26) Toner's, James, of Lower Baggot Street, D2

Considering its renown for pouring an exceptional pint, it's a pity that Bloomsday 2017 saw us resorting to pouring our Guinness down the toilet bowl, so flat and sourly undrinkable was it – thankfully only an anomaly in the main. So completely untakeable was the pint of porter, in point of fact, that to this day it remains the only time Sam Coll refused to drink a pint in a public house. Reputedly the only pub in Dublin into which W.B. Yeats ever deigned to stick his sober head, only after the prompting of Senator Oliver St. John 'Buck Mulligan' Gogarty. This pub was also employed, somewhat incongruously, as a location by director Sergio Leone for his spaghetti western A Fistful of Dynamite [1]. This Victorian pub is famed for a glorious authentic snug of the finest vintage in which W.B. once sat in - on the urging of the said Gogarty.

The beer garden once had a rundown charm, a shabby ramshackle site looking like an empty Fellini film set waiting for possession by spirits, distinguished by the disembodied sound of a squawking parrot that would bleat loudly upon one's arrival – research has confirmed that it only sounds every eighteen minutes, and acts as a sort of aural scarecrow, a deterrent to ward off any passing birds who may try flying in (in spite of which, pigeons have been seen nesting in the rafters above one's beer). Some of this onetime charm has since been eroded thanks to extensive renovations and extensions – it is now a favourite of the moneyed and suited boat-buying class. Sunbathing ladies can sometimes be seen on balconies above, time of year depending, and voyeurs can avail of spectacular views into apartment windows overlooking the said beer garden.

FOOTNOTE

[1] If one wishes to view a scene from the movie shot in Toner’s, click this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ZXSofUNDcgs&feature=emb_logo

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