www.dohenyandnesbitts.ie

Open dates in 2025: all year, except Christmas Day, Mon-Wed, 9am-12 midnight, Thurs-Sat, 9am-1.30am, Sun, 9am-12 midnight
Fee: Free

Doheny & Nesbitt, a popular bar on Lower Baggot Street, occupies what was once a residence, built around 1790. Now it holds one of the finest Victorian pubs in Dublin.

Not long before, until 1773, the road had been called Gallows Road, as it led to the Gallow Mount, where criminals were hung. It was not just criminals, however, but also Catholics: Dermot O’Hurley, Archbishop of Cashel, was hung on 20 June 1584, and officially recognised as a Catholic martyr by Pope John Paul II in 1992. I first heard of the painful fate of Dermot O’Hurley when exploring the park of St. Kevins church, where the Archbishop is buried. His feast day, coincidentally, is this week, the 20th June.

Dermot O’Hurley was born in County Tipperary and studied in Louvain in Belgium. Catholics from Ireland had to go abroad to study. He knew that when he was ordained, his life would be that of a fugitive, ministering when possible. When he travelled to Ireland after his appointment, he never reached Cashel . Officials believed that O’Hurley was plotting to overthrow the English in Ireland. He was captured and tortured, including putting his feet into boots filled with boiling pitch and oil.

Another person executed in the same spot was “Darkey” Dorcas Kelly, a “Madam” who operated the Maiden Tower brothel on Copper Alley, off Fishamble Street in Dublin. She was burnt at the stake in 1761 – not all that long before the Georgian houses were built on Gallows Road.

The pub occupies both numbers 4 and 5, two Georgian houses of two bays and four storeys, fronted in brown brick, with corner quoins. The windows diminish in size from ground to top storey. The Georgian period spans over a century, referring to the four successive reigns of King Georges of the House of Hanover, from the accession of George I to the throne in 1714 to the death of George IV in 1830. 

Dublin Georgian town houses are typically terraced. Dublin Civic Trust’s website tells us that the house facade, including the spacing and shape of windows, is designed in accordance with classical rules of proportion. Servants quarters and kitchens were housed in the basement, while the principal living space was at first floor level, called a ‘piano nobile’ (Italian for main floor). Large windows at this level let in lots of light. Bedrooms, with smaller windows, were on upper storeys.

The National Inventory tells us that the timber pub front is from around 1890. The Inventory describes panelled pilasters over a painted masonry plinth.

A decorative brass sheet reads ‘Tea & Wine Merchant’. 

Wooden oversize scrolled foliate consoles frame the signage. Inside the pub retains its Victorian decor, with its original joinery in the bar, snugs and carved timberwork ceilings (according to the National Inventory). The website tells us that the ceiling is of papier maché, and that it has been restored. There’s a replica Victorian bar in the rear.

The main bar retains the original counter, and almost all of the original fittings date from the 19th century. I think it’s unfortunate the bar has big tvs so that customers can follow sports, as they ruin the old world atmosphere.

The National Inventory tells us that the liquor licence has been held by several owners. It was a grocers as well as a pub. Shaw’s Directory of 1850 records William Burke as the occupant of the premises. The website tells us that it became a pub in the 1840s. Burke ran the pub as ‘Delahuntys’ for almost fifty years.

In 1924, Philip Lynch and James O’Connor took it over for around thirty years, before passing it onto a Felix Connolly. A sign over the bar retains the Connolly name. Ned Doheny and Tom Nesbitt, two Co. Tipperary men, then took over and gave it the current name. It now has newer owners, who retained the name.

The pub sells food and tables can be reserved in advance if one wants a meal.

The bar has several rooms, and function rooms upstairs and in the basement, catering for different capacities.

Old advertisments and memorabilia line the walls, and the back bar has an unusual panelled barrel ceiling.

There are three rooms available to book for functions: Tom’s Bar, Paul’s Bar and the Marble Bar. There is also a cellar bar.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50100456/doheny-nesbitt-4-baggot-street-lower-dublin-2-co-dublin

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50100457/doheny-nesbitt-5-baggot-street-lower-dublin-2-co-dublin