An Stad was a guest house located at 30 North Frederick Street, Rotunda, Dublin 1, which was frequented by notable historical figures, including Douglas Hyde, the first President of Ireland, Arthur Griffith, founder of Sinn Féin, author James Joyce, Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) founder Michael Cusack, writer Brendan Behan and poet William Butler Yeats.

[4] The house that contained An Stad from the 1920s to the 1990s was built based on a 1795 design ascribed to a builder or architect employed by Luke Gardiner, 1st Viscount Mountjoy.

His reputation spread quickly, and soon people were coming to An Stad at night to hear him tell stories, to smoke and to promote the Irish language.

Public functions including poetry readings, literary discussions and official Oireachtas week activities often went on until sunrise,[10] and sometimes ended with early-morning Pro-Independence rallies emerging onto North Frederick Street.

McGarvey also established a guesthouse on the premises which helped to attract athletic visitors from the Irish countryside coming to Dublin to watch or play in the adjacent Croke Park sports ground.

Being a literary hub, An Stad is mentioned in the Biographies and works of several of its guests, including Oliver StJohn Gogarty, James Joyce and others.

However, as the Irish War of Independence broke out in 1919, An Stad played a pivotal role as a chief safehouse for republican activists including Michael Collins, Douglas Hyde, and Harry Boland, and is now a stop on Sinn Féin's 'Rebel tour of Dublin'.

She used her relationship with leaders like Sean Tracey, Dan Breen and most notably Michael Collins to make An Stad a Republican safehouse.

Gleeson worked as an IRB spy by serving as a waitress at the West End Restaurant on Parkgate St., where British Officers and members of the Black and Tans were regular customers.

12 civilians were killed in the incident, but due to Gleeson's intelligence, IRB members at the game were able to conceal their identities and escape with the crowd.

Sinn Féin and IRA members were regularly hidden at An Stad, and it was used as a transit point for weapons shipments, military orders, uniform manufacture, and the provision of food, clothing and shelter for soldiers.

During the Irish Civil War, Gleeson sided with anti-treaty forces, and she orchestrated an underground command center for the IRA and Cumann na mBan at An Stad.

During this time, An Stad retained its role as a centre for the Gaelic Revival, with authors frequently reviewing works of poetry and prose in the Irish language.

In 1938, a dissident Irish Republican Army (IRA) group, protesting that agreement, attempted unsuccessfully to destroy Nelson's Pillar on O'Connell Street in Dublin, less than a mile from An Stad.

[16] In 2023, it was announced that Dublin City Council applied to An Bord Pleanala for a compulsory purchase order to take possession of the property from the owner Patrick Walsh.

Collins was very familiar with proprietor Mollie Gleeson, whom he asked to identify the body of Sean Treacy when he was killed by British agents in 1920.

History books and personal accounts indicate that many different IRA agents under Collins's tutelage hid at An Stad when delivering messages or arms to Republican fighters.

Cusack is also the inspiration for the character "The Citizen" in James Joyce's novel Ulysses[31] Arthur Griffith, founder of Sinn Féin and leader of the delegation that negotiated the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty that established the 26-county Irish Free State, was a regular guest at Cathal McGarvey's Gaelic Language sessions at An Stad.

Griffith may have initially come to An Stad in pursuit of furthering his favoured early cause, the Gaelic League, but he had already formed a pro-Independence mindset.

[36] According to Pearse's biographer, Brian P Murphy, many of the leaders of the 1916 rising, looking to create a puritanical state, felt it necessary to marginalize both the revelers at An Stad and the Gaelic Football players of the Phoenix Park, from their movement.