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A PETITION OPPOSING a proposal to build a hotel beside Dublin’s famous Cobblestone pub has received almost 20,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.
The proposed development would see the demolition of a number of derelict buildings adjoining the pub and the construction of a nine-storey hotel.
According to the planning application, the Cobblestone, a protected structure, will be retained as part of any development.
However, there are fears a music venue attached to the pub as well the smoking area will be demolished and the Cobblestone surrounded by the new hotel.
The Cobblestone is one of Dublin’s most popular pubs and is well-known for hosting daily trad sessions.
A number of well-known Irish musicians including Lisa O’Neill, Lankum and Skipper’s Alley have frequented the pub over the years.
Several online petitions have since been set up opposing the development with nine written submissions received by Dublin City Council over the last few days.
One petition has more than 18,000 signatures.
Marron Estates Ltd has applied to the Council for planning permission for the hotel at 77-80 King Street North in Smithfield.
The proposals include the demolition of 78 and 79, and the retention and alteration of 77 and 80.
Speaking to the Times, the Cobblestone’s assistant manager Adam Holohan said the plans indicate the back room music venue and beer garden would no longer be available.
“It’s just the ground floor of the original structure that we would be allowed to keep,” he said.
“We’d just be left with the front bar, which is where we have our sessions. But we can only fit around 50 people in there. And if the hotel goes up around it, our bar would be turned into some sort of residents’ bar,” he said.
Local Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan is waiting to see the full details of the plan but said it was “disheartening to see what looks like the effective removal of an incredible cultural hub within the city.
“Increasingly I think we’re realising the value of these spaces and that we’ve to be really careful around developing the city in a way that those kind of spaces are edged out.”
Hourigan said other pubs in Dublin have had to close for long periods of time due to nearby construction.
“There are plenty of hotels in Dublin, you could still build a hotel on that space but be a bit more respectful to the surroundings,” she said.
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My good old pal Wayne Waits will be turning in his grave at this news. Traveled all the way from Portland Oregon every summer to play washboard and drink the best guinness in Dublin in the Cobblestone bar. Does money and profit have to destroy everything in Ireland.
@Colm Vambeck: it is certainly not the best Guinness in Dublin . It’s good though.
@Colm Vambeck: The best Guinness in Dublin Clearys.
@Aunties: Its the combination of a pint, a pack of Tayto, great music and old time bar that does it for me. Tasty
There are practically no pubs like this left in Dublin, and this one is in the heart of Dublin. What the hell are DCC doing approving ANOTHER hotel.
I remember Dublin city in the rare ole times….
Do they not realise the tourists coming to Dublin are looking to have the experience of a place like the Cobblestone. That’s what the fabric of this city is, live music, where session musicians move from pub to pub batin out the tunes. The amount of tourists I’ve met who happened to stumble upon this place in full flight and it’s guaranteed they went back raving about their experience, and not the soulless hotel they probably stayed in. Leave the Cobblestone alone.
@Bingobango: totally agree. As the song says. We paint paradise and put up a parking lot.
@Steven Powell: *Paved*
I hope this never happens, this is one great bar. Not just trad music, all sorts, bluegrass , folk etc.
The obession with whipping up hotels all over the place is gone nuts now. If only the same effort was put into building actual gaffs.
Dublin is quickly becoming soulless, is there nothing that can be done to stop this?
@Pól Ó’hAodha: there is a protest on planned for Saturday.
It’s very sad that the face of a unique and historical city like Dublin is being permenantly destroyed by the decisions of a few shady men. You’d hope government would step in a weed out the rot in DCC and An Bord Pleanala, but have absolutely no desire to do so. You’d also have to wonder why it’s always hotels? They aren’t needed. They’re probably going to let them out to the council as homeless accom at some stage and charge unreal amounts to the council who don’t even haggle.
I remember going here to watch an ireland game one night, then found out it was one of the few to have no TV. Good pub tho
We have to ask ourselves what exactly do we want our cities to be. This is more than just bricks and mortar, it’s history, stories peoples footprints on the landscape. A well known bar in Cork was demolished to make way for a modern glass office, fair enough, progress needs to happen. The developer has since said the building is no longer viable, an empty space now lies there instead. Shameful really.
All of these hotels are being built to accommodate false demand. When the government stops housing homeless people in them the demand will drop right off and half of them will close. Also, why will people want to visit when all that’s left in the city is hotels, it’s not like the suburbs have much going for them for tourists. They’re really ruining this place.
‘An incredible cultural hub’. Right, ‘that’s enough, says I to the Missus, I’m off down to the incredible cultural hub for a couple’ ;)
The pub stays, but still the whingers aren’t happy. Play the music in the bar and smoke on the street.
@Raymond Barry: read the article
Dublin City Centre is now just one big tourist shakedown. Its as far away from the real Ireland as you could possibly get. With every passing year the city council seems he’ll bent on shooting itself in the foot by wanting to demolish places like Moore Street and Merchants arch to replace them with more souless hotels where they can store the tourists willing to sit all day over seven euro pints of Guinness. Little wonder that most of the people I know who like myself are from the city rarely venture into town anymore. Its fast losing whatever character it has and just becoming a hobbled together patchwork of a city designed to extract the last penny from every tourist.
I had my first pints in there, then known as Bertie Keoghs pub, even then a great spot.
Who on Dublin City Council has a fetish for hotels and how do we get them out of there before they try and replace Molly Malone’s statue with her own themed hotel. If you looked up the term uncultured swine in the dictionary you’d see these developers next to it
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