Established
Trading on Harry Street, just off Grafton Street.
McDaids
3 Harry St
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3 Harry St, Dublin, D02 NC42Friday 12 pm to 12:30 amRecorded 2026-09-11
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Our shared benchmark: Guinness Draught, one standard pint (568 ml). Dated observations from menus, receipts and the people who were there.
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Recorded pub details
- Listed name
- McDaidsRecorded 2026-09-11
- Listed address
- 3 Harry St, Dublin, D02 NC42Recorded 2026-09-11
- Phone
- (01) 679 4395Recorded 2026-09-11
- Website
- https://mcdaids.shop/Recorded 2026-09-11
- Opening hours
- Friday 12 pm to 12:30 am
- Saturday 12 pm to 12:30 am
- Sunday 12 to 11 pm
- Monday 2 to 11 pm
- Tuesday 2 to 11 pm
- Wednesday 2 to 11 pm
- Thursday 12 to 11:30 pm
- Eircode
- D02 NC42
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 mentionsNotable events
Revenue's renewed-liquor-licence register lists licence ref S0093 as a Publican's Licence (7-Day Ordinary) for MCDAIDS at 3 HARRY STREET in DUBLIN CITY with COSGRAVE (MOUNT MERRION) LIMITED as licensee.[1]
NIAH identifies McDaid's as a regional-rated public house at 3 Harry Street, records its original and current use as public house, dates the building to 1860-1880, and notes a 1873 date on the corner-sited building with an early-twentieth-century shopfront.[2]
The Irish Times reported that McDaids sold at a Morrissey auction for £2.9 million on 2 December 1998 and was bought by Oliver Cosgrave, owner of The Druid's Chair in Killiney.[3]
In a 2018 Irish Times books article, Eamon Maher linked McDaid's with Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh, Flann O'Brien and Anthony Cronin, and NIAH describes McDaid's as one of Dublin's literary pubs.[4][2]
Reviewed pub lore
Local notes
Earlier uses
The building was once Dublin's City Morgue, and was later converted into a chapel for the Moravian Brethren. The high ceilings, almost-Gothic windows and stained-glass borders are surviving traces of both lives.
Literary links
McDaid's was the literary pub of mid-20th-century Dublin. Brendan Behan, Patrick Kavanagh, Flann O'Brien, J.P. Donleavy and Liam O'Flaherty were all regulars; Behan based characters in *The Hostage* and *Borstal Boy* on publicans and patrons he met here. Joycean scholars identify McDaid's as the setting for the opening of Joyce's short story *Grace*.
Architecture
The high, almost-tomb-like ceiling and Gothic windows survive from the building's chapel period. Little has changed since.
Regulars
Patrick Kavanagh held court from a special seat at the end of the counter through the 1950s. Brendan Behan didn't take his arrival well — the two writers spent years hurling insults at each other across the bar in a vicious public feud, with the regulars generally siding with Kavanagh.
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
- McDaids
- Listed address · observed 2026-09-11
- 3 Harry St, Dublin, D02 NC42
- Phone · observed 2026-09-11
- (01) 679 4395
- Website · observed 2026-09-11
- https://mcdaids.shop/
- Opening hours · observed 2026-09-11
- Friday: 12 pm to 12:30 am
- Saturday: 12 pm to 12:30 am
- Sunday: 12 to 11 pm
- Monday: 2 to 11 pm
- Tuesday: 2 to 11 pm
- Wednesday: 2 to 11 pm
- Thursday: 12 to 11:30 pm