The claim
A five-bay Georgian house on Slaney Place, beside the bridge in Enniscorthy, trading as Holohan's and lettered The Cotton Tree. The upper floors are plainly eighteenth-century behind rendered walls; the pubfront below was put in during the 1970s. Live music and a long bar. The owners have published their own research into the house's earlier life as the Bear Inn, and into Séamus Rafter, the Enniscorthy Volunteer commandant of 1916.
What the records show
The owners have published their own research, which concludes that the Bear Inn stood here by the 1740s. It points at real documents: the Bear Inn is named in reports of the 1743 Annesley inheritance case, and Sir Vesey Colclough's use of it as a meeting place appears in evidence to a Commons select committee on the Enniscorthy election of 1793. We have not read either against the originals, and the identification of that inn with these premises rests on the pub's account, so no earliest documented date is recorded here. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage dates the standing house 1765-1785, records its original use as a house rather than an inn, and dates the pub front to about 1975 — later than the claim, and so unable to carry it. That makes this a C. The research itself names what would settle it: the 1785 survey of the Earl of Portsmouth's Enniscorthy tenants, on microfilm in the National Library of Ireland, would say who held the Bear Inn. Enniscorthy's own case is a reminder of why Irish dates are hard — the owners list the 1798 rebellion and the burning of the Public Record Office in 1922 among the reasons the paperwork is gone. The present trade, which had never been confirmed from a dated source, is on the state's list: Revenue's register of liquor licences renewed for 2025/2026, standing as at 2 September 2026, carries a seven-day ordinary publican's licence at Slaney Place, Enniscorthy, County Wexford, under reference WXP0364, held by Niall Holohan in his own name and trading as Holohans.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1740 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1775 | Present building | https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/15603108/holohans-slaney-place-enniscorthy-enniscorthy-wexford |
What to look for inside
- The owners publish their own documentary research into the house as the Bear Inn
- Linked by the pub to Séamus Rafter, who led the Enniscorthy rising of 1916
- The Annesley inheritance case of 1743, said to lie behind Stevenson's Kidnapped, touched a Bear Inn in the town
Visiting
Holohan's is in Enniscorthy, Ireland, at 3 Slaney Place, Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Y21 PX26. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- holohans.ie/holohans-pub-formally-known-as-the-bear-inn-history-and-ownership-prior-to-1900/
- www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/15603108/holohans-slaney-place-enniscorthy-enniscorthy-wexford
- www.openstreetmap.org/node/3045709850
- www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/information-about-revenue/statistics/excise/licences/liquor-licences.aspx
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
