In the town of Athlone (County Westmeath, Ireland) is a very famous pub with the rather unassuming name of Sean’s Bar. The establishment is routinely claimed as the oldest pub in Ireland – confidently dated to 900AD – “and perhaps soon The Oldest Pub in the World.”
Now, there are many pubs which assert to be the oldest in a particular town, county, or country… but to lay the groundwork to be the most ancient pub on Planet Earth is quite another thing. This is a building that has been long overdue for investigation by the Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog.
The Claim
It is proudly claimed on the pub’s website that an inn was founded by Luain Mac Luighdeach at a ford over the River Shannon in 900AD. A settlement then grew up around the pub and this became Áth Luain (the Ford of Luain), later Athlone. It is alleged that the public house, now known as Sean’s Bar, has been serving drinks to locals and travellers continuously since Luain started trading.
Signage at Sean’s Bar claiming 900AD as the date of foundation (Image Credit: Matthewvetter / Wikimedia Commons)
By way of verification, it is stated that: “Sean’s Bar has a detailed and documented history right back to 900AD. During renovations in 1970, the walls of the bar were found to be made of “wattle and wicker” dating back to the ninth century.” Furthermore, it is noted that Sean’s Bar was “researched thoroughly” by Guinness World Records and still holds the record for “The Oldest Pub in Ireland”.
The claim is uncritically repeated across the internet by varied organisations including news outlets, clickbait social media sites, and tourist guides. This all sounds as if it is a cut and dried case with some excellent sources to verify the claim… but is any of it true?
Screengrab of a Twitter post from October 2023 made by @historyinmemes, at the time followed by over 3 million accounts, which claimed that Sean’s Bar dates to 900AD.
Foundation of Athlone
The history of the foundation of Athlone is perhaps more complex than Sean’s Bar might claim. Although the placename Athlone is correctly stated to derive from “the ford of Luan” nothing is actually known about Luan, let alone whether he founded a pub on the site. Neither is it precisely certain whether the settlement existed by 900AD.
There is some evidence for activity along that part of the Shannon during the Bronze Age and The Old Athlone Society have noted that the presence of several early Christian grave slabs which may indicate the location of an unrecorded monastery in the locale. However, the town probably developed from 1129 after the construction of a bridge and castle for Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair of Connacht. These structures were later replaced in the early thirteenth century for John de Grey, bishop of Norwich and Justiciar of Ireland for the English crown. Such urban developments, found in close association with the foundations of castles and bridges, occurred often in mediaeval Ireland and this seems a reasonable suggestion for how the town of Athlone originated (O’Keefe 2021, 39, 41-43, 46-47,128-29).
Athlone Castle (Image Credit: Olliebailie / Wikimedia Commons)
Meanwhile, it is claimed by Sean’s Bar that the pub and settlement came first and that the castle was built many centuries later. However, literally nothing beyond the personal name is known about Luan, let alone that he set up a pub in 900AD. Given the sparsity of evidence for early development it seems more likely that the bridge and castle led to the settlement in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Significantly, there is not “a detailed and documented history right back to 900AD” for either the town or the pub.
The Building
So, if the documented history cannot take us back to 900AD, what can the structure of Sean’s Bar tell us? The pub notes that: “During renovations in 1970, the walls of the bar were found to be made of “wattle and wicker” dating back to the ninth century.” This claim was confirmed by Declan Delaney, manager of Sean’s Bar, on 7 February 2018 in The Journal when he reported that: “The history of the pub was only discovered in 1968 when local man Sean Fitzsimons purchased the bar and carried out renovations.”
Wattled wall from Sean’s Bar (Image Credit: Matthewvetter / Wikimedia Commons)
The problem here is that the fabric of the building is claimed to date to the ninth century, and this is repeated from one website to another, but no archival or archaeological evidence is ever offered as the root source of the information. Instead, the listed entry for Sean’s Bar on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (administered by the Irish state’s Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage) notes that the current standing building was constructed c 1725 as a coaching inn which was known as The Three Blackamoors Heads by 1738. The record goes onto confirm that renovations were indeed carried out c 1970 but, instead of finding ““wattle and wicker” dating back to the ninth century”, the walls in question were dated to the seventeenth century. That is a potential exaggeration of at least seven centuries.
Therefore, Sean’s Bar may not have any confirmed records taking its foundation back to 900AD and it appears as if its extant fabric is not that old either.
Guinness World Records
Sean’s Bar is not alone in boasting that Guinness World Records have included them as an entry for the category of oldest pub in a particular country. In England, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks at St Albans (Hertfordshire) and the Bingley Arms at Bardsey-cum-Rigton (West Yorkshire) both make similar claims. The issue with the contention is that Guinness World Records no longer maintain a category for oldest pub… anywhere. Although they may once have done so, their website is now completely empty for such a category. They have even confirmed this via their official social media account.
Sean’s Bar certificate from Guinness World Records (Image Credit: Serge Ottaviani / Wikimedia Commons)
Given that Guinness World Records no longer monitor the category of oldest pub, Sean’s Bar might no longer officially hold such a title. This is somewhat ironic as Guinness World Records were originally set up by an Irish brewery to settle pub arguments… yet they are now unable to identify the oldest pub in Ireland.
The Oldest Pub in Ireland
Given that Sean’s Bar is probably a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century building, which does not appear to have any documented records dating it to 900AD, and it is no longer a Guinness World Record holder, it seems unlikely that the pub is still officially the oldest in Ireland.
Several other pubs in the country make claims to antiquity and are listed on various news and travel websites. However, in common with the claims made by various pubs in the United Kingdom, a level of detailed research to back up the boasts is often lacking. For example, the Brazen Head in Dublin is usually cited as dating to 1198, yet the building is entirely of c 1755 or later.
The Brazen Head, Dublin (Image Credit: psyberartist / Wikimedia Commons)
Perhaps any attempt to identify the oldest pub in Ireland is doomed to failure. Instead, lets ignore the blarney and enjoy the craic… Sláinte!
References
O’Keefe, T., 2021, Ireland Encastellated, AD 950-1550 – Insular Castle-building in its European Context. Four Courts Press. Dublin.
Header Image: Sean’s Bar at Athlone by Serge Ottaviani / Wikimedia Commons
Postscript
Given the risk of coming across as an Englishman having a pop at Irish pub history three points should be made:
- The author of this article has Irish ancestry.
- He was educated at high school by Irish members of the Congregation of Christian Brothers.
- He has written extensively to debunk the ancient claims of many English pubs too!
About the author
James Wright (Triskele Heritage) is an award-winning buildings archaeologist who frequently writes and lectures on the subject of mediaeval building myths. He has over two decades professional experience of ferreting around in people’s cellars, hunting through their attics and digging up their gardens. He hopes to find meaningful truths about how ordinary and extraordinary folk lived their lives in the mediaeval period.
He welcomes contact through Twitter or email.
The Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog blog is the basis of a forthcoming book – Historic Building Mythbusting – Uncovering Folklore, History and Archaeology which will be released via The History Press on 6 June 2024. More information can be found here:
