Unfortunately this is one pub you will not be able to visit as it closed doors in 2018. A hotel is now under construction on the site. I'm sure the news broke many a GAA supporter's heart as it was the place to be before the big games in Croke Park... there were also 20 screens throughout the pubs so if you weren't one of the lucky ones holding a ticket this was the place to be. A historic location, there had been an inn or tavern on this site since Medieval times. Way back in 1453 " The Rose Tavern " was used as a meeting place for the French Huguenots's flower sellers ! It also served as a grocery store and a Petty Sessions Courthouse for Drumcondra in the late Victorian times. Named after Big Tree Lane where five men, captured after the 1798 Rebellion, were hung, it's doors opened in the 1890's. It moved with the times though . .. before the era of mobile phones, there were telephones situated around the bar where customers could try their chat up lines if someone caught their eye .. It's tragic that establishments like this have closed. Let's hope that all our other treasured watering holes will reopen their doors soon.
I am posting this piece on The Big Tree following a request from Evelyn Westbrook, whose father, Richard O'Reilly, was employed as a barman for forty years. Sadly he passed in 2010 so this is a little tribute to Evelyn's dad
Jennifer Doyle with her friends crying into her pint after Donegal beat Donegal, 2014 in The Big Tree - "My heart is still broken. A match day just isn't the same without a visit to The Big Tree. Pints before, a handy walk up Jones Road and many pints after. Such great
memories "
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