Nancy Hands Is Not Just An Emoji

On Parkgate Street in the Stoneybatter District sits a 150-year-old bar that was once operated by the first and then only woman to be a barkeep in Dublin and all of Ireland. The innovative entrepreneur lived upstairs. Downstairs is where the action was: a drinking house that served food.

She was fiercely intent on making a living even when the church interfered.

Holy Hour prohibited liquor establishments from serving alcohol from 2 to 4PM on Sundays. It was after all, a day devoted to churchgoing. These types of Blue Laws weren’t limited to Europe and the English Isles. The earliest colonies in this USA had similar practices. Some states to this day practice Blue Laws prohibiting the sale of liquor or even buying a vehicle.

Nancy, though, got creative. She cut a hole in the door of her establishment through which customers could order liquor and she’d push pints out the hole in the door. Only Nancy’s Hands could be seen performing the transaction in the eponymous establishment.

Today Nancy’s Hands is owned and operated by Valance Hospitality. The hole in the door has been covered over by a postal box. Inside, the restaurant serves traditional Irish fare like Beef & Guinness Stew, slow-cooked Robinsons butcher’s Irish beef, with creamy mash, potato farls and butter. Or eat light with the soup of the day and Irish soda bread and butter.

Reservations are recommended. See https://Nancyhands.ie.