Introduction
The social life of a gay man in Dublin in the early 1970s was summed up as such by one contributor in the book Coming Out (2003):
As for most of us, being gay in those days was a very lonely experience. There weren’t many opportunities to meet gay people, unless you knew of the one bar – two bars, actually, in Dublin at that time, Bartley Dunne’s and Rice’s … They were the two pubs and if you hadn’t met gay people, you wouldn’t have known about these pubs; there was no advertising in those days, and it was all through word-of mouth.
Bartley Dunne’s and Rice’s proved to be critical points of social interaction and first emerged as gay- friendly pubs in the late 1950s and early 1960s. George Fullerton, who emigrated to London in 1968, was quoted in Dermot Ferritier’s book Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland (2009) as saying that:
In 1960s Dublin the [gay] scene basically consisted of 2 pubs – Rice’s and Bartley Dunne’s. I never experienced discrimination as such, probably because we were largely invisible.
Rice’s, South King Street. early 1980s. Dublin Insight Guide (1989)
There are no traces left of either establishment. Rice’s, at the corner of Stephen’s Green and South King Street, was demolished in 1986 to make way for the Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre. While Bartley Dunne’s, on Stephen’s Street Lower beside the Mercer Hospital, was torn down in 1990 and replaced with the Break for the Border pub and nightclub.
On a side note, some people may be surprised to hear that gay taverns in England date back to the 1720s (Molly houses) while more ‘modern’ establishments like Café ‘t Mandje in Amsterdam have been open since 1927.
Many in both the gay and straight community have described Rice’s and Bartley Dunne’s as deserving the title of being the city’s first gay friendly pubs. Why these two particular pubs though?
Most people point to the fact that both were in close proximity to the Gaiety Theatre and St. Stephen’s Green which at the time was a popular gay cruising area.
Paul Candon in Gay Community News (February 1996) labeled Bartley Dunne’s as “the first gay pub as we know it in the city” and also referenced Rice’s. He said there was a total of five regular gay-friendly bars to choose from in the 1960s in the Stephen’s Green/Grafton Street area. The other three being the short-lived Kings (opposite the Gaiety Theatre), The Bailey and Davy Byrne’s, both on Duke Street.
Rosemary Flowers told me via Facebook (20 Oct 2015):
My memories are from the mid 1960s but my dad worked in Renshaw’s opposite Mercer’s Hospital from 1955 and he was aware of the gay clientele in Rices, Dunne’s and The Bailey. In Rice’s. when I knew it, most of the gay men were in the front part. The ‘arty’ crowd mostly stuck to Rice’s and the younger crowd to Dunne’s. The Gardaí for the most part left them alone as they included some very famous names. The odd time they hassled the younger men in Dunne’s. Bruxelles was also a gay -friendly place for soldiers & a recruiting ground for mercenaries who were thrown out of the army. It was a much ‘butcher’ crowd in the Bailey and Bruxelles. Rice’s and Dunne’s had a very middle-class clientele.
Kevin Myers wrote in The Irish Times (18 May 1995) of his student days in UCD in the late 1960s and how he discovered that “Rice’s … (was) in part a gay bar … Bartley Dunne’s was another”. Furthermore Bartley Dunne’s was described as “the most famous and oldest gay bar in Dublin'” by Victoria Freedman in The cities of David: the life of David Norris (1995).
Bartley Dunne’s in 1985. Credit – blogtrotta80s.blogspot.com
One contributor to Coming out: Irish gay experiences (2003) talks about coming up to Dublin in the late 1970s from the country and spending “vast amounts of time in Rice’s, Bartley Dunne’s and the Hirschfield Centre”. Patrick Hennessy made a similar comment on an Irish Times article about the death of early LGBT campaigner in Christopher Robson in March of this year:
Yes farewell to one who fought the good fight back in the days when young and not so young men would come round to the Hirschfeld Centre nervously asking for info. Or sitting in circles exchanging their first tentative views in public about being gay. And then a few weeks later you might see one or two of them sipping a drink in a corner of Bartley Dunne’s or Bobby Rice’s.
The 1971 edition of ‘Fielding’s Travel Guide to Europe’ described “the historic Bailey, entirely reconstructed” as being full of “hippie types and Gay Boys”. It went onto say that neither it nor Davy Byrne’s would be “recommended for the “straight” traveller”.
