21 Malone Rd, Belfast BT9 6RU
Since 1950, this bar has been owned and managed by the Mooney family (Cathal) whose family also owns The Dunadry. This is very popular with local businessmen and academics. It’s very small with stable-like dividers, blue upholstery with pink and white dots and mosaic copper-like table tops. Nearly always packed, it’s certainly not the place for a private tete-a-tete. Large black and white photos of customers adorn the wall and they include Siobhan McKenna (born in St. James’s Road in 1923), Brian Ferran, T.P. Flannagan, John Hewitt, Raymond Piper, Seamus Heaney, Karl Mullin and Michael Longley to name just a few. Adorning the walls around the lounge and a second bar are the fine portrait drawings of local stage and literary heroes by probably Northern Ireland’s finest artist… Raymond Piper. They include Joe Tomelty, J.G. Devlin, Kenneth Jameson, Sam McAughtry, David Hammond, Billy Bingham, Ted Hickey, and the owner himself Cathal Mooney.
This small Bar, although modern in design, is agreeably unpretentious and makes an interesting change from most. The Mooney family also owns The Dunadry Inn (originally an old Linen Mill), on the road to the airport… the new long glass conservatory is very tastefully designed and furnished and well worth a visit.