Dublin has always been a city of meetings. Lovers, rebels, poets and strangers have crossed paths on O'Connell Bridge for over two hundred years, and one meeting, quiet, discreet and utterly against the rules, changed the course of Irish history.

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Katharine "Kitty" O'Shea was a woman of wit, warmth and quiet courage. Charles Stewart Parnell was the most powerful political leader in Ireland, the man fighting for Irish self rule at Westminster. Their relationship began in secret in the early 1880s, and for years it was one of the worst kept secrets in Dublin, whispered about in parlours, pubs and along the quays. When it finally became public, it brought down a political giant, yet it never dimmed the affection the Irish public held for their story. Theirs was a love that defied convention, at a time when Dublin itself was fighting for its own future.

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We named our pub Kitty O'Shea's for their story belongs to this city, and to this bridge in particular. O'Connell Bridge has always been where Dublin meets. Northside meets southside. Locals meet visitors. And for us, it is where people will continue to meet and relationships will continue to grow. 

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That is the spirit we have built Kitty O'Shea's on. A place where Dublin meets. We celebrate the spirit that Ireland gave the world, a nod to Parnell's own love of good company and great conversation. Our traditional bar keeps the music, the stories and the welcome alive, the way Dublin pubs always have. The Writers Room upstairs nurtures our culture of storytelling to stay very much alive and outside, at the foot of the bridge, on the very spot where thousands cross the Liffey every single day, we raise a glass to everyone still meeting here, still falling for this city, the same way Kitty and Charles once did.

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Kitty O'Shea's. Where Dublin Meets.