Bartley Dunne’s, 32 Stephens St Lwr
In 1940, Hayden’s pub (“a well known seven-day licensed premises”) on Stephen’s Street Lower was put on the market after the owner James Bernard Hayden declared bankruptcy. In a related series of events, it was reported in the Irish Press (26 September 1940) that Gardaí had objected to renewing the pub’s licence on the grounds that the premises was not being conducted “in a peaceful and orderly manner'”. It had only closed one day the previous year.
The licence was taken over in August 1941 by Bartholomew ‘Bartley’ Dunne. A native Irish speaker from Kilconly, Tuam, County Galway, he had returned to Dublin after nearly 40 years of living and working in Manchester where had been prominent in the United Irish League and the Banba Branch of the Gaelic League. Bartley Dunne’s pub could “boast a distinguished clientele” in the mid 1940s according to the Nationalist and Leinster Times (23 Nov 1946). Popular with “cross-channel visitors, it frequently affords glimpses of such celebrities” as Dylan Thomas (Welsh poet); Sorley MacLean (Scottish Gaelic poet) and Valentine McEntee MP.
I assume Bartley Sr. retired sometime in the 1950s. He died on 25 June 1961 aged 85. His two sons – Bartley Jr. (known as Barry) and Gerard (known as Gerry) – had been working in the pub for sometime and took it over then. They built up a reputation for stocking exotic drinks from all over the world. Barry later recalled to The Irish Times (07 Sep 1985) that “there was a time when, if a customer wanted a particular drink and we didn’t have it in stock, he got something else for free”. We take it for the granted the range of drinks available in Dublin bars today but Bartley Dunne’s was really a trailblazer. It offered saki, tequila and ouzo before any other place in the city. Mary Frances Kennedy writing in The Irish Times (15 July 1960) was amazed at the range of wines available including Bull’s Blood of Eger (11s 6d a bottle); Balatoni Reisling (10s a bottle); Tokak Aszu (19s 6d a bottle) and Samos Muscatel (11 6d a bottle).
Letter from Bartley Dunne Sr to the Irish Independent (27 Aug 1959)
It would seem that Bartley Dunne’s (known to many as BD’s), which had already been attracting Dublin’s avant garde and theatre crowd, started to become gay-friendly by the late 1950s.
David Norris visited the pub as a schoolboy in his late teens circa 1961/62. In his 2012 autobiography ‘A Kick Against The Pricks’, he wrote:
Towards the end of my schooldays I started to explore a little. I had a kindred spirit in school and we occasionally visited a city centre bar called Bartley Dunne’s which was a notorious haunt of the homosexual demi-monde. It was an Aladdin’s cave to me, its wicker-clad Chianti bottles stiff with dribbled candlewax, tea chests covered in red and white chequered cloths, heavy scarlet velvet drapes and an immense collection of multi-coloured liqueurs glinting away in their bottles.
The place was (full) of theatrical old queens, with the barmen clad in bum-freezer uniforms. While not being gay themselves, as far as I know, the Dunne brothers were quite theatrical in their own way. Barry would hand out little cards, bearing the legend ‘Bartley Dunne’s, reminiscent of a left bank bistro, haunt of aristocrats, poets and artists’. Whatever about that, Saturday night certainly resembled an amateur opera in full swing. There only ever seemed to be two records played over the sound system: ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’ by Edith Piaf, and Ray Charles’ ‘Take These Chains From My Heart’.
Advertisement for Bartley Dunne’s in 1916-1966 Sinn Féin booklet (1966).
Brian Lacey in his excellent book Terrible Queer Creatures: A History of Homosexuality in Ireland (2008) noted that among the many characters that frequented the bar was the then virtually unknown Norman Scott, whose 1960s affair with Jeremy Thorpe (later to become leader of the British Liberal Party) forced him to resign from the party in 1976. Scott lived in a flat near Leinster Road while in Dublin. Ulick O’Connor mentioned in his diaries that Scott also had a long relationship with an unidentified person prominent in an Irish political party.
