Jewel in the crown of pubs goes up for auction today

This afternoon one of Dublin's best-loved pubs goes under the hammer. After 30 years of family ownership Philip Shaffry is selling the Stag's Head pub, off Dame Street.

"It has been part of my life for three decades and I've been running it for 10 years," he says.

Sitting in the main bar with the late-morning sun glinting through stained-glass windows of the stag's head motif, he says he doesn't want to get out of the pub trade.

"I've two small children and I'm living 10 miles out of town, so I'm hoping to find a pub a bit out of the city centre.

"But of course I'll miss this place. I have got really attached to the clientele and the crowd that comes in."

Looking around at the Victorian bar, opulently decorated with mahogany panelling and a red Connemara marble bar counter, Shaffry is confident there will be no changes to the building.

"They won't be able to touch it. This is the crème de la crème, the jewel in the crown, of Dublin pubs.

"It has been here since 1760, although it was completely refurbished in 1895. This is a grade-one listed building."

But there are no State laws regulating some aspects of the pub, namely his family's refusal to allow music - live or otherwise - or television in the bar.

Any new owner could change this tradition, says Shaffry, which is a source of concern for some regulars.

The atmosphere has always been created by the clientele, he continues.

"And I never allowed any of those alcopops. I just wouldn't have them - didn't want that kind of crowd, even if, as some believe, they spend more and drink more. There is no need for them.

"It's great in here on a Friday, Saturday night, really hums."

The stag's head mounted behind the bar is from an animal shot in Alaska in 1901, while the stuffed fox is the reason his two boys call the bar the "foxy pub".

A spokesman for CBRE Gunne, which will auction the pub this afternoon, says there had been "enormous interest" in the premises from Irish and international buyers.

A guide price is being quoted of €5 million.