The Bleeding Horse is a historically significant public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 located in Upper Camden Street, Dublin, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

.
It dates at least back to the 17th century, and was located on St. Kevin's Port (now Camden St.) at the junction of two important highways leading out of the city. On one side was Charlotte St., leading to Ranelagh

Ranelagh

Ranelagh is a residential area and urban village on the south side of Dublin, Ireland. It is in the postal district of Dublin 6. It is in the local government electoral area of Rathmines and the Dáil Constituency of Dublin South-East.-History:...

 and Donnybrook

Donnybrook

Donnybrook may refer to:Placenames* Donnybrook, Dublin, Ireland** site of the original Donnybrook Fair***donnybrook is a brawl - named for the fair** Donnybrook Stadium, Ireland, a rugby union stadium...

; on the other side was Old Camden St., which joined Richmond St. and led to Rathmines

Rathmines

Rathmines is a suburb on the southside of Dublin, about 3 kilometres south of the city centre. It effectively begins at the south side of the Grand Canal and stretches along the Rathmines Road as far as Rathgar to the south, Ranelagh to the east and Harold's Cross to the west.Rathmines has...

 and Cullenswood. Both of these old streets disappeared during the renovations in the 1990s. The present building dates from 1871; the interior was renovated in 1992.

There are (at least) two explanations for the name. One is that when a horse got the "staggers" it was bled by a farrier

Farrier

A farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of horses' hooves and the placing of shoes on their hooves...

 at the inn. Another is that the name of the pub comes from an incident during the Battle of Rathmines

Battle of Rathmines

The Battle of Rathmines was fought in and around what is now the Dublin suburb of Rathmines in August 1649, during the Irish Confederate Wars, the Irish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 in 1649, when a wounded horse fled from the battle.

The Bleeding Horse has been mentioned in several classic novels, most notably the Cock and Anchor (1845) by Sheridan Le Fanu and Ulysses

Ulysses (novel)

Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...

by James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

. Literary patrons included James Clarence Mangan

James Clarence Mangan

James Clarence Mangan, born James Mangan was an Irish poet.-Early life:Mangan was the son of a former hedge school teacher who took over a grocery business and eventually became bankrupt....

 and Oliver St. John Gogarty

Oliver St. John Gogarty

Oliver Joseph St John Gogarty was an Irish poet, author, otolaryngologist, athlete, politician, and well-known conversationalist, who served as the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce's novel Ulysses....

.

For several years during the 1960s the name of the pub was changed to "The Falcon", but the original name was replaced in the 1970s.

Introduction to the Bleeding Horse in the Cock and Anchor

At the time in which the events that we have undertaken to record took place, there stood at the southern extremity of the city, near the point at which Camden Street now terminates, a small, old-fashioned building, something between an ale-house and an inn. It occupied the roadside by no means unpicturesquely ; one gable jutted into the road, with a projecting window, which stood out from the building like a glass box held together by a massive frame of wood ; and commanded by this projecting gable, and a few yards in retreat, but facing the road, was the inn door, over which hung
a painted panel, representing a white horse, out of whose neck there spouted a crimson cascade, and underneath, in large letters, the traveller was informed that this was the genuine old "Bleeding Horse."