Bartley Dunne’s, 1980s. Credit – ‘Bartley Dunne’s Reunion’ Facebook
It was noted in The Irish Times (22 March 1967) that Moscow journalist Lev Sedin, who has visited Dublin a number of times, had recently published a book on Ireland that dealt with politics and economics as well as more “frivolous subjects”. One of these was a lyrical poem about Bartley Dunne’s and his experience there of being consulted on the correct pronunciation of the Russian wines in stock. Sedin recommended the pub to anyone in Europe “who wished to imbibe true culture”.
Daggas (a Swedish student,) Anita Casey, Barry Dunne (the proprietor) and Charlotte Leahy. Outside Bartley Dunne’s, 1967/68. Credit: Charlotte Okonji via FB.
A writer going by ‘Endymion’ in a 1968 Dublin guide book described Bartley Dunne’s as the city’s “most unusual pub'” Its clientele was an “an odd mixture of bohemians and down-to-earth Dubliners [that] creates an atmosphere which would have interested James Joyce.”
Advertisement for Bartley Dunne’s, 1969. Credit – Cedar Lounge Revolution
The pub was described by Roy Bulson in ‘Irish Pubs Of Character’ (1969) as:
one of Dublin’s most unusual pubs with its Continental atmosphere. Well worth a visit to mix with a variety of characters. Ask for the wine list which is one of the most reasonably priced and extensive in Dublin.
Bartley Dunne’s had a “French bistro ambience” with prints on the walls by Cezanne, Monet, and Picasso as well as Parisian theatre posters and photographs of film stars. It was also famous for its dimly lit nooks and crannies. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton drank there regularly in 1965 during the filming of ‘The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’ as did actors Kim Novak and Laurence Harvery when they took time off from filming Of Human Bondage at Ardmore Studios. Noël Coward was another visitor.
Front cover of ‘In Touch’ magazine showing a group of Irish Gay Rights Movement members outside Bartley Dunne’s in 1977. Credit – IGRM 40 Years (facebook.com/igrm40)
Snaps of Bartley Dunne’s, late 1980s. Credit – ‘Bartley Dunne’s Reunion’ Facebook
Gerry Dunne passed away in 1981. Barry continued to run the place up until 1985, when the family put the pub on the market. It was bought by three Irish businessmen based in the U.S.
Bartley Dunne’s, 1984. Credit – Dublin City Photographic Collection.
From around 1985 to its last days in 1990, the pub became the de-facto headquarters for Dublin’s goth, ‘curehead’ and alternative metal scene. Drug-dealing also became more open, and without the Dunne family behind the bar, things seemed to have got even more wilder. The pub had a reputation for all sorts of madness. A massive bar fight took place sometime in the late 1980s after someone objected to a biker driving his motorbike into the pub and asking for a pint. On another note, my uncle John told me it was the first pub in Dublin in which he ever saw someone shooting up heroin in the toilets. A friend Ado has a story (as I’m sure many others have) of being served his first pint there while still in his school uniform!
The pub was sold in July 1990 for a record-breaking £1.7m. It was knocked down and replaced by the super-pub Break for the Border’. Barry Dunne passed away in September 2016. This venue closed and re-opened as Bartley’s in 2019.
Rice’s, 141 St Stephen’s Green / 2 South King Street
While Bartley Dunne’s stood out as an alternative bar with an avant-garde clientele early on, Rice’s seems to have been an unassuming traditional Dublin boozer. There was a pub on this site from at least the 1850s. In the mid 20th century, it was known as the Grafton Bar (1940s), The Four Provinces (mid-1950s) and Eamon Nolan’s (late 1950s). It was taken over by publican Robert ‘Bobby’ Rice in 1960.
Eamon Nolan’s pub, 1950s. Renamed Rice’s in 1960. Credit – Dublinforum.net
It seemed to have become gay-friendly from the early 1960s but while Bartley Dunne’s was a mixed pub, the gay community were sectioned off in the front bar of Rice’s. Tony O’Connell, who started visiting the place in 1965, remembers that if owner “Bobby was on duty and a non-gay couple came into that bar he would usher them into the back lounge, lest they be contaminated”.
Rice’s, undated photograph. Credit – Fintan Tandy (Old Dublin Pubs FB group_
Ireland’s most famous and accepted gay couple Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir – founders of the Gate Theatre – drank in Rice’s as did another famous Irish stage actor, Patrick Bedford. It seemed to attract a more middle-class/theatre gay crowd than Bartley Dunne’s.
