The Glimmerman is named after the inspectors who used to call to houses to check on gas usage. This was in the time of the emergency ( as the Second World War was known as in Ireland ) when gas was rationed to an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. While some Dublin pubs I have featured are beautiful for their architecture, for the grandeur of the structure, or for their artwork The Glimmerman has turned pub bric-a-brac into a piece of art itself. The Glimmerman in Stoneybatter has long held a reputation for being a very interesting spot for pint, but this collection has obviously been collected and curated over a few decades , culminating in this museum of odd bits and artifacts. Every inch of the pub is covered in photos, paintings, old drink company paraphernalia and just about anything else you can think of. What distinguishes it is the fact that none of the items look familiar or as if they exist in any other pub. There’s whole companies dedicated to recreations of these kind of decorations, decking out pubs around the world with Irish style bric-a-brac. But the Glimmerman looks like a pub that these companies could visit and get ideas for a whole host of new reproductions. Take one wall which is covered in a huge collection of match strike books. Or the bed with likenesses of Maggie Thatcher and Charley Haughey hanging from the ceiling. Bicycles hanging from the ceiling aren’t unique to this pub, but they might be the only pub to have a tandem . I cycle a tandem myself, so I was really happy to see it ,especially on the day Shane and I had completed 100km the Great Dublin Bike Ride and was ordering a well deserved pint ! This is a pub where you can play darts, sit beside a warm fire, take over a cubby with your mates, or just walk around with pint in hand admiring this Dublin oddity. Another one for your bucket list !! For previous blogs check out my website www.gaeliccraicandcuisine.com
Comments