Brennan's Criterion Bar

The pub opened for business on Saint Patrick's Day, 1900. Owners James and Catherine Ward bought a former guesthouse and converted it to a pub.[1] In 1933 the Wards' daughter, Mary, married James Brennan, who remained behind the bar until 1981 when his two daughters, Nan and Patricia, took over the business.[1] Nan worked while Patricia cooked (or so Nan told The Irish Times shortly before her death).[1]

Part of the pub's appeal in its latter years was its lack of television, internet, and other modern conveniences (including live music), as well as its ban on swearing.[2] Even professional musician and songwriter Phil Coulter, encouraged one evening to sing "The Town I Loved So Well", was not allowed to get away with breaking into song.[1] In May 2015, TheJournal.ie named it on its list of "18 of the greatest Irish pubs that tourists (mostly) don't know about", stating: "Retreat here and find peace."[3]

In 2013, Brennan's was featured in an RTÉ documentary, The Irish Pub.[4] In March 2016, a reporter with The Boston Globe wrote a feature on the pub.[5] In 2017, the sisters appeared together in a screen advertisement for Guinness.[2] Nan's death in her early eighties[1] in mid-August 2017 was reported in the national media.[2] An elder sister, Cait, was reported to still be living in Dublin, while a younger brother, Seamus, had died in 2007.[6] Following Nan's death, Patricia (in her late seventies at the time her sister died)[2] closed the pub. It shut its doors for the final time on the night of Sunday, 30 September 2018.[7]