Advertisement for Rice’s. Trinity News (13 May 1965)
Bobby Rice, who was married and had an adopted son, was known to be quite camp according to people who have contacted me. His brother Pat worked in the pub as a barman and was well-liked by the gay community. The pub was also extremely popular with students from the nearby Royal College of Surgeons.
Top of Grafton Street with Rice’s in background. Credit – Where Were You?
Former patrons Anthony Redmond and Frank Meier wrote to The Irish Times in January 1986 to lament the closing and the tearing down of the pub. They described Rice’s as having:
great warmth, character and charm and there was nothing garish, brash or kitsch about its decor. If it was a quiet drink or serious conversation you wanted, with the cacophony of raucous music, Rice’s was the place to go to … In the summer Rice’s pub always looked truly beautiful with baskets of geraniums hanging over the windows outside. It was wonderful to drop in for a quiet drink after a peaceful few hours in Stephen’s Green. The staff was always pleasant, especially Billy whose wit and banter was greatly enjoyed by habitutes like myself.
The Rice family later went on to open the Village Cafe in Rathmines. Bobby Rice died in November 2018.
Rice’s, 1984. Credit – @PhotosOfDublin.
Demolition of Rice’s, 1986. Credit – Declan Hogan (Old Dublin Pubs FB group)
Conclusion
From all accounts, the heyday of Rice’s and Bartley Dunne’s was in the 1960s and early 1970s when they were the only shows in town so to speak. They provided a very important early social space for gay men in the capital. Street harassment from the police or drunk revellers was almost non-existent during these years as the gay community was totally ‘underground’.
The 1970s saw the establishment of Ireland’s first gay rights organisations and discos. The Irish Gay Rights Movement (IGRM) was founded in 1974 and the first gay disco soon followed over a health-food store called Green Acres in Great Strand Street with DJ Hugo Mac Manus. In 1979, the Hirschfeld Centre opened in Temple Bar as a gay community centre and began running a disco on the weekend called Flikkers (Dutch word for ‘Faggot’).
Mark, who was on the scene in the early 1980s, told me:
The community centre was the first full-time gay and lesbian venue in Ireland. It housed a meeting space, a youth group, a café, a small cinema and film club and it ran discos at the weekend where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people socialised. It really was amazing and as a lonely lost 18 year old, having this place as a free club where I felt I belonged was essential.
The Viking bar on Dame Street also opened its doors in 1979. Tony O’Connell remembers that this was an important “stopping point on the ‘pilgrimage’ between Rice’s and Dunne’s”. Other popular gay-friendly bars in the 1970s/early 1980s included The Pygmalion (now the Hairy Lemon),The South William (now the Metro Cafe), the Parliament Inn (now the Turk’s Head), the Oak on Dame Street, the Foggy Dew on Dame Street and the Pembroke (now Matt the Thresher) on Pembroke Street. Women-only lesbian nights were held upstairs at the weekend in JJ Smyth’s on Aungier Street in the early 1980s. Davy Byrne’s and The Bailey (particularly Saturday lunchtime) still remained popular.
in The Irish Times in 2013 wrote:
In 1980s Dublin the Bailey, on Duke Street, was a trendy pub to go to on a Saturday lunchtime. The Oak, on Dame Street, was also a happening place. The best-known gay bar was Rice’s, on St Stephen’s Green. Nearby, “the Triangle”, between Peter’s Pub, Bartley Dunne’s and the South William, was an oasis of tolerance.
Dublin’s longest-running gay bar the George opened on South Great George’s Street in 1985 and so the next chapter of Dublin’s gay social life began.
Rice’s and particularly Bartley Dunne’s remained popular with the gay community in the 1970s and 1980s. One blogger (‘eskerriada‘) described Bartley Dunne’s in the 1980s as having “a weird mix of rockers, punks, bikers, students and middle aged gay men”. Though it was widely known that the two places were gay-friendly, the owners didn’t seem to want to attract attention to that.
