The Brazen Head

Look at the sign on the front: ‘Ireland's oldest pub, established 1198’. It's the most famous line about the place, and also the most debatable. No document backs up that date.

1What the records say

The first reliable mention of a ‘Brazen Head’ on Bridge Street comes in a lawsuit of 1700 that refers to a debt from 1613, when the house belonged to the merchants Richard and Elinor Fagan. The premises got a licence to sell ale in 1661 and is recorded as an inn in 1668. The building you see dates from 1754, a former coaching inn with thirty rooms and stabling.

Excavations next door in 1989 found remains from the 13th century. People lived and worked here very early on, but that doesn't make the tavern medieval.

2Rebels at the bar

Pub tradition holds that the United Irishmen met in these rooms in the 1790s and that Robert Emmet planned his 1803 rising here, before he was hanged on Thomas Street. His ghost is also said to sit in a corner, keeping an eye on the door. Neither claim is documented.

James Joyce mentions the Brazen Head in Ulysses, where a character recommends it as a place to get a decent meal for very little.

3What to look for

• The painted scroll with the 1198 date.
• The cobbled inner courtyard, once the carriage entrance.
• The battlemented entrance wall, which gives the pub the look of a small fortress.