The new Lounge Bar at the legendary Four Courts Hotel, Inns Quay, as it appeared in the Irish Independent of 19 October 1940.

The accompanying write-up describes the hotel as

‘the favoured rendezvous of many whose name and fame have passed into history… a landmark second only to Nelson Pillar… Within its confines eminent judges relaxed; brilliant legal advocates sojourned, and tired jurors discussed – in whispers – the pros and cons of many great trials.’

Seductive words, and one famous wordsmith who may have been seduced by them was poet Paddy Kavanagh, who, despite living only a half-hour’s stroll away, chose to stay at the Four Courts Hotel during his unsuccessful libel proceedings against the Leader in the 1950s…