The Sunday Independent, 11 May 1975
In the above piece from 1975, one proprietor (later to revealed as Barry Dunne) said:
It is known that a certain number of these people come in every now and again. Most people regard it as a bit of a laugh … This is a public house and people have certain rights
Ten years later when Bartley Dunne’s was being sold by the family, Barry hadn’t really changed his tune, telling journalist Frank McDonald in The Irish Times (07 Sep 1985) that the pub did attract a “few who were that way inclined but it was really nothing like the rumours”.
While Rice’s and Bartley Dunne’s were quite different places, some key dates overlapped. Bobby Rice took over Nolan’s in 1960, the same year that the Dunne brothers took over the pub from their father. The Dunne family sold their pub in 1985 while Rice’s was demolished the following year. (Though Bartley Dunne’s was open, under new management, until 1990).
Draught Horse passing a closed Rice’s, c. 1985. Credit – dublincitypubliclibraries.com
Both pubs played an integral role in the development of Dublin’s gay social scene (and as a result probably gay politics) and should be remembered.
If you have any memories, anecdotes, pictures or any related information about Rice’s or Bartley Dunne’s – please leave a comment or get in contact via email.
(Thanks to Tony O’Connell, Mark Irish Pluto, Mark Jenkins, John Geraghty and others for helping with this piece)
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Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Great stuff. Even before its later Goth incarnation, Bartley’s was very punk/ alternative friendly, at a time when an earring (male) could get you refused in many Dublin pubs – or beaten up. Especially so for women, since dyed hair/ punk-y clothing was taken as an invitation to unwelcome attention elsewhere.
Never punk friendly. If you looked like Robert Smith you were sorted.
Lovely piece.
There was an urban myth that there were coins glued to the floor in Bartley’s so men would bend over to pick them up and then you could pinch their arses/slap them on the bum.
There’s a Facebook page dedicated to Bartley Dunne’s, mainly for the crowds of Goths who were regulars there. Some great tales and photos!
I remember going to Bartley’s as a 16 year old in the late 80’s as I knew I would always be served. There I would be, normally on a weekday with my best mate, drinking Ritz Cooler through a straw at the bar, still in our school uniforms, no idea it was a gay friendly bar. Yes, there was pictures of old movie stars from the 30’s and 40’s on the wall, illuminated by red lights, and there were poppers for sale behind the bar, with only a couple of others in the corner, always men, but we never twigged. It was only several years later I overheard someone referring to it as Darkly Bums and put two and two together. Fond memories!
Reblogged this on Brian Finnegan.
It’s a shame that you just fall for the same easy line about “gay men”. There were other gay people then also you know!
Of course there were Buzz but unfortunately not many gay women have spoken about their experiences of 1960s/1970s Dublin. This article focuses on one very specific angle of the social history of the gay community in Dublin, it’s aim was not a comprehensive overall history. Thanks for the comment!
Being a punk on the Green, I was barred from Bartley’s. The only time I remember drinking there was Christmas eve (’87 or ’88). All my friends from college were there. I swore on my parents lives that if the doorman let me in I’d never come back again. So he did. A lot of the crowd were either tripping or on speed, courtesy of the tall skinny black guy whose name I can’t remember any more. I was let in on maybe once or two other occasions, but I have little or no recollection. I drank across the road in the William Tell, the only pub in Dublin city centre at the time that would serve me.
Yes Cormac, there were some great pubs in that area back in the day. Our favourite was the Toby Jug next to the Gaiety. As an aside, my wife brought me to BD’s one evening to show me where she used drink with her friends. Great night I will always remember for the gaiety (no pun intended, it was very light-heated atmosphere). I even had me arse pinched as we were leaving. Never saw the culprit. Halcyon days.
Brilliant article! I remember as teenagers we used to hang around in that area in the late 70s, Advance Records was there. We wandered around after we had bought our records as there wasn’t much else to do. We used to pass Bartley Dunnes and someone would always mention it was Dublin’s only gay bar. It was a world away from our lives. The only times I went there was in 1983 and it was all young people, a mix of of alternatives and ordinary types all drinking before going to a club. I had never heard of Rice’s till this article. As an aside, Micheál Mac Liammóir came to our house in 1976. He was very ‘theatrical’!
Excellent and informative, great research, thank you Sam.
Rices!! I used to drink there ’83-’85-ish, in the back bar. Not quite in our school uniforms, but definitely a big loud bunch of school girls, and our various cling-ons. Had a blast in that place / many fond memories.
