130) The Thomas House of Thomas Street, D8

Notable for a fascinating aquarium which provides happy eye candy for the fish fancier. Heavy emphasis on music. Downstairs the ‘Bruisers Basement’ venue is popular with coke-heads. Back upstairs there’s usually a drooling DJ spinning some noise. On quieter days, there’s a jukebox for those who can’t bear a moment of silence. Remarkably, the delectable MacArdles Irish Ale is sold on draught. Frequented by the trendier. Scum like us need not apply.

The drug of choice in the ‘Bruiser’s Basement’

Update as of December 2023: The time has come, the walrus said, to add an additional favourable commentary about the Thomas House. We will allow the above smear (dating from 2016 or earlier) to stand, but leaven it with some more positive remarks and observations, gleaned at a later and happier date - the fabulous fish-tank remains, and the eye candy for a fish-fancier is indeed beguiling and hypnotic. The walls are coated with interesting curios and nicknacks and photos galore, while a corner television screen habitually unspools vintage films of the calibre of The Bride of Frankenstein, so the likes of Boris Karloff and Elsa Lanchester will lend zest to your supping. But above all, and most heartwarming from a Publopedian’s perspective - the Thomas House now serves a bussing pint of Beamish for the toothsome sum of €5:50, something of a bargain in this day and age. Andrew Stephens recently hailed this beverage as being of a superior sort to that served by The Lord Edward up the road (an appraisal tantamount to heresy for us, given the esteem in which we hold the lordly institution, very much our favourite). So fair play to the Thomas House for contributing to the re-Beaming of the Liberties, as ‘twere.

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