Pat Keenan on happenings in and around the capital..
Just back in November last year Parnell Square was the scene of intense violence and arson attacks following the stabbing of three children and their carer outside Gaelscoil Coláiste Mhuire. What shocked most was how quickly it all escalated that Thursday into riots extending down into O’Connell Street and beyond, how quickly it started and spread and how it appeared so organised. The violence directed at the gardaí, the burning of cars, buses and trams all seemed so orchestrated. Gardai called it a “lunatic, hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology.” The Minister for Justice Helen McEntee condemned the attacks on gardaí by a “manipulative element.”
The following day Friday the debris was mostly cleared and shops were open again for business by midday. The looters had also attacked and broke into shops off O’Connell Street. Arnotts in Henry Street was broken into and pillaged.
A 50 year old man was quickly arrested and would later appeared in court charged with attempted murder. He’s awaiting trial.
The riots drove home the need to examine what our capital city’s main thoroughfare has become. For years now O’Connell Street has been neglected, deserted buildings, lands long awaiting redevelopment and dodgy-looking people lurking against walls. Rightly or wrongly it has created a perception amount mostly middle class people that these areas are to be avoided, particularly at night.
Clerys closed after 162 years in business in 2015 still lies vacant. Acquired by the Natrium investment group, they have since been granted planning permission by Dublin City Council for a mixed-use scheme on the site
Clerys closed after 162 years in business in 2015 still lies vacant. Acquired by the Natrium investment group, they have since been granted planning permission by Dublin City Council for a mixed-use scheme on the site involving offices, retail units, leisure facilities and a boutique hotel. But progress has been slow. To date the Frasers retail group plan to open Flannels selling designer clothing, accessories and footwear for men, women and children. H&M clothing company, already in Henry Street, also plan a new store in Clerys. The Carlton cinema closed in 1994 and is still a vacant site. A Post has moved offices from the GPO to a new building in the north docks. Debenhams on Henry Street remains empty but there are plans by the Frasers to open a Sports Direct as its Irish flagship store selling sports and fitness footwear, clothing, and equipment. Tessuti’s plan their first Irish store retailing men’s and women’s designer collections, clothing, shoes and accessories at the Jervis Centre.
The Ambassador Theatre while on Parnell Square faces O’Connell Street. Originally built in 1764 to help fund the adjoining Rotunda hospital. It began to show ‘moving pictures’ in 1908, became a full-time cinema in 1910. It closed in 1999 and since has been used sporadically for music venues and exhibitions. It promises a full return as an exhibition venue but that seems stalled too. A plan by the operators Millennium Theatre Company to surround Ambassador with permanent 1.7m high steel railings to protect the public, they said, ‘from fires, vandalism, blood, urine, vomit and human excrement.’ That has been rejected by Dublin City Council. An appeal with An Bord Pleanála might happen, delaying a reopening even further.
The elegant Ambassaor Theatre at the top of O’Connell Street. When will it be opened permanently?
Nelson of course also departed O’Connell Street in 1966 but not of his own volition. The Spire of Dublin has eloquently replaced him, completed in 2003.
Ann Summers, lingerie and sex toy shop closed after 15 years in O’Connell Street, but only to relocate in Henry street. Remember back in 1991, days when a glimpse of stocking in Cleary’s window was something shocking, the furore caused by the announcement that Ann Summers shop from pagan colonial Britain planned to open across the street from our hallowed GPO, of all places. Ann Summers chief executive Jacqueline Gold ominously received a bullet in the post. More politely the Dublin City Centre Traders’ Association called the planned shop ‘inappropriate’ for the location. Success on our main thoroughfare they also opened in Blanchardstown, Cork and Belfast
Last year a new Garda station opened near the Savoy cinema and began operations to tackle anti-social behaviour, drug use and dealing. But it’s not just law and order. The rundown of business work and opportunity in the entire Dublin 1 area is the real problem. Some small rays of hope are showing.