[…] Rice’s and Bartley Dunne’s: Dublin’s first gay-friendly bars (Come Here To Me) […]
[…] popular meeting place for gay men in the capital. This predated 1950s and 1960s gay-friendly pubs, Rice’s and Bartley Dunne’s, and was several decades ahead of gay community centres, the Hirschfeld (1979) and pubs, The George […]
I started drinking there about 1981-82 at 14 or 15,could’nt even get served in the Magnet in those days!
Some punks and New wave heads were naturaly drawn to the tolerance of gay bars(I drank in every pub listed above),the bikers were no hassle (did’nt give a fuck)then the more rowdy”hardcore” would come …closely followed the dirtbird/aggro/gaybashers funnily enough,it was a vicious cycle we wanted to opt out of,I think Barry..? liked the glam(rembering the Parisien Bistro/vamp/40’s hollywood vibe),..the clientele jump to Goth/Cure blob later on ,though a little annoying possibley prolonged it’s life.
He / she still looks like he’s 30. Amazing.
Why was it called (in some circles anyway) THE Bartley Dunne’s – as in “I’ll see you in the Bartley Dunne’s. And, up the road, Synnott’s, with Eugene Wilson as brilliant manager, was friendly to all sorts of “theatrical” people in the 70’s.
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I was part of it, arriving in Dublin from County Mayo in 1971. I remember an old fellow from Tipperary, called Stanley taking my virginity, when I was sober at 23, in 1975. — I felt extremely ashamed and so confused for an entire week!
I remember going to Bartleys before going on to ”The Tramps Ball ” in the Mansion House , Such fun. It was the only time I got served as I was wearing make up and looking older …
Great article. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
I have fond memories of Bartley Dunne’s in the late 50s. I remember Barry and Jerry well. In those days the curved corner near the entrance was bagged by the street girls and the rest was occupied by the boys (this was long before the bar was extended). The barman Albert was liked by all the crowd as was Jerry. Barry was a bit standoffish though pleasant enough when he got to know you. There was always two Gardaí outside at closing time. We soon learned that they were there to protect us from queerbashers and not to take our names. There was some well-known actors as regulars as well as writers and artists.P. Bedford (Diamond Lil) haunted the place.
Rice’s didn’t exist in the 50s though there was always upstairs in the Bailey were judges, lawyers and solicitors drank. I had many an invitations to join them on boats at Dun Laeghaire for parties.
Drimnagh Boy
Thanks very much for the comment, I’ve sent you off an email. All the best.
In the late seventies, early eighties, I would sometimes pop in to both pubs with a new girlfriend to show her how ‘broad minded & tolerant’ a person I was!! I never experienced any unwelcome advances or comments & very much always enjoyed a nice quiet & friendly night with my companion in wonderful warm surroundings, an absolute pleasure..
I remember drinking in Bartley dunne’s pub in the mid 80’s,it was an unusual place ,the decor was very like a strip club or something-no natural light -and the bar was long and dimly lit. The thing I remember most about it was that about 10 minutes after (the strictly enforced) closing time they would play a tape recording of a man’s booming voice encouraging everyone to drink up and leave the premises.I can still hear it I presume it was the owner’s voice he had a well spoken English accent ..”Ladies and gentlemen as the bars are now closing,please finish your drinks and move to the front of the bar thank you…the last drinks have now been served please finish up and move towards the doors. ” This loop tape was played at a loud volume and it was so annoying that you couldn’t even finish your conversation because of it and it would drive you out of the place.
Drank there many of time in the 80 it cater more to gay males a lot of the gay women drank down the street in the Toby jug anyone else remember that
THE FIRST GAY MEETING WAS HELD IN TRINITY COLLAGE IN 1960 ,CHAIRED BY DAVID NORRIS , WE WENT TO BARTLEY DUNNES AFTER OUR MEETINGS , THEN WE GO TO RATHMINES TO VISIT MARIA << GAY FRIENDLY HOUSE <<< WE HAD A GREAT TIME , IM NOW 73 YO AND LIVING IN AUSTRALIA ,,,,,,,,HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED TO DAY IN 2016 , FUCKING WOW ,,,,,,,,,,,,BRIAN PEPPARD
Are you sure? According to Wiki David would have been 16 in 1960.
