14Irish HospitalityConn O’Cuinn’s bar was set in the basement of a Victorian red brick Catholic church. The building was adorned with a confusion of architectural styles: a half-collapsed cupola extended the roofline, cream-colored columns guarded the front door, while gargoyles peered down from the corners of the roof. The church itself had long since been boarded up to save it from the ravages of vandals, street gangs, and squatters.
The narrow side street and a pair of smaller wooden double doors, which echoed the Gothic arch of those at the front, provided access to the club. They stood at the bottom of a short steep flight of gray stone steps which reeked of urine. Only a couple of decorative half-moon windows vertically intersected with solid metal bars, and a face-high steel grill
