Community memory
Boards.ie memory links Mcdaids with regulars and characters, old memories, music and sessions, story leads and nights out and craic. PubHub V1 treats this as published forum memory: not a settled fact, but a linked record of what people said, remembered, joked about, or claimed online.
8 source leads · 2005-2017
Read source trail🏭 Heritage-listed building
Built: c.1860 · NIAH rating: Regional
Modified during the early-twentieth century, the slender rendered façade stands out against the backdrop of largely red brick buildings. Retaining a good decorative shopfront, a good interior and original windows, the building forms part of a collection of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century buildings that gives Harry Street its character. McDaid's was noted as one of the city's literary pubs.
From the record · Verified background
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.
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]
PubHub lore
Established
Trading on Harry Street, just off Grafton Street.
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.
Community memory
Quick read
Short linked forum memory from people talking about this pub.
Archive time depth
12 years of archive-metadata distance across 8 dated Boards.ie archive leads.
Stories and local colour
The Boards.ie trail has story-shaped signals for this pub: odd details, gossip, atmosphere, nights out or local colour that may be useful leads for a fuller memory page.
story gossip
Boards.ie gives Mcdaids 8 readable forum-memory signals around regulars, staff-memory, room characters, crowds, and the social texture around the pub, older recollections, changed routines, remembered visits, and traces of how the pub lived in people's routes, music, singing, gigs, sessions, and the sound of the pub in forum memory, fragments that look like starting points for fuller memories or local stories and nights out, banter, sessions, lively talk, and social energy around the room. This is not verified pub history; it is a mapped trail of what people said online and where PubHub can go next for local colour.
This is labelled forum memory: useful gossip, local claims and colour from source-linked public discussion, not PubHub treating the claims as settled fact.
PubHub read of the archive
These cards turn the raw forum trail into practical page leads: gossip, character texture, time depth, source depth, and review warnings where the match pattern is broad.
story_gossip
Boards.ie gives Mcdaids 8 readable forum-memory signals around regulars, staff-memory, room characters, crowds, and the social texture around the pub, older recollections, changed routines, remembered visits, and traces of how the pub lived in people's routes, music, singing, gigs, sessions, and the sound of the pub in forum memory, fragments that look like starting points for fuller memories or local stories and nights out, banter, sessions, lively talk, and social energy around the room. This is not verified pub history; it is a mapped trail of what people said online and where PubHub can go next for local colour.
characters
The character lane has 3 signals for Mcdaids: regulars, staff-memory, crowds, habits, or the social feel of the room. PubHub keeps this as labelled forum memory and uses source review before turning any named-person fragment into stronger copy.
time_depth
Mcdaids has 8 dated source leads from 2005 to 2017, giving the page a 12-year archive trail. That gives the pub page a memory layer across time, not just a single mention.
source_depth
PubHub has 8 unique Boards.ie source URLs tied to this pub-memory record. Each public lead stays linked so corrections can point to the exact forum source.
Story leads
Mcdaids has 8 readable Boards.ie memory signals around regulars and characters, old memories, music and sessions, story leads and nights out and craic. The strongest current lead points into "It'd Drive You To Drink"; PubHub should keep it labelled as forum memory, then use corrections and source review to turn the best fragments into fuller local stories. The character lane is especially useful here, with 3 regulars-or-room-texture signals.
2005 · characters, memory · lead score 134
2014 · memory · lead score 113
2008 · characters · lead score 113
2011 · memory · lead score 113
2010 · characters · lead score 113
2005 · characters, memory · lead score 134
2008 · characters · lead score 113
2010 · characters · lead score 113
Archive profile
Mcdaids has 8 readable Boards.ie memory matches around regulars and characters, old memories, music and sessions, story leads and nights out and craic. PubHub V1 publishes this as forum memory: what people said online, connected back to source posts where possible.
V1 source
Boards.ie readable-first raw review queue
Memory shape
Regulars and characters, old memories, music and sessions, story leads and nights out and craic
Correction loop
If the page is wrong or unfair, use the correction path and PubHub can update or remove it.
V1 shows linked forum memory and local talk as memory, not as PubHub fact-checking.
Regulars and characters
Boards.ie memory links this pub with regulars, bar characters, staff roles, or social texture around the room.
Old memories
Boards.ie memory links this pub with older recollections, changed habits, former routines, or remembered visits.
Music and sessions
Boards.ie memory links this pub with music, sessions, singing, gigs, or pub-night rhythm.
Story leads
Boards.ie memory contains fragments that look like starting points for fuller pub stories.
Archive source trail
These are linked Boards.ie leads from pre-2026 discussion. PubHub V1 shows the linked trail as forum memory and uses the correction path for bad matches, missing context, or pages that need checking.
2010Boards V1 Raw Review MemoryScore 85
2011Boards V1 Raw Review MemoryScore 85
2008Boards V1 Raw Review MemoryScore 85
2014Boards V1 Raw Review MemoryScore 85
2011Boards V1 Raw Review MemoryScore 85
2017Boards V1 Raw Review MemoryScore 85
2005Boards V1 Raw Review MemoryScore 85
2009Boards V1 Raw Review MemoryScore 85
Boards.ie forum memory
Boards.ie memory links Mcdaids with regulars and characters, old memories, music and sessions, story leads and nights out and craic. PubHub V1 treats this as published forum memory: not a settled fact, but a linked record of what people said, remembered, joked about, or claimed online.
Think this Boards.ie memory is wrong, unfair, missing context, or attached to the wrong pub? Send PubHub a correction and we will check the page. Contact PubHub.
More Boards.ie snippets
“About five years ago I was sitting at the bar in McDaids (off Grafton St) watching a match. A guy came up...”
It'd Drive You To Drink · 2005