Anton was sure he knew where the pub was, that he knew the area like the back of his hand, but it is only via a short conversation with a cashier at the Spar down the road that we happen upon Ryan’s Beggars Bush. “Ah yeah, just beside the old Print Museum,” he nods, casting his eyes to heaven, in rebuke of his perhaps over-practiced memory. “How much for matches?” As we walk to our destination, he fakes the run and lateralises the matchbox towards me.
To be fair to Anton, Ryan’s is on a road where you would not expect to find a pub. The momentous entranceway to the Print Museum takes pride of place on a residential street overhung by large, old trees, the Aviva stadium a glassy omen of an encroaching future on the horizon to the south-west. Cherry blossoms litter the path to the old pub, in its centenary year of Ryan family involvement in the establishment. If it’s with some frustrated nostalgia that we still refer to our towering, insurance company-backed national stadium as Lansdowne Road, then Ryan’s represents, a stone’s throw away, more traditional Irish values, like cheap pints and barbecued burgers (also cheap). A Guinness for €4 (or €4.10 in the lounge) and a burger, cooked in front of you on the outdoor grill, plus chips for €6 are things you might not expect to find in affluent Ballsbridge, but here they are! These prices may be incremented by the spiritual wage of having to share company with Leinster fans on match-day, but they’re still far and away better value than most other bars in the area.
The pub itself is divided into four sections. The lounge is a comfortable, no-messing-about, wood-paneled area surrounded with photographs of historical interest and, crucially for some, no television. The bar is a bit more geared towards the stool-perching, bar-leaning, personal-space-invading patron, with a big screen to the back showing whatever major sporting event is on; in its corner, there is a snug kept discrete by wooden partitions, and with a small television of its own: comfortable and just bright enough, as far as snugs in Dublin pubs go this has to be one of the best. Outside though, in the summertime, is where the magic happens. Picnic tables and a marquee-sheltered barbecue provide an ideal spot for outdoor drinking, facing onto the peaceful Haddington Rd. To the side, a sheltered smoking area has its own television. With Dublin pubs (perhaps partially due to our climate) tending to have turned their backs on al fresco drinking, unless it’s a nominally outdoor sun-room with a Velux slapped onto it so people can smoke there, it’s refreshing to find somewhere with such an easy, natural flow between its traditional interior and a simple, sociable courtyard. Dublin 4, thankfully, isn’t all Peroni and Thai green curry: Ryan’s holds its own with the best traditional pubs in the city. Go watch the Lions get beaten there!
Excited by the day’s football, and eager to get into the clubs in the city centre, Anton rushes ahead of me up towards Grand Canal Dock station, pointing two thumbs triumphantly at COUTINHO, printed across the back of his new Liverpool jersey. His swinging leg kicks up a flurry of pink cherry blossoms in the evening’s half-light, falling slowly to the ground before a print museum which might yet bear witness to it.
115 Haddington Road
Dublin 4
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