This is the busy Saint Patrick’s Athletic pub so called given its proximity to the famous Richmond Park football stadium. The main bar is several decades old and hasn’t changed as much as a splinter. Ron Stephens, father of Andrew, can testify to this as both men took several delicious pints here in July 2019, Ron having first been here with his own father in the seventies. Wood is everywhere and everything is wooden. Behind the bar stand a few crooked bookshelves which house warm Guinness bottled stout, MacArdle’s Ale of the county Louth and the trusty TK’s red and white. A framed photo of a smiling Luke Kelly in his youth standing on O’Connell Street is proudly on display. Away to the side swings a cheap set of ruby red rosary beads given the task of blessing this ship and all who sip in her. 

The barkeep is a mountain of a man, heavily pierced and extensively tattooed - his hands, neck and face are all inked, and yet he’s friendlier and more polite than most men of the trade. (Reject the judge, read the book, review the cover - something like that). The only disappointment was the beckoning red and black Beamish tap pulsating next to her inferiors which had sadly run dry some years previous. Fear not, their Guinness is sublime and is only €4.20 a pint (until 6pm when it increases by 20 cent). The hall towards the lavatory is decorated with animated artefacts of Irish men and women with a brief blurb about each.

At the entrance to the right is the lounge, an entirely different affair. It’s a lengthy room with a spacious area at the back for live music. A large ‘Saint Patrick’s Athletic’ sign runs along the entire length of the bar. The walls here are adorned with curious historical photographs. One of particular interest is a black and white photo of a tall, smiling, toothless old man, standing upright and unkempt in the middle of a country road holding an enormous sweeping brush. The hand-carved handle is knotted and resembles its original tree branch, and the head of the brush is so large it would sweep any woman off her feet. He’s captured here removing his earnest cap in joyful salutation to the photographer. Unnamed the caption reads: ‘The Happy Warrior of 1929.’ 

The two Stephens’ well-oiled, slipped from the bar around the back of the pub into Richmond Park to watch Frank Lampard’s Chelsea beat St. Pat’s by four goals to nil.

Tipplers Tip: crowds of noisy fanatics will be overbearing on match days, check the fixtures first if a quiet pint is your cry.

We revisited this pub in July 2023: As Sam sipped on his mug of stout, he realised he was being watched by Jesus. The statue in the grounds of the church across the road can be seen from inside the bar. This unnerved him for he was sinning by pinting during the day, but then he remembered the wedding in Cana of Galilee where Jesus, for his very first miracle, turned all that soft water into hard wine. Thanks Jesus!

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