131) Blackbird of Lower Rathmines Road, D6

A funky, retro, hot shot hipster spot. It opens late but doesn’t exactly sing in the dead of night. Over the years, this building has gone through several incarnations of varying dreariness, named, depending on your decade, Brady's, Quinn's, or the Rathmines Inn (in which guise former Corrigans regular Bernard Michael Palmer sometimes worked as a bouncer for drinking money). Its current facelift, however, would appear to be its happiest. Dark and atmospheric, heightened by melting candles, an open fire, complementary crisps (you’ve already paid for them as part of their exorbitant price for drink), a wall-sized still of Kubrik’s The Shining, and an array of board games for the bored or the juvenile or the 'delayed adolescent'. Model aircraft from the Star Wars franchise which hang from the ceiling strengthen this claim. A couple of false snugs can be obtained – a private space but detached from the bar. Especially fine at sunset when the light drips through in radiant hues of gold or scarlet. The pub functions almost as a millennial-friendly Bernard Shaw for the D6 crowd, but without the excess overcrowding and overpricing that is the bane of the other bar over the canal, plus a far friendlier staff who reward regulars with significant deductions and not infrequent freebies.

A pair of really nice chilled out guys with absolutely no interesting or controversial opinions about anything whatsoever

Beauty and affability seem to be key job qualifications for the barmaids. Benign barman Sean O'Neill (formerly of the former Sweeney’s) now works here. The infamous Mick Pyro, of the Republic of Loose, was once seen on a bench in the beer garden. He asked Andrew Stephens to mind his bag while he ran outside to buy skins for the hand-rolled cigarettes he chain-smoked without cease. A brush with greatness. But was Mr. Stephens tempted to sneak a peak over the contents of said bag which belonged to such a bona fide rockstar? Much like Mr. Spooner who never peeps on sex, I don’t peep in bags.

Mr. Spooner (J. Gielgud) is not peeping on sex, he is instead peeping on Mr. Hirst (R. Richardson) as he blurts out the play’s title (No Man’s Land) before keeling over drunkenly

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