389) The Cedar Lounge of St. Assam’s Road, Raheny, D5

Located amidst a vast housing estate, reached by us after a long battle with the wind and the rain. It is a Beamish bonder, and the Beamish bonds for €4.75. Andy, the critic with the more discerning palette, said his pint was ‘alright’, in spite of numerous stains that bedecked the rim of the glass, some seemingly of lipstick origin, some perhaps more soiled and sinister - better not to know. Is there an upstairs area? Certainly capacious.

Scenes from the celebrated 1993 film The Snapper (directed by Stephen Frears and starring Colm Meaney and Tina Kellegher and Ruth McCabe and the late Pat Laffan and based on the novel by Roddy Doyle which is the middle volume in his epochal The Barrytown Trilogy - but you knew all that already) were filmed in this pub - but there is no trace anywhere of this filmic heritage, not a sprinkling of this celluloid stardust in the form of a still or a photo or a plaque or a sign, try as we might to seek and forever fail to find. Perhaps this is a missed opportunity or maybe a becoming modesty and indifference to the shallowness of showbiz.

Sharon Curley in the Cedar Lounge

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