The ParkBar

The Park Bar has stood on Francis Street beside St Eugene's Cathedral since 1899. Joe McDermott bought the pub in 1985, already running the nearby Phoenix Bar on Park Avenue with his brother-in-law Pascal Harper, and the Park has stayed under family control through the Troubles and since, now run day to day by his sons, including licensee Niall McDermott. Inside, the pub keeps a lounge for private functions, television sport, a weekly quiz and an Irish cultural night, with its stout regularly singled out by reviewers as among the best pours in the city. As a free house, bought and run outright by one family since 1985, it sits outside any brewery or pub company ownership.