Does anyone know where Tony Ward is otherwise known as “Bridie Ward ”
Austin Mac Nally….email ; mactinherv(at)sfr.fr
Hi Austin Tony’Bridie’ ward passed away some years ago. a wonderful man indeed, regards T
Hello Tony
Thanks for your news about Tony “Bridie” Ward, We used to hang out together, had some really fun times with him ! I cannot see your pic , can you send it to my email directly ? It would be nice to find some more of the “old gang” that used to hang out in BD’s and Rices……I live in France and have done for nearly fifty years. Feel free to send me any news you have , keep in touch
Regards
Austin Mac Nally
Is there anyone who would have any photos of the interior of Rice’s. I was last in the pub just before it closed in 1986 and I can barely remember what it looked like inside. If anyone has any images, I would be very grateful. Obviously if there are people in them, I understand if you want to blur their image, it’s really the interior of the pub I would like to be reminded of.
I was there the day both Rice’s and Sinnott’s were demolished, I’ll never forget it. It was some time in mid August 1986, almost 31 years ago, can’t believe where the time has gone!!
I saw Rice’s being levelled. They used a demolition ball. My memory is that it was a Sunday night as I was standing outside Pizzaland on Stephen’s Green, my usual Sunday night apres pub spot in those days.
I was there too and was outside Richard Alan during the demolition. I thought it was Saturday, 16 Aug 86 and later thought that they should have incorporated Rice’s, Sinnott’s and Brown’s Chemist as part of the entrance, in other words, have one entrance near where Dandelion Market was and the other entrances would have been OK. South King St however has died as a result of the shopping centre.
I remember Bartleys in the 80’s full of Goths skinheads punks etc. All listening to camp tunes and having a great time 😁
Spent every lunch hour in Bartley Dunnes in the late 60s when I was a kid working in advertising in Dublin. It was superb and colourful in a sometimes drab Dublin, left field for a straight like myself and full of most interesting people like photographers Tom Collins, Tony Higgins, lots of models (female) who shall be nameless and later the likes of Barry Devlin, Eamonn Carr, Charlie O’Connor who also worked in the ad biz and who went on to be Horslips.
We had some famous long lunches with the crowd above and great fun too, with many animated conversations full of art and music lore.
I was in there only once or twice much later with Philip Lynott and Frank Murray as by 1972 ‘the crowd’ had drifted to Nearys for no particular reason that I can remember.
When I started going to BD’s in the late 1960s, it was a case of “Oh brave new world!” I wasn’t gay, but the (fairly harmless) slightly decadent atmosphere was interesting and attractive. For a period, I went most Saturday nights (sometimes finishing up in the Manhattan). As a schoolboy with barely the price of a pint going out, I benefited from the generosity of older guys, at least one of whom I knew from a different context. No question of a quid pro quo, but I often had six or seven drinks, rather than the one pint I could afford. The scene wasn’t actually very heavy.
A few years later, I would still go occasionally, partly for the decor, but above all for the huge selection of drinks. My best friend and I would sit at the bar and say, “Give us two pints and two of those..” – something different each time. Would kill me now, but had no ill effects then. I don’t know whether they thought we were a couple, nor did I care, but I don’t think Tony the barman did, from some of the conversations we had. Late in the evening, about ten (which wasn’t so far off closing time in those days), the scene would get a bit heavier (mid to late Seventies) and we would move on, often to meet up with my wife, who was on a shift that finished late. Sometimes went for lunch too, as they had more interesting sandwiches than most places.
Certainly still went there into the early to mid-eighties, occasionally, but have no recollection of the Goth/drugs/biker days mentioned by some here – I must have settled down by then. Remember, sadly, one time i was there with my wife and we met a guy we hadn’t seen for years. He came over and asked me to please not tell any of our mutual friends that we had seen him there, including guys he worked with.
In my time, the closing-time announcement declared that last drinks would be served on the terrace.
Hi Jim, by the way – bought some of your first day of issue covers recently from a German: for Laura (whom you’ve met and to whom you were very good), a Macedonian Turkish barman, and a guy who runs a bar in his native village in the Alpujarra.
– Martin McGarry
Years later and I see this just now Martin, great to hear from you, apologies for the rather late reply. Hi to Laura. Jim.
