The Brazen Head dates back to 1198, and is Ireland’s oldest pub. Past patrons include James Joyce, Brendan Behan and Robert Emmet, and more recent clientele include Van Morrison and Garth Brooks. The pub has several rooms to cosy up in, as well as an outdoor drinking area for smokers. Live music plays every night, and the Irish stew is excellent.

Two joined Georgian townhouses create one ‘home’ that becomes progressively more casual the further you move inside: starting with a formal living room and ending with a red-velvet disco in the basement. A massive plant-filled patio in the back with romantically strung light bulbs makes it the perfect place to drink when the weather is good. There is a blue room with velvet sofas in the front for reading, and a deep, dark red room with a fireplace that burns through the summer months as well as a great selection of wines that operate by a brilliant credit system. A place to spend a very long evening in.

Opened by the same owners as the Liquor Rooms, Vintage Cocktail Club was one of the first bars to dominate the resurgence of the cocktail scene in Dublin. VCC’s entrance is a rusty door on Crown Alley – knock and someone will come down and bring you upstairs. There are three very different floors to drink cocktails on, and they seem to get rowdier the higher you go. VCC starts to pick up at around 19:30, so make sure you get there early enough to grab an armchair, seat or sofa.

The speakeasy trend that swept New York and London has reached Dublin, and Liquor Rooms and VCC (below) are proof of its popularity. Here you’ll find an adult playground decked out with four completely different rooms that evoke the decadence of the 1920s – start off in the Mayflower room, which looks like an outdoor terrace, and move into the Black Rabbit to dance under a circus tent. When you’re tired or want to do more than dance, head to the Blind Tiger, where there are plenty of dark corners to get lost in. They’re open until around 4:30AM on weekends, which gives you plenty of time to sample their drinks (they were recently nominated for an International Cocktail Award).

There’s not much not to like at P. Macs. Old friends gather around candlelit tables, drinks are poured with care and everything feels just a little slower than outside. Bag a booth and settle in for the night; it’s the kind of place you don’t want to leave – and we suggest you don’t. Just order a bottle of wine and wait for the enormous portions of comfort food to arrive.

Not that it’s hard to spark up a conversation with Dubliners, but asking where to find the best Guinness is sure to get someone talking. Everyone has an opinion on where to get the best pint in town, but Grogan’s always seems to come out on top. It’s a classic; the Guinness is always creamy and their cheese toasties make for the only accompaniment you’ll ever want.

Follow the bright lights to this bohemian cocktail bar in the town centre. Dark and brooding, order a round of whiskey cocktails and a side of their amazing cheese and potato cakes to help stave off a nasty hangover.

A little like something from the set of Peaky Blinders, Farrier and Draper is a 1920s dive. With antique artwork all the way up to the ceiling and an impressive double-height bar stocking every gin under the sun, endless cocktail opportunities await

With a graffitied facade The Drury Buildings hard to miss. A mishmash of Berlin, New York and Melbourne stylings align across this six story, old rag trade building. A great central spot for post-sightseeing tipple, The Drury Buildings serves up wines, cocktails and craft beer, in vibrant surroundings. It’s best to grab a seat right in the back in the walled heated garden and set yourself up for the night.

Nicknamed “Dublin’s Living Room”, this sophisticated drinking den inside the grand old Shelbourne Hotel has literary ghosts propping up its well-polished bar – Seamus Heaney, Paddy Kavanagh and Brendan Behan were all regulars in days gone by. Sip on the famed Shelbourne Bramble, a gin, raspberry and apple connection, then chase it down with a finger of Method & Madness Single Malt, a fragrant, barley-noted whiskey from one of the country’s best microbreweries. There are oysters here, too, served with a Guinness sabayon.