66) Devitt's The Cusack Stand of Lower Camden Street, D2

Once very traditional and local, a favourite of gamblers given the proximity of Paddy Powers bookies – since elaborately redone and gentrified, a refinement reflected in the prices, and the consequent loss of whatever downgrade charm the place once had. A Chinese man once worked behind the bar, and reacted enthusiastically when family friend (and multilingual autodidact) Festus Jennings began writing down characters on a napkin. This Chinese barman had a pitch-perfect Dublin accent, and egged on Festus Jennings in the chugging of pints (not that this Connemara heavyweight needed any egging on over the momentum of his chugging).

Devils of Devitts

The owners are related to those of The Two Sisters pub in Terenure. Since the pub got its face lifted and Botox injected, previously frozen fast food is steadily flung from dumbwaiter to dumb-ass. Fake trad music and screaming sports pundits battle it out for air waves. It’s often insufferably overcrowded despite a crew of overblown bouncers probably high on coke and definitely drunk on power. As this place is a home to tourists and drunks denied entry elsewhere, skip it and thank us, or thank us and skip it.

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