Tuesday 5 November, 2024

Here's the only way to cross Dublin without passing a pub

And here’s a two-minute timelapse video of the route.

IT’S ONE OF the most-quoted lines from James Joyce’s Ulysses: Leopold Bloom’s internal musings on the difficulty of getting across the city without passing a pub.

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The conventional solution has always been to simply go into every pub for a pint (so you’re not actually passing any of them…)

But four years ago, Rory McCann used mapping software to crack the only route available - from the North Circular Road to Baggot Street at the Canal.

But at the time, many commenters wondered whether the maps were up to date. Whether, in fact, some pubs did lie along the route.

So last Friday, John Geraghty of Publin.ie took it upon himself to actually check it out. Wearing a camera.

Here’s the entire journey, in two minutes:

Publin / YouTube

And here’s the route, north to south. (Geraghty walked it south to north.)

Down Aughrim Street to Manor Street
Right on Halliday Road before you get to Kavanagh’s
Left down Murtagh Road and down through Arbour Hill and Collins Barracks
Left on Benburb Street to Blackhall Place
Cross the river on the James Joyce Bridge, turn right, then left and left again
Up Bridgefoot Street, quick left on Oliver Bond Street, and right up Bridge Street (dodging the Brazen Head)
Down Back Lane past Mother Redcaps (now closed)
Across Patrick Street and down Ross Road, then right on Bride Street and left on Peter Street to Peter Row past DIT
Dodging across Aunger Street, down Digges Lane, Mercer Street and York Street to Stephen’s Green
Right when you hit the Green, up the first bit of Harcourt Street, then cut left through the Iveagn Gardens
Out on Hatch Street, down Adelaide Road to Wilton Terrace… and done!

According to John Geraghty, the whole walk took an hour and 15 minutes. He writes that his next project is “to touch the door of every pub in Dublin in 24 hours? Dublin city from canal to canal and from the port to the Phoenix Park. I’d estimate that’s around 200 pubs or so.”