Established
Built into the back wall of Glasnevin Cemetery and trading since 1833 — a year after the cemetery itself opened to Irish citizens of all faiths. The pub was originally a wedding gift from John Kavanagh's hotelier father-in-law.
John Kavanagh The Gravediggers
1 Prospect Square, Glasnevin
Admit one pint
Find it
1 Prospect Square, Glasnevin, Dublin, D09 CF72Check with the pub before travelling.The regulars
0 members0 Craic this week
What’s a Guinness here?
Our shared benchmark: Guinness Draught, one standard pint (568 ml). Dated observations from menus, receipts and the people who were there.
Guinness Draught · pintHelp put this pub on the pint map.
Price neededPrices can change. Only recent, comparable observations enter budget matches. Seen a different price?
Update a price, receipt or detail
Share what you paid. We’ll review it before it appears here. A recent, checked Guinness pint price can earn 5 Pub Cred for a signed-in member, once per pub per week. How Cred works →
Price history
Previous standard pint observations. A repeat at the same price is a confirmation, not an increase. Approximate dates keep their original precision.
No reviewed, dated history for this pint yet.
Sound contributors at this pub →
Recorded pub details
- Listed name
- John Kavanagh The GravediggersRecorded 2026-09-11
- Listed address
- 1 Prospect Square, Glasnevin, Dublin, D09 CF72Recorded 2026-09-11
- Phone
- 087 296 3713Recorded 2026-09-11
- Facilities
- Accessibility: Has wheelchair-accessible car park; Has wheelchair-accessible entrance; Has wheelchair-accessible seating; Has wheelchair-accessible toilet
- Service options: On-site services available; Serves dine-in; No delivery; No takeaway
- Highlights: Has great beer selection
- Popular for: Good for solo dining
- Offerings: Serves alcohol; Serves beer; Serves food; Serves food at bar; Serves spirits; Serves wine
- Dining options: Has table service
- Amenities: Has toilet
- Atmosphere: Casual; Cosy
- Crowd: Good for groups; Popular with tourists
- Planning: Doesn't accept reservations
- Payments: Accepts credit cards; Accepts debit cards; Accepts NFC mobile payments; Credit cards
- Parking: Free of charge street parking; Paid street parking; Plenty of parking
Preserved directory details. Recorded information can change.
From the record · Verified background
What the archives say
Independent reporting and heritage records on this pub, drawn from a curated list of Irish news outlets, Revenue Commissioners, NIAH, and the Dictionary of Irish Architects. Every claim links to its primary source.
Listing historyCultural mentions
Revenue's renewed-liquor-licence register lists licence ref N0078 as a Publican's Licence (7-Day Ordinary) for JOHN KAVANAGH at 1 PROSPECT SQUARE, GLASNEVIN in DUBLIN CITY with GENERATION SEVEN FOOD AND DRINK LIMITED as licensee.[1]
NIAH identifies John Kavanagh at 1-2 Prospect Square as a regional-rated public house, dates the building to 1820-1840, and records public house as both historical and current use.[2]
NIAH says the pub opened in 1833 in the original house by hotelier John O'Neill, became linked to John Kavanagh through marriage, and remained in family ownership for almost two centuries.[2]
The Irish Times obituary for Eugene Kavanagh says the business had been in the family since 1833 and that the Gravediggers nickname came from its proximity to Glasnevin Cemetery.[3]
The Irish Times described the Prospect Square pub as the place where mourners at Paddy Dignam's funeral in Joyce's Ulysses retired.[4]
Reviewed pub lore
Local notes
Family
Run by the Kavanagh family for the entire 190-plus-year history of the pub. The same family operates it today.
Earlier uses
Started life as a funeral-adjacent business: mourners left hearses outside, came in to drink off their grief, and were replaced by gravediggers off-shift. The cemetery committee eventually passed a bylaw restricting burials to the morning, after too many funerals were either drunk or absent altogether.
Architecture
Built physically into the cemetery wall. The original layout survives; later generations have added a separate lounge (1980s) and a food menu (early 2000s) without altering the front bar.
Rituals
The pub adopted the 'Gravediggers' nickname only within the last twenty years — partly from its founding clientele, partly because the cemetery workers had legendary ways of ordering their drinks. Tap a coin on the counter behind the partition and a pint would appear without a word being spoken.
Reputation
Routinely cited as one of the most distinctive pubs in Dublin — survival of an older form of Irish drinking life that mostly disappeared with the introduction of dedicated funeral homes in the late 1960s.
House rules
Be sound. Welcome newcomers. Keep it about the pub.
Recorded details, hours and facilities
Source observations, not owner-confirmed. Missing fields do not mean a service is unavailable.
- Listed name · observed 2026-09-11
- John Kavanagh The Gravediggers
- Listed address · observed 2026-09-11
- 1 Prospect Square, Glasnevin, Dublin, D09 CF72
- Phone · observed 2026-09-11
- 087 296 3713
- Facilities · observed 2026-09-11
- Accessibility: Has wheelchair-accessible car park; Has wheelchair-accessible entrance; Has wheelchair-accessible seating; Has wheelchair-accessible toilet
- Service options: On-site services available; Serves dine-in; No delivery; No takeaway
- Highlights: Has great beer selection
- Popular for: Good for solo dining
- Offerings: Serves alcohol; Serves beer; Serves food; Serves food at bar; Serves spirits; Serves wine
- Dining options: Has table service
- Amenities: Has toilet
- Atmosphere: Casual; Cosy
- Crowd: Good for groups; Popular with tourists
- Planning: Doesn't accept reservations
- Payments: Accepts credit cards; Accepts debit cards; Accepts NFC mobile payments; Credit cards
- Parking: Free of charge street parking; Paid street parking; Plenty of parking