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THE STAG'S HEAD Notable

1 DAME COURT, DAME STREET, Dublin

Address1 DAME COURT, DAME STREET
CountyDublin
EircodeD02 TW84
Websitestagshead.ie
Opening hoursMo-Sa 11:00-24:00; Su
Licence refS0411
♿ Not wheelchair accessible

🏭 Heritage-listed building

NIAH building record

Built: c.1890 · NIAH rating: Regional

A landmark High Victorian, purpose-built, public house by architect Alfred McGloughlin. Its highly decorated façade retains all original external features. It retains a fine Victorian interior. The Dutch-style gable, oriel and limestone and granite pubfront add considerable architectural interest to the site and the wider streetscape, while the more modest proportions of the building stand in contrast with the larger surrounding buildings. It is one of city's best-known public houses.

🆕 Notable pub

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From the record · Deep research

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 historyMusic historyArchitecture

Revenue's renewed-liquor-licence register lists licence ref S0411 as a Publican's Licence (7-Day Ordinary) for THE STAG'S HEAD at 1 Dame Court, Dame Street in Dublin city, with SHELBOURNE O'BRIEN LIMITED as licensee.[1]

The Dictionary of Irish Architects lists Alfred Ignatius McGloughlin as an architect and architectural draughtsman born in 1863 and died in 1939.[2]

The same Dictionary of Irish Architects entry lists 1895 alterations and additions to No. 1 Dame Court, Stag's Head, for G.W. Tyson, with H. & J. Martin as contractor.[2]

The Irish Times reported in 2005 that the Stag's Head, off Dame Street, sold at auction for EUR5.8 million.[3]

The same report said Louis Fitzgerald bought the pub after seven bidders competed for it.[3]

The Irish Times said Philip Shaffrey sold the Victorian pub after his family had owned it for more than 30 years.[3]

The same 2005 report described the building as a protected structure, built in 1760 and refurbished in 1895.[3]

The Irish Times reported that The Stags Head: Raw gig series returned to the pub's upstairs room on Dame Court in February and March 2013.[4]

The same music notice listed Thomas Donoghue Band, The Niall Toner Band, The Chapters, and Popical Island collective showcase gigs for the 2013 series.[4]

Sources  (4)
  1. Revenue Commissioners · Register of Renewed Liquor Licences · 2026-05-08
  2. Dictionary of Irish Architects · Alfred Ignatius McGloughlin entry · 2026
  3. Irish Times · "Famous Stag's Head pub sells for EUR5.8m" · 2005-05-12
  4. Irish Times · "Raw talent for Stag's Head gigs" · 2013-02-01

PubHub lore

Local notes

Established

Records of a pub on the Dame Court site go back to 1770. The interior visitors see today is the product of a major 1895 rebuild by architect A.J. McLoughlin.

Screen

Featured in *A Man of No Importance* (1994) starring Albert Finney.

Screen

Featured in *Educating Rita* (1983) starring Michael Caine and Julie Walters.

Architecture

A complete late-Victorian survival — stag-themed stained glass, mahogany panelling, etched mirrors, and the eponymous mounted stag's head over the bar. The original advertising mosaic on the Dame Street footpath is still in place.

Regulars

A young James Joyce drank here. Michael Collins — and, more recently, Quentin Tarantino — are part of the patrons' lore.

Reputation

The first pub in Ireland to install electric light and the first in Dublin to have a telephone. The 1895 rebuild was a Dublin sensation and remains an exemplar of late-Victorian pub design.

Community memory

Memory archive

Forum and community traces are labelled separately from verified history. They are starting points for memory-page curation and can be corrected or expanded.

Preliminary trace 1 source lead 1 candidate signal

What survives in the archive

The archive reads less like a single fact and more like a room coming into focus: regulars, roles, habits and social texture are visible, but named stories stay out until a stronger source review supports them.

Archive profile

A remembered room, carefully anonymised

The Stag's Head has a single archive trace where the old archive points toward social texture: regulars, habits, roles, atmosphere and remembered room feel. The public page keeps this as anonymous room memory until source review supports more specific storytelling.

Archive strength

Single archive trace

Memory shape

Life events, regulars and room character and cultural references

Editorial next step

Keep people anonymous; look for corroborated room-memory sources before naming anyone.

No raw forum excerpts or named private-person claims are published from this automated profile.

Life events

A single archive signal suggests the pub appears in personal timelines, occasions, plans or memories people carried forward.

Regulars and room character

A single archive signal points toward the pub as a remembered room of regulars, roles, habits and social texture. PubHub keeps this anonymised until a fuller source review supports named stories.

Cultural references

A single archive signal connects the pub to broader cultural talk, public references or shared points of recognition.

Boards.ie archive trace

A pre-2026 Boards.ie discussion leaves a preliminary community-memory trace for The Stag's Head, around life events, regulars and room character and cultural references. PubHub treats this as a single archive signal: useful for memory-page curation, not as verified fact.

Source links
Boards.ie source leads (1)
  1. What's the real reason Irish pubs don't have more craft beers available? · score 6

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