Totally Dublin’s ongoing hunt for Dublin’s Best Smithwick’s Experience has expanded deep into leafy suburbia, to Harry Byrne’s on the Howth Road in Clontarf. This rather grand building stands on the site of an 1798 coaching inn, and was built in its current form about 100 years later, retaining almost all of its original features.
It’s the end of a quiet Monday evening, and I wait for my companion to join me for our postprandial pints of Smithwick’s. There are few better places to sit than with your back to the fire in the left-hand bar of Harry Byrne’s, with its raised grate at waist height to spin heat into this stately room, chasing out any chills you might have brought in with you. As the stern barman served my Smithwick’s — expertly poured, with the ruby ale retaining its head down to the last mouthful — I am awestruck by the bar’s interior. Harry Byrne’s has to be one of the most tastefully decorated bars in Dublin, there’s a serious lack of tack on the walls, where space is taken up by records and photos of local sports teams going back decades. With apparently only the light fittings being replaced in the century since its construction (OK, probably the flat-screen TVs, too) the pub has the original brickwork, wooden floors and amazing carved ceilings. This is a neighbourhood bar of the highest order.
This gem of Edwardian/Victorian architecture even makes barrel tables feel appropriately old-style instead of naff, and I sit down at one to read. Harry Byrne’s is separated into three bars, and I’ve landed in the one dominated by middle-aged men ignoring the ice hockey playing on screens above us, and more interested in debating Tim’s marital problems and whether Ford or Mercedes vans give better performance for the price. I’m joined by my friend carrying his pint of Smithwick’s and two packets of Bacon Fries—what better accompaniment to a bitter, floral ale? Harry Byrne’s likes to keep it simple and traditional, so there unfortunately isn’t anything further available in the line of food beyond crisps and peanuts.
We peek outside to the smoking area that the L-shaped building encloses to see a decidedly younger, mixed-gender crowd discussing, presumably, something other than married life and vans. The smoking garden is one of this bar’s best features, covered by a suspended roof, heated in the cold and displaying beautiful masonry in what was once the coach yard. It’s plain to see that this is one spot that will flourish in the summer months. Thinking about warmer evenings, we drained our glasses of Smithwick’s and headed outside, greeted by glowing yellow lights of the line of taxis outside waiting to take Clontarf’s denizens safely home.
Harry Byrne’s
Howth Road, Clontarf, Dublin 3
W: Facebook
T: 01-8332650