Does anyone have any up to date contact with Seán Connolly, one of the founding members of Irish Gay Rights Movement (IGRM) in the pre-mid 70s. He was from Roscommon originally and was based in the Trim area. We frequently had lunch in the Kirwan Arms Hotel in Athboy. Lost touch with Seán, when I moved to London in 1976 and would love to resume contact and to know how he is.
Hi Colm – Clem here – Yes – you can contact Sean – sjconnolly1@hotmail.com – clemclancy1@gmail.com
Not sure how this is working Colm but here goes – I’m in regular contact with Sean – contact me
Thank God those days are over. Hiding away. That’s good Catholic Ireland suppress everything
That picture above entitled ‘Demolition of Rice’s’ was not from 1988 but should read 1986 as bit by bit the buildings from the Green Cinema on one side and South King Street on the other were knocked from around 1984 onwards and by the look of that pic, it looks like it was about to be knocked, date was mid Aug 86 if I remember correctly!
thanks very much for the comment Mark, I’ll make that change now.
Hey no problem Sam. I also notice there is a pic above “undated”. By the look of the buildings, I would imagine it was just before demolition in August 1986 as they have South King Street cordoned off.
Seán Connolly, Clem Clancy et alia. The recent notification of Bobby Rice’s death has brought me to re-visit this page and to my ABSOLUTE SURPRISE Clem, your Summer replies to my post at that time , though missed then, is much appreciated and I shall be following up in the next day or two. Clem and Sean, hope you are both well and enjoying life to the full. RIP Bobby Rice and anyone else from that wonderful era in our journey. Colm Ó Súilleabháin, Liverpool 2018.
Thanks to the Moderator for verifying my post for publication. Thankfully, I have been in touch with SC and CC in the past few days via e-mail. Hopefully, we will refresh and reflect on our memories from the Dublin of the mid 70s, which we were luck to experience as friends in an era which most people to-day would not recognise. Nor should they, I guess!!!
Absolute pleasure Colm. Great to see an article bringing old friends back in contact with each other.
Yes, it was a great surprise and we shall all meet up in the New Year when I next go to Ireland.
I went to live in Dublin in 1980 and was in BDs a lot at that time.I worked in Pygmalion directly across the road. My cousin Freda was hired to do the murals for Piggies (as we called it) and we started to drink there. One night the manager was short of staff and asked Freda and me to help collect glasses and then to help clear the bar. I went around shouting “Supp up and Sod off” and it received a lot of laughter so when I worked there it was our catchphrase. I loved BDs as it reminded me of Soho all dark and sticky with all the drinks in the world. The first time I went in with my cousin we were welcomed enthusiastically with none of the misogyny you got in other Gay bars at the time. I love my Dublin years I learned so much about art, music, politics and the good in people that still carries me today. I was in the hospital overnight on 10th Dec and one of my nurses was a gentleman from Offaly with a BDs history we had great craic. And I met some truly wonderful amazing people
What about Tobins Bar near Dawson Street ? That was very popular in about 1973/4/5 I am not sure when it started but I remember being taken there at about that date.
[…] have a particular interest in Rice’s and Bartley Dunne’s and published a long piece on their history in 2013 which I continue to add material whenever I can.Here is the edited diary […]
Great article! Myself and my friends (mostly straight, though a few came out much later, some Cureheads, Smiths fans, generally ‘alternative’ or arty, used to go to Bartley Dunnes when we were 16/17/18. (Mid to late 80s) I don’t know how I ever got past the doorman as I’m only five foot nothing and as a teen I always looked much younger than I was. Funny to read about the exotic drinks list – I remember a friend always asked for odd drinks like Creme de menthe while the rest of us had Ritz or cider. Great, innocent times!!
I spent there in the 70th as the meeting point with friends arring from “the continent’…
it was just the right place to take the first pint to talk with friends, before entering the singing pubs later on…
I tried to find my memories reconstructed via google maps, but didn’t succeed. At the corner, where I supposed the ‘Rice’ having been I discovered a shopping centre, pretty antique looking….
So this website made my memories recvisible.
Thanks for that.
At that times I didn’t recognize a gay atmosphere, fortunately, cause I in fact not amused with gay men nor do I fight them.