Morten Andersen rates a pub by what it keeps as much as what it changes, and Slattery's of Rathmines has kept the right things. It is a family-run house on the Lower Rathmines Road that still puts a snug, a session and a screen above any notion of a refit.
Slattery's sits at 217 Lower Rathmines Road, a few minutes south of the canal in Dublin 6. The pub trades as a traditional Irish house with original mahogany fittings and tucked-away snugs, the kind of room that built its name on regulars rather than tourists (Slattery's official site). It is the local for a stretch of Rathmines that empties out of offices and lecture halls every evening.
The room is the point here. Dark wood, low light and snugs give it the worn comfort that The Dublin Publopedia ranks among the area's better-preserved interiors, and the screens fold into that character instead of dominating it. The televisions come into their own for GAA Sundays, Six Nations afternoons and the bigger soccer fixtures, when the snugs fill and the bar runs two deep. This is a pub that watches sport rather than a sports bar that happens to pour pints.
What to order leans to the classics done properly. The Guinness is the house measure and the reason most regulars are here, with a pint sitting around the six-euro-fifty mark that holds across this part of Dublin 6. Add a Smithwick's for the red-ale drinker and a Jameson for the walk home, and you have ordered like a local. Morten's note: take the stout, find a snug before throw-in, and let the trad players do the rest.
Who it is for is the supporter who wants the match in a real pub, plus the music crowd. Wednesday and Sunday trad sessions bring some of Dublin's better players, so the same room that shows the rugby at three is a live-music house by nine. It is right for a GAA Sunday, a Six Nations pint or a midweek session, and wrong for anyone after cocktails or a late club. For the wider match-day map, our guide to the best sports bars in Dublin sets the routes.
Best time to go is an hour before a big GAA or rugby fixture, when the snugs go early and the bar settles into the game. A trad night on Wednesday or Sunday is the off-peak reward, quieter on the sport but richer on atmosphere. Avoid expecting a nightclub finish, because Slattery's keeps neighbourhood hours and trades on character rather than closing time.
Regulars prize the snugs and the trad sessions in equal measure, and the pub's reputation rests on staff who know the locals and a room that has dodged the worst of the refit era. The food offering is light, so come for the pints, the music and the match rather than a full dinner.
Slattery's Rathmines is the family-run local that proves a pub can show the match without losing its soul, a snug-and-session house on the Lower Rathmines Road worth the short hop from the centre. For more of the city, start with our Dublin bar guide, and for another characterful Dublin sports room see The Back Page in Dublin.
Sources: Slattery's Rathmines official site; The Dublin Publopedia; Yelp reviews.
