132) Davy Byrne's of Duke Street, D2

Now immoral. A home to suits off season, a stopgap for Joyceans in June. That said, glad are we that the place is still standing even though it’s not what it was. It’s at the higher end of the price scale for bar food and liquor. The pub was up for sale in 2018 for a reported €6 million. Why so much? Apart from the location - it was brought to fame by Joyce in the Lestrygonians episode of Ulysses when Mr. Leopold Bloom enters Davy Byrne’s and orders a gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy. (Flocks of Joyce enthusiasts from all over the globe visit each year just to sit where Bloom fictitiously sat).

Coll and Stephens attempted to replicate this custom on Bloomsday 2017. Stephens savoured both the fine wine and the stinking cheese (yet bemoaned the inferior bread, no better than an average loaf of McCambridge's) whilst Coll, stricken by cheese-induced nausea, disappeared to the small room with his bolus. On returning lime-faced, he reluctantly surrendered the remainder of his burgundy and was unable to hold down any liquid for the remainder of the day and for much of the following day also. He has not been the same since and refers to this awful occasion as ‘the day I beheld a Gorgon called Zola.’

The traditional lamb stew is excellent, the poured pint, average. A small sculpture of Joyce is on display inside as well as a vibrant painting celebrating his work. On the ground, outside the pub, can be found one of the 14 commemorative pavement plaques to Ulysses which were installed into the ground in 1998. Each plaque illustrates a wandering Bloom and has a different quote from the novel. The Duke Street plaque reads: ‘He entered Davy Byrne’s. Moral pub. He doesn’t chat.’ 

Davy Byrne’s in the 1950’s

Update March 2021: Roadworks have been completed on Duke street since Covid-19 hit, and in so doing, some awful bloody philistine has covered over the Ulysses plaque with obnoxious yellow tarmacadam, probably done without noticing as he scoffed a breakfast roll and scratched his arsehole.

A melancholy pseudo-Bloom looks on as a Publopedian stifles his puke

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