THE BRAZEN HEAD

Established

A hostelry has stood on the Bridge Street site since 1198, by the pub's own reckoning — making this widely regarded as Ireland's oldest pub. The present building was built in 1754 as a coaching inn; the pub appears in surviving documents as far back as 1653.

Earlier uses

Built at the head of the River Liffey, where Norman soldiers guarded the gate that provided the only access into Dublin. On cold, damp nights the soldiers would warm their hands over braziers — barrels of fire — from which the pub takes its name.

Literary links

Drinking ground for Brendan Behan and Jonathan Swift — both names that turn up in the regulars list across multiple eras.

Military history

The Brazen Head narrowly survived the intense fighting of the 1922 Irish Civil War. It served, at various times, as plotting-room for the United Irishmen, meeting place for Daniel O'Connell, and hiding place for Michael Collins.

Architecture

There has been a public house and hotel on this site since 1198, with a record in 1703 of a James King being granted ‘all that large timber house called the Brazen Head’. Rebuilt in the mid eighteenth century, the building has a long association with the history of Dublin.

Regulars

Robert Emmet, Edmund Burke, Daniel O'Connell, Henry Grattan and Wolfe Tone all drank here, plotting the future of Ireland over pints. Brendan Behan, Jonathan Swift and Michael Collins are all part of the pub's lore — Collins having sought refuge within its walls during the War of Independence.