Is Molly Blooms brat? That is the question we ask as, for the first time, I enjoy the splendor of this Joycean-themed Boozer in Dalston. Having lived around the area for many years, I had never ventured in to Mollys as I lived equidistant to the fabled Auld Shillelagh which fulfilled all my local Irish pub needs. But now, with a renewed sense of adventure, we drop in to see the lay o’the land.

Loyal followers will clearly remember that this is not the first pub named in honor of our nations most prominent fart fetishist; Jamie James Joyce  .There was one in Athens, before the mighty Acropolis . And the second, located appropriately on the border between monkey-laden microstate Gibraltar and the town of La  Linea de Concepcion, birthplace of our eponymous heroine.

And while it differs slightly from the craddle of democracy, to its credit Dalston remains unappologetically  Dalston, and no amount  of corporate sheen can change that. I see they’ve even  tried to open a Pret . A+ for effort.  Molly’s is a rough n’ ready locals pub, and I hear strong west of Ireland accents from the local clientele, who must have been boozing here for manys a year.

“Is Molly Bloom’s brat?” I ask the diminutive yet formidable  landlady.
“You want a pint of what?” she anwers . She can’t hear me over the extremely loud Charity Shield match taking place. I try again ….

“Is it ..what?? No, you can vape outside my darling”
Unperturbed , we take our Guinness outside to the streets, Mollys vivid colorscheme standing proud among the nearby chickenshops.

I chat to Connor, 82, a retired roofer from Waterford ,on  whether Molly is indeed brat. ” Well” he begins” that would depend. Stylistically, the similarities are apparent ; the colorscheme , the defiance, the devil- may – care cavalier attitude, but remember , the original Molly Bloom was herself  a complex character, modelled on Penelope, a singer of reknown it’s true, her infedelities well reported, yes.
But a word of warning” he adds “By tying this article to what is essentially a silly season filler trend, you stand to age this story once people have moved on and it veers into cringe, which it inevitably will, yes?”

By the door , there is a portait of the artist as a young man : this being Dalston though, appropriately he looks as if he’s consumed a heroic dose of chemicals , his dilated pupils leering into your soul like he’s climbed up your drainpipe to gawk in through your window. Pint was fine, yes.