McCloskeys

This is a very nice pub in donnybrook! Please do order an ice tea here! It’s selfmade and very good!

Good local pub pints are decent and staff are good the best pub in donnybrook for beer

For the past 6 years or so, a big crowd of us would go to play some Ultimate Frisbee on Mondays in Summer, and we’d retire to McCloskeys afterwards for some liquid refreshments.
The owners have always been really nice and polite to us, despite being very loud and very smelly. They even gave us free chips and sausages.
The pints are good value and good quality. They do excellent ham & cheese toasties, and the alcoves are comfortable and warm. The pub is pretty much entirely made of alcoves, so you can always get a comfy seat.
They have a garden out the back too, which is pleasant to sit in on long summer eves.

I rather like this place. Relaxed atmosphere, friendly bar staff — a nice neighborhood local. Want to meet some old folk who like to enjoy a pint or two? — this is your place. It is cozy and comfy — a mix between a pub and a living room.

This rather run down (in a good way) or should I say authentic old Donnybrook haunt has gained a certain notoriety of late due the patronage of one Shane MacGowan — presumably when not growing his own veg (see RTE for details). If that sounds like a far fetched idea for a TV show then one might suggest the idea was formulated here for McCloskey’s is also frequented by several of the staff of the national broadcaster.
A long lounge with comfy seats dominates the interior and is has a well lit and well populated smoking area at the back with garden seating. So if you want to step out of the hullabuloo of D4 this could be for you.

McCluskey’s will never change and I firmly believe that. The have had the same hanging baskets of flowers and the same unorthodox and, potentially, once cool 1980s looking art prints on the wall.
Some innovation into pub grub which is good for lunch and a much discussed new coffee machine have gone into effect (Tom, the head barman, now makes a mean cappuccino.) Beyond this, I believe they do replace the carpet once every quarter of a century but that’s pretty much it.
The pints here are affordable the staff are loyal to the establishment and exceptionally friendly to customers, potentially out of boredom, and if you frequent the pub for more than a couple of days a month they will know you by name in no time.
Just the type of relaxing neighbourhood pub that lazy Sunday afternoons were built for. It has a large, half sheltered beer garden with a pond that is perfect for summer and for smoking in the rain, and cosy snugs and couches for colder winter evenings watching sport.
Five stars for good pints, a quiet atmosphere and an almost belligerent adherence to tradition.

As one of the few pubs in Donnybrook in which it is actually particularly enjoyable to have a drink in, McCloskeys is somewhat unique. It’s still in Donnybrook obviously, so there are still a few of the rugger crowd about of an evening, but nowhere near as bad as the loathed Kielys.
Nice and long and narrow (which is my preferred layout for a pub), with plenty of little alcoves and snugs along the way to the back, where one will discover a surprisingly long beer garden, given that McCloskeys is a very old-​fashioned style of pub.
There is an off-​licence attached to the pub, and in the good old days of sane alcohol legislation, you used to be able to get drink fairly late after last orders (providing that you were a bona fide customer inside the doors by closing time), but Lenihan’s wingnuttery will surely have put paid to that.
If you are in the area of Donnybrook, McCloskeys is easily the best watering hole to be had.

McCloskeys, like Kielys is a bit of a Donnybrook institution. Great local boozer and off licence, Donnybrook has changed so much, cool to see McCloskey’s staying the same with its dark and cosy interior and small terrace, before giganto beer gardens became the norm.
Theres also the friendly staff who know all their regulars and most of the locals.
It’s still busy at lunch despite Café Java and Donnybrook Fair on either side of them.