1. Davy Byrne’s, Duke Street
Founded as a pub by the eponymous Davy Byrne in 1889, this place was a regular haunt of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith.
Davy Byrne’s nationalist sympathies were evident, permitting as he did the upstairs room to be used for meetings of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and the outlawed Provisional Cabinet of the State, of which Collins was Minister for Finance. On one occasion, an officious barman clearing the premises at closing called: “Time, gentlemen please,” to which one customer replied, “Time be damned! The Government is sitting upstairs.”
2. The Oval. Middle Abbey Street
The Oval was the “perfect meeting place” for the IRB, as well as members of the Irish Citizen Army and the Irish Volunteers in the years before 1916. Sure it’s only around the corner from the GPO.
However in the aftermath of the Easter Rising, the pub was among the buildings destroyed by shelling by the HMS Helga on 27 April 1916. It was rebuilt in 1922 “just in time for civil war”.
3. The Old Stand, Exchequer Street
The plaque speaks for itself.
4. The Swan, Aungier Street
An eyewitness statement from Fairview man Michael Molloy (member of E Company, 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers) describes how, on Easter Monday 1916, rebels moved from their outpost at the Jacob’s Factory into The Swan:
5. The Tap, North King Street
Back then it was called Reilly’s, but the pub now named The Tap was the scene of some fierce fighting when on 28 April 1916, Volunteers fought an attack from British soldiers. The pub was heavily fired upon and still bears the scars.
6. The Schoolhouse, Northumberland Road
The Schoolhouse was occupied by a group of Volunteers during Easter Week 1916, as they took strategic locations to defend the new republic.
Granted, it wasn’t a pub at the time, but it played a part in the fierce battle of Mount Street. It was stormed by British troops on 26 April, who discovered it had been vacated before their arrival.
