O’Donoghue’s, A True Dubliner

Outside O’Donoghue’s familiar black & white exterior

O’Donoghue’s, Our Old Friend

O’Donoghue’s is our go-to pub. There, I said it, there’s no mystery to it. Rail, hail or shine, no matter what the occasion, O’Donoghue’s can cover it. It’s not the prettiest, the most comfortable nor the most steeped-in-history of Ireland’s pubs but by god, it is one damn fine boozer. If you’re looking simply to pop in somewhere for a drink over the newspaper or while catching the match on T.V., O’Donoghue’s is ideal. If you’re peckish, the guys there will whip up a toasted sandwich for you. If you’re after a proper, full-on night out among a lively, mixed crowd, O’Donoghue’s guarantees it, with a bustling, varied clientele heaving all the way from the old bar on one side, through the beer garden across to the newer part of the bar.

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Toners’ strikes golden tone among great pubs of Baggot Street

Toners Pub is a perennial fixture of the busy Lower Baggot Street social scene

200 Year Old Formula

A few plain facts point to the wonder of Toners pub of Baggot Street, Dublin 2. The pub is almost two hundred years in operation and yet it remains largely unaltered, working off the same successful formula it always has. Bearing in mind that it is within a stone’s throw of other truly great pubs, not least Doheny & Nesbitt and O’Donoghues, its longevity and simultaneous resistance to change are all the more impressive. Granted there have been a few additions over the years such as a beer garden out back and an upstairs function room, to cater for the larger, occasional crowds but the kernel of the pub is essentially unchanged, with a single television parked high in the corner, the only hint at modernity.