Palace Bar celebrates 200 years in business

Not only has the Palace Bar witnessed the key events in the last two centuries of Irish history, some of the players in those events found time to have a pint there.

Michael Collins reputedly drank in the Dublin pub, which has just turned 200, making it one of the capital’s older existing businesses.

Opened by John Stafford in 1823, the Palace witnessed the upheavals of 19th-century Ireland, the struggle for independence, economic downturns, recessions and most recently survived the pandemic, which shut the country’s pubs.

Manager Willie Aherne said this was one of the biggest challenges faced since his grandfather Bill Aherne bought the Fleet Street pub in 1946, for a record £26,500.

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“That was challenging,” he said. “I would have been here during the economic downturn, and they were bleak times, and my own father remembers the Dublin bombings, when town was deserted for months afterwards, but we never thought we’d see something like that.”

The pub, like all others, had to bide its time, and then manage limited trading for periods in 2020 and 2021. It did the pizzas and chicken wings, €9 meals and served Irish coffees through an outdoor hatch.

A big priority was to keep the staff working, said Mr Aherne, who pointed out that they mainly stayed with the business.

Trade has recovered well, and the Palace is back to luring its usual mix of regulars, passersby and tourists. “We have a good mix here, our bread-and-butter customers, they’re always important to us, tourists, events and corporate business.”

He noted there was still a lag in customers from offices that have yet to be fully repopulated following the move to homeworking.

Tourists are also a key part of the business, and Mr Aherne argued that it was this industry that helped set the Irish economy to rights following the recession sparked by the financial crisis.

Many of them come not just for a drink, but to admire its interior, the product of a renovation commissioned by Patrick Hall, who took over the Palace from Stafford in the mid-19th century. “He was responsible for the Victorian pub we have today,” says Mr Aherne.

The pub has had some distinguished regulars down through the years, including artist Harry Kernoff, whose work hangs there, and Alan Reaves, whose cartoon, Dublin Culture, commissioned by Irish Times editor RM “Bertie” Smyllie, decorates the rear wall.

The Ahernes, with roots in Rear Cross, Co Tipperary, have had the Palace for three generations. Willie succeeded his father, Liam in the early 2000s.

“It’s a family business,” he said, “and I fell very privileged to be running a Dublin, if not an Irish, institution.”