Dublin Ireland - Finding the Gravedigger's Pub

So the evening started something like this: we'd been out all day in Dublin, sampling Guinness, viewing the sites, breathing the dust, pollen, and general dirt. Dublin is a dirty city. It is small, busy, and old, but like an old Irish farmer, rises every morning and shakes the dust off and gets back to work. We arrived back at the B&B tired, dirty, and thirsty.

All that sampling makes you thirsty for more. We asked Audrey, our hostess, where another good pub might be found. We'd been to Fagan's (highly recommended) several times already and once to the Cat and Cage up the road (not recommended). She said that we must try the Gravedigger's Pub, not too far away, for a lovely pint. She described how it backed onto a cemetery, and the gravediggers went there for a pint after their shifts, as did mourners after services. Evidently, there is a hole in the wall between the pub and cemetery, and a shovel is passed through the hole and returned with pints upon it. She said it was easy to find and gave us specific directions. It was at that point that I knew we were doomed. When you receive specific directions in Ireland, there is little chance of finding the place.

We set out in the car, armed with a Dublin city map and the specific directions (I believe they were left, then right, right, then left, and straight on, and there it is). We made the first left, and then the right was questionable. The road veered to the right, but was it a true right turn or just a jog in the lane? The road also jogged left and straight. We wandered through a maze of streets and returned back several times to the B&B to start again. As the thirst increased, tempers shortened. My wife gave up and went silent. As we had no address, the map was of little use. Our son Josh took over watching for signs, examining the useless map and making remarks like, "that street looks familiar, again"?

After covering every possible permutation of the directions, we still had not spotted anything resembling the Gravedigger's Pub. I pronounced the final verdict. It doesn't exist; it is a ruse to get the Americans out of the house and lost. We then speculated that the pub did exist but had vanished and reappeared a la Brigadoon. Perhaps it was only visible to Irish eyes, and everyone else saw an unappealing butcher shop or other useless storefront. We stopped at the next pub we saw, walked in, collapsed in the nearest booth, and played several games of cribbage while downing successive pints of the black stuff. It was a fine pub but paled next to the lofty expectations painted in glowing terms by our hostess.

The next morning, over a hearty Irish breakfast, Audrey cheerily asked how the pub had been, and was it just as she described? I snarled something about the lack of its existence, and were we sent on the proverbial snipe hunt? Audrey, true to her nature, doubled over in laughter, leaving us none the wiser.

On arriving back home, I did a web search for the Gravedigger's Pub and found that it indeed did exist. Several statements concerned me, however, one being this one:

"Well-known pub in Dublin. Sort of place you go to after work with your mates. Pints are priced average and taste good. Can be hard to find at times. All in all, I would rate this pub as worth a try.
Andrew, Dublin"

Did you catch that? Can be hard to find at times? Does it move, vanish, or change in some way? Our fears are confirmed, and I have little hope of visiting it the next time I'm in Dublin. The fact that it is also known as Sean Kavanagh's and is most likely signed that way doesn't help. I could find no directions or pictures on the web, either, so its transitory nature stands confirmed.

Gravedigger's Pub (Sean Kavanagh's), 1 Prospect Square, Glasnevin (+353 1 605 7700)
http://www.dublinpubscene.com/thepubs/seankavanaghs.html