Guinness & Prohibition: Dublin's Forbidden Pint
During American Prohibition (1920–1933), every US brewery went dark. Guinness didn't. While Al Capone ran Chicago's speakeasies and the FBI raided illegal stills, St James's Gate kept pouring — and business had never been better. Dublin was never dry. And right around the corner from the Storehouse, you can step directly into that era at Incognito's Prohibition room: a 1920s underground speakeasy with puzzles, secrets, and zero chance of a federal raid.
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Prohibition
Set in a 1920s Dublin speakeasy, this is the room that connects directly to the Guinness Storehouse visit. While America went dry, Irish distillers and publicans kept operating — sometimes above the law, sometimes below it. In this room you're inside that world: hidden doors, coded messages, and the constant threat of discovery. 60 minutes, Old Dublin Wall venue, 5 minutes from St James's Gate.
Book Prohibition →The Orphanage
The Liberties neighbourhood where Incognito sits was historically one of Dublin's most densely populated — and most troubled — areas. The Orphanage taps into that darker history: atmospheric, unsettling, and widely regarded as Dublin's scariest escape room. Same venue as Prohibition, same building. Book both if your group is brave enough.
Book The Orphanage →Bunker
Prohibition ended in 1933. Two decades later, a different kind of fear gripped the world. The Bunker puts you in a Cold War underground facility with 75 minutes to prevent disaster. The longest room in the building and the newest — a completely different era but the same Old Dublin Wall venue. Good for groups who want maximum time underground.
Book Bunker →What Guinness was doing while America went dry
The 18th Amendment came into force on 17 January 1920. Within months, thousands of American breweries and distilleries had either shut down or gone underground. Guinness, brewing since 1759 on St James's Gate less than a kilometre from where you're reading this, faced a real problem: the United States had been a growing export market, and overnight it vanished. The response was characteristically pragmatic. Guinness doubled down on British and Empire markets, expanded capacity, and waited. When Prohibition was repealed in December 1933, Guinness was positioned and ready — among the first foreign beers to re-enter the American market. The decade that nearly killed American brewing was, for St James's Gate, a period of consolidation and growth.
Dublin was never dry — but it wasn't entirely legal either
Ireland had no Prohibition. Dublin's pubs stayed open throughout the 1920s, Guinness kept brewing, and the Liberties — the neighbourhood directly around our Old Dublin Wall venue — had its own complicated relationship with alcohol that predated any American legislation. The area was historically associated with illegal distilling: poitín (poteen) stills hidden in the tenements, unlicensed shebeens operating behind closed doors, and a general mistrust of revenue officers that went back generations. The Prohibition escape room at Incognito draws on that world — not the American version necessarily, but the universal reality of people finding ways to drink when someone in authority decided they shouldn't.
How to combine the Guinness Storehouse with Incognito
The Guinness Storehouse is on St James's Gate, a 5-minute walk or 2-minute taxi from our Bridgefoot Street venue, and around 10 minutes from the Old Dublin Wall venue where Prohibition, the Orphanage, and the Bunker are based. The natural order is Storehouse first (it's a 1.5–2 hour visit), then escape room. You'll want to book the escape room in advance — same-day slots are often gone by midday on weekends. If your group is doing Prohibition specifically, the thematic continuation from the Storehouse tour into a 1920s speakeasy is a genuinely satisfying day out.