Just before Christmas I made a rare visit in recent times to O’Connell Street to buy some gifts at Easons. All busy, crowded and happy. I enjoyed a wander up and down Dublin’s main street. Gifts happily bagged I safely arrived back to Abbey Street and my bus home. But I choose to visit by day. At night it might be a more daunting place. But this is not new. All my entire working life this northsider spent working in either Dublin 2 or 4. Social commutes would inevitably be the same. Dublin1 and O’Connell Street would be visited on occasions, maybe cinema, some shopping, Arnotts theatre, Gate, Chapter One, if invited.
How the Gresham Hotel looked when Thomas Gresham first opened it opened in the early 1800s
The Gresham Hotel (now the Hotel Riu Plaza The Gresham) on O’Connell Street since 1817 was once regarded, along with the Shelbourne on St.Stephen’s Green, as Dublin’s two posh 5 star hotels. The Gresham had all the famous, British Royalty, US Presidents, famous stars of stage and screen. Dwight Eisenhower stayed here and , Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier, James Stewart, John Wayne, The Beatles, Laurel & Hardy, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Richard Burton and his wife Elizabeth Taylor (an account of that long visit is in Dub;om Dossier Mar./Apr.2021) During the Civil War in 1922. Cathal Brugha and Countess Markievicz were there, not exactly guests. They were commanding Anti-treaty forces occupying the hotel, subsequently after repeated battering that caused the hotel being destroyed by fire on 6th July 1922. Later, awarded £93,550 compensation by the Irish State,reconstruction began in 1925. The new Gresham, designed by Robert Atkinson, famed for his Art Deco styling, was reborn with the facade of striking grandeur still with us today.
During the Second World War the hotel achieved an unexpected boost when the Daily Express in Britain ran a front page piece to show how neutral Ireland was not suffering from the effects of war and illustrated it pictures of the Gresham’s extensive à la carte menus, unintentionally increasing the numbers of off-duty servicemen visiting the Gresham. U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt even dropped in unexpectedly accompanied by ten U.S. airmen.
The Gresham is currently trading as a 4 Star – there’s only one 5-star in Dublin 1 – The Morrison Dublin, Curio Collection by Hilton on Ormond Quay Lower.
Remarkably the man that founded and opened the Gresham Hotel started life as a foundling baby abandoned on the steps of the Royal Exchange in London. His parentage unknown, he was named Thomas Gresham after Sir Thomas Gresham the Elder, the English merchant and financier who acting on behalf of King Edward VI, Queens Mary I, Elizabeth I, founded the Royal Exchange in the City of London in 1565.
Thomas Gresham’s grand vault in Mount Jerome cemetery, Dublin
Somehow Thomas came to Dublin, we don’t know why or when. He was employed by William Beauman in Rutland Square (now Parnell Square) as a servant and later butler. Somehow by 1817, Thomas managed to lease 21 and 22 Sackville Street (now O’Connell Street) and opened a hotel. In the following years he leased more adjacent buildings. By 1834 Thomas was also the owner of the Royal Marine Hotel in Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire}. How he acquired his capital is unknown.
Thomas became a northsider, living in Seafield House, Dollymount, Clontarf. There he also built a row of houses called Gresham Villas on Clontarf Road. In 1835 he moved even closer to my future abode, leasing the lands around Fox House on the Howth Road Raheny and he lived there until he died in 1871. That land today is Raheny Park. In death he became a southsider in Mount Jerome Cemetery
Another major asset for Dubin 1 is the two Michelin star Chapter One restaurant at 18-19 Parnell Square. www.chapteronerestaurant.com/ Gwendel Poulenc, the international director of the Michelin Guide only last year forecast they might be ‘joining the family of three-star restaurants’. There are none so far in Ireland. The other two star Dublin restaurants are on the southside, Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud in The Merrion Hotel, 21 Merrion Street Upper, Dublin 2. and Liath Restaurant, 19A Main St, Blackrock.
Last year a new Garda station opened near the Savoy cinema and the announcement that Operations Spire and Citizen would begin to tackle anti-social behaviour, drug use and dealing. But it’s not just law and order, the rundown of business work and opportunity in the entire Dublin 1 area is the real problem. Some small rays of hope are showing or just my inherent optimism.
