38) The Bailey of Duke Street, D2

Bouncer said 'regulars only'. How d'you become a regular then? Still, blankets are provided on cold nights for folk sitting outside. Has suffered enormously from the foul gastritis movement gutting Dublin pubs. Along with McDaid’s, this was the most frequented pub by artists in Graftonia and was home to celebrated writers, musicians, poets, journalists and bohemians. The current crowd are fashion sheep very far from the starving artists of yesteryear, for where art was once king, gastronomy has usurped the crown. The extensive food menu is flaunted along with a drinks menu which includes a pint of Guinness stout available for general purchase at just 5 whole euro and 70 whole cents. 

Famed for being mentioned in Ulysses and for once housing the original door of 7 Eccles Street (rescued by John Ryan, previous owner of the Bailey and initiator of Bloomsday, after the original building was demolished to make way for the rise of the Mater Hospital), as well as for various other vague Joycean connections, not least its proximity to Davy Byrne's. A plaque to John Ryan can be seen on the exterior wall which reads: ‘John Ryan. 1926-1992. Artist, writer, Joycean and benefactor. Organiser first Bloomsday celebration 1954. Owner of the Bailey 1956-1971. One of Dublin’s princes - JP Donleavy.’ A second plaque can be seen for ‘Leopold Bloom’s Hall Door.’ Inside one will find tributes to other Irish writers, but predominantly Joyce whose enormous portrait (in which he’s smoking a cigarette) bedecks one of the walls. 

Tipsy Joyce enjoys his own prose; an obliging hallucination props up his book for him

It was also in the Bailey that poet Patrick Kavanagh singled out the wunderkind Luke Kelly, and gave him explicit permission to set On Raglan Road to music, for which we are all eternally grateful. On a less elevated note, it was also here, while seated outside on a chilly night, that minor poet and amateur actor Niall McCabe once drew a lightning sketch of Donegal model Faye Dinsmore – shameless showoff!

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