davy Byrne's and point to the exact table where Bloom sat. Who can tell you which corner of The Duke Behan claimed as his own. Who knows that Kavanagh and O'Brien hated each other's poetry, and that the Palace Bar was where they said so to each other's faces.
After your pub crawl, explore the rest of Ireland's literary landscape. James Joyce's Dublin walking tour follows the path of Leopold Bloom through the city. Seamus Heaney's Ireland: HomePlace, Bellaghy and the Places That Shaped the Poetry takes you north to the landscape that produced the 20th century's greatest Irish poet. And Oscar Wilde's Dublin traces the early life of the city's most quotable writer, from Merrion Square to Trinity College.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl take?
The standard guided tour runs about two and a half hours, covering roughly 2 kilometres of walking between pubs. Most tours stop at three to four pubs for a drink at each (you buy your own — the guide does not buy rounds). The full self-guided walk visiting all seven pubs takes four to five hours depending on how long you spend in each.
Do I need to book in advance for the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl?
Yes, particularly in summer. The most popular tour operators include Dublin Literary Pub Crawl (the original, started in 1988 by actors) and several smaller guiding companies. Book at least 24 hours ahead during June to August. Winter is quieter but still worth booking ahead for weekends.
Which writers lived in Dublin and drank in these pubs?
James Joyce, Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh, Flann O'Brien, Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde (less of a pub drinker but known at certain establishments), W.B. Yeats (occasionally), Samuel Beckett (rarely — he preferred Paris), Maeve Binchy (a more recent regular at certain bars), and Roddy Doyle (still drinks in Dublin pubs). Not all of them loved each other's work, but they all loved the same pubs.
What is the best time of year for a literary pub crawl in Dublin?
Spring (April-May) and autumn (September-October) offer the best balance of manageable crowds and decent weather. June is peak season and the pubs will be full. Winter evenings have their own atmosphere — dark, warm, the windows steamed up — and the pubs are quieter.
Conclusion
The Dublin literary pub crawl is the most direct way to experience Irish literature that exists. Not through a book or a guided museum tour, but by sitting in the same seats, at the same bars, drinking the same drinks that the writers did. The pubs haven't been preserved as historical exhibits — they're still working, still serving, still full of the same kind of conversations that shaped Irish writing.
For the full experience, book with a literary guide who knows the stories behind each pub — the arguments, the rivalries, the friendships — and can bring the writers back to life for an evening.
After your pub crawl, explore the rest of Ireland's literary landscape. James Joyce's Dublin walking tour follows the path of Leopold Bloom through the city. Seamus Heaney's Ireland: HomePlace, Bellaghy and the Places That Shaped the Poetry takes you north to the landscape that produced the 20th century's greatest Irish poet. And Oscar Wilde's Dublin traces the early life of the city's most quotable writer, from Merrion Square to Trinity College.
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