McDaids Bar

McDaid's is a classic, traditional Dublin pub situated on Harry Street just off Grafton Street and across from the Westbury Hotel. ‘I am a drinker with a writing problem’…the words of one infamous McDaids patron, Brendan Behan, and if ever there was a quote to raise an ironic smile then this was it. McDaids is now considered one of the most iconic Literary Pubs of Dublin not least thanks to Brendan, but it wasn’t always so. In fact McDaids only became established as a true haunt for literary types after John Ryan, editor of the now defunct, Envoy magazine, began to attract all manner of writers and journalists here back in the late 1930’s. The building that houses McDaids can be traced back to the late 18th century and is reputed to have housed the City Morgue. It took on it’s more ecclesiastical features when it was taken over by the Moravian Brothers some time later. They developed the practice of standing their corpses in a vertical position and it’s suggested this may be the reason for the very high ceilings in the pub. It went through a litany of owners including John Nolan who had the pub at the turn of the 20th Century and it was known as William Daly’s Bar before John McDaid purchased the pub in 1936.