Now, it’s rarely a good idea to get between two fighting Dubliners.
And never the famous fighting Irish, the emigrees who fled the Famine and built America and its best bars.
The two Dubliners in question here are pubs in Washington DC and Boston.
The Washington Dubliner has been pouring porter (that’s Guinness for the uninitiated) since 1975.
But they got a nasty taste in their mouth in the capital following the recent opening of the Boston Dubliner.
We’ll sue you in court
Records show that they have taken out a law suit against the Bostonians.
Saying: ‘In the suit against the East Coast Tavern Group, filed in US District Court in Boston, the Washington Dubliner, founded in 1975, is asking for the Boston Dubliner, opened last year in the space where Kinsale used to be in Center Plaza, to be ordered to change its name.
‘And pay all the profits it’s made, plus damages and attorney’s fees to be determined by the court.’
Now the Boston Dubliner, like its Irish cousin has a healthy opinion of itself.
With its site boasting that it serves the best pint of Guinness in Boston.
Now I’ve yet to road-test it, preferring, of course to patronise my old stomping ground of The Black Rose.
The Washington version in the Phoenix Park Hotel in for its part has its own brand of whiskey.
Sing for your supper
And that we’ve discovered is really at the heart of the dispute.
Because the Bostonians stand accused of selling that very brand in their bar.
Makes sense as you’d have to imagine that there would be more than two Dubliner pubs on the eastern seaboard.
Because there have been Dubliner pubs from as far apart as Bolivia, Prague and Iraq.
It’s not just drink though where the two Dubliners find a lack of a common ground.
With both claiming the best music.
The Boston Dubliner drawing Dermot Kennedy in to sing there while the Washington bar a fave for its gigs.
We’ll keep you updated when we find out more but hope the two Dubliners settle it over a pint.
Another chapter
As an aside, the most successful Irish trad band of them all, the Dubliners, emerged from a real capital city institution.
O’Donoghues, on Merrion Row, off Grafton Street, where they would play in the snug.
With Ronnie Drew, Luke Kelly et al choosing to name themselves after a James Joyce set of short stories.
Now that’s a tale of Dubliners.