Status : Closed 2008
19-20 Princes Dock Street
Belfast
BT1 3AA
What does the phrase “dockside bar” conjure up for you? Probably a damp, dangerous, spit-and-sawdust sort of place, with rough types in donkey jackets and woollen hats at the counter, and unsavoury characters lurking in shadowy corners. Visit Pat’s Bar, right at the gates of Prince’s Dock, and you’ll undergo a pleasant sensation of having all your preconceptions well and truly turned on the head. Here’s a perfectly delightful, clean, well-run and hospitable pub, with a clientele as broad as the pub itself.
The explanation for the breadth of the pub is that it was formerly two bars next door to each other – Pat and Barney’s – which have now been amalgamated into one, but which still have the basic division between them and still run parallel.
As for the width of the clientele, Pat’s Bar attracts the full range – sailors, a few dockers, business people from the various dockside agencies and companies, professional people; a complete business and social spectrum of customers. You may well be wondering why the last sentence mentioned “a few dockers”, but remember that containerisation of freight and cargoes has revolutionised the dock labour situation.
There have been other major changes as well. This used to be a community, a warren of little streets and houses, and an incredible 35 pubs. Now the local population has been reduced to a very small fraction of that, and the number of pubs to 5.
Pat’s Bar, too, has seen many changes. It retains its superb carved beech bar and cabinet showcase, both over 100 years old and in super condition, but the old fishing nets and effects have been removed, and can be seen only in the black and white photos on the walls. Now very smart pinewood furnishings, doors, shutters and hatches make the place fairly gleam, and the red-tile floors are kept bright and clean. Bar lunches are served, and traditional Irish music is a big attraction on Friday and Saturday evenings.
Pat himself is from Galway originally, and has become a legend in Dockside, on account of his warmth of personality, his honest dealing and shrewd handling of business. Over the years he has become so well known to foreign sailors just off the boat with a variety of currencies, that his pub has been at times not unlike a Bureau de Change.
Behind the counter is an intriguing collection of items given to him by grateful sailors, including clogs, swords, tomtoms, maraccas, a telescope and a bayonet, to mention only a few. The road signposts on the walls are clearly from Pat’s own part of the world, Galway 2 and half miles, Headford 4 miles, Portumna 14 miles, Aughrim 10 miles, and so on. Ask where he got them and the answers go like this: “I got the first one 2 and a half miles from Galway, the second one four miles from Headford . . .” Got the idea? Fortunately, you also treat as a joke the sign with the arrow pointing towards the toilets, and reading: “PUBLIC CONVENIENCES IN BALLINTOY 1 MILE.” That’s a relief!