The village of Drumcondra was the central area of the Parish of Clonturk. Its hub was at the intersection of Drumcondra Road and Church Avenue (where the oldest church in the district, Drumcondra Church, is located). Several notable people including Georgian-period architect James Gandon are buried in the adjoining graveyard.
First licensed in 1690, the site of the Cat and Cage Pub (established in 1750) is one of Dublin’s oldest surviving coach houses. Also an old postal stop, it was the point at which rebels, during the 1798 rebellion, seized a postal cart in order to signal to others in north County Dublin to revolt. (Insurgents from the United Irishmen's 1798 rebellion were supposedly hung from a tree in the grounds of Drumcondra House).
In the Leslie collection of films from the 1960s one can view the Cat and Cage (then owned by Michael O'Dwyer) in its former glory, before it became a gastro pub. On this old film posted on YouTube, one can recall the old pub signage, watch a man 'mulling his pint', and also see traces of its function as a coach-house in this old footage.
The Cat and Cage is possibly the best-known pub in Ireland. Until recent years, it was a favourite watering hole of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, a native of Church Avenue.
