Ireland’s most famous traditional music bar was rescued after a planning decision by the Dublin City Council, which was hailed as a landmark victory for real estate developers.
The plan to transform the three-story Cobblestone Bar and Irish Music School into a hotel in the Smithfield area has sparked a growing debate about the development of the capital at the expense of cultural heritage.
On Monday, after submitting 700 objections, the City Council rejected the planning permission for a hotel at the site, including those from the Minister of Heritage Malcolm Noonan, as well as those from Save Cobblestone and Dublin’s High-profile protests and street demonstrations by dying activists.
The family of 31-year-old Tomás Mulligan, who has run the bar for 34 years, said he was happy with Monday’s decision.
“This is a very exciting day for all of us,” he said. “This is a movement organized by our friends, and we are very grateful that so many people are willing to stand up and protect our culture and institutions.”
This bar is regarded as the birthplace of Irish “traditional” music, from the Chiefs to the singer Mary Black, who played the banjo with actor Steve Martin and many other artists. Music brought to the international stage.
Others who have been there or performed there include Billy Connolly, who made a documentary there, the late celebrity chef Anthony Borden, actor Jon Water, and Manu Chao, a pioneer of Latin alternative music.
The planning proposal should have kept part of the bar as a protected structure, but the rest of the building, where the Irish Music and Language School was located, was demolished to make way for the hotel.
Give reasons, The city council stated that it believes that “the development project will be overbearing and clearly inconsistent with the current built environment, and will represent a serious overdevelopment of this highly sensitive site”.
Mulligan said that the owner of the website did not consult his family about the development project. When the hotel news appeared, it only “inspired a lot of people because it was a breakthrough point”, believing that it was an impact on the entire Irish cultural heritage. Erosion.
The Green Party MEP and architect Ciarán Cuffe were among the opponents of the plans, which he described as “a monument to greed that is too large, crude and soulless.”
He said: “Cobblestone has always been an extraordinary place for traditional Irish music, attracting singers and musicians from all over the world. It is hard to imagine that it will be sterilized and become a cocktail bar in a boutique hotel of the 21st century.”
Marron Estates, the owner of the site, has four weeks to appeal.
