Compulsory Closure - CPOs on Dublin pubs

The requirement to demolish N0236 Hedigans Brian Boru for the proposed Metrolink project has been covered in the media quite extensively recently. While losing a nice pub - with exceptional food photography on their social media - isn't something I'd be in favour of; this is a case of the greater good, and the owners of the pub had proposed demolishing it themselves anyway.

But this is far from the first time a Dublin pub has been demolished as a result of a compulsory purchase order. These have always been justified as being for the greater good - it has to be, to justify getting a CPO. There have been various forms of CPO legislation, going back to the 1890s, but I'll let someone with legal expertise explain those.

Four bodies have CPOed pubs in the records I have found - Dublin Corporation (City Council), Dublin County Council, Pembroke District Council and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.

I'm going to list the CPOs I've found, the reason, and the date published or known to close, below. Some of these may not actually have completed ("vested") for some time afterwards, if ever; but the pubs are still gone!

Something of interest is there are various claims at various times when, due to public opposition to losing their locals, the Corporation promised any replacement construction would include new pubs. There are some notes in the list about this.

Social Housing / "Slum Clearance"

As documented elsewhere, including the excellent Building Healthy Homes book, much of the housing stock in Dublin City was of a terrible quality well in to the 1960s. Slum clearance works occurred across the city enabling the construction of new Corporation housing; and larger landbanks were CPOed for development of large housing estates. These are the pubs that I have found CPOed for housing purposes:

Birthistles, 11 Cuffe Street - 1932 - road widening was an element here, but the CPO was officially for housing

James Meagher, Camac Place - 1938 - I was never aware of this pub prior to this trawl. I suspect that S1429 Bridge House was a replacement for this as the owner requested a nearby site.

Carrolls, 19 Gloucester Place Lower - 1938

Caseys, 13 Marrowbone Lane - 1956

Brian Cullen, 146 Dorset Street Upper - 1956

Murrays, 10 South Earl Street - 1957

Goldenbridge Tavern, 32 St Vincent Street West - 1960

Green Kilt, 121 Gardiner Street Lower - 1983 (marked as disused by this stage)

Lowrys Diamond Bar, 11 Sean McDermott Street Lower - 1983

Murrays, 13 Sean McDermott Street Upper - 1983 - The Dagmar on Railway Street was claimed to be a replacement premises for this

Man of Aran, 30 Ellis Quay - 1985. A replacement pub, most recently N0195 Mission was built for it on the same site but inside an apartment block

Tower Inn, Rivermount, Finglas - 2000

The Red Lion in Newmarket was CPOed in 1944 and again in 1970, for public housing development, which never actually vested either time. The pub closed in the early 2000s, was demolished in the 2020s and now has a Premier Inn hotel on its site.

1002238 Jobstown House was included in the original scope of the 1971 mega-CPO to purchase the land to develop the Jobstown social housing scheme, but was excluded after the public inquiry. Similarly, the (currently closed, but soon to reopen) S1593 Cuckoos Nest in Greenhills was removed from the scope of another social housing CPO.

Road Widening

Dublin has had roads widened on many occasions, going back to the Wide Streets Commission era; and again after motorised road traffic became common in the 30s. However, things got a lot worse in the 70s.

Plans for the Inner Tangent "motorway" - surface dual carriageway with flat junctions and traffic lights - around the city centre in the 1970s actually began, to some extent, with significant widening of the bulk of Parnell Street, Summerhill, Bridgefoot Street and some other areas. There is detailed coverage of this and other parts of this insane traffic plan online already, and I see no need to replicate someone else's work here!

While this plan was eventually dropped, sporadic widening in parts continued until the early 2000s with Cork Street and Clanbrassil Street being the last two majorly affected areas

Additionally, the installation of left turn lanes - something now being removed as unsafe for non-motorised road users - took out at least one pub. 

Michael Delahunty, 2 South Great Georges Street - 1932

James Quinn, 26 Upper Bridge Street - 1938

Teresa Whelan, 33 Saint Augustine Street - 1943

O'Beirnes, 30 Kevin Street Upper - 1970, finally vested in 1991 but pub closed and demolished in the interim

Jim's Tavern, 29 Bolton Street - 1971 (and again in 1980)

Bourkes, 1 Ushers Quay - 1977. This CPO also destroyed the arched entranceway to S1475 Brazen Head.

The Commodore, 21 Parnell Street - 1979

Dunnes, 12 Patrick Street - 1984

Joe McDonald, 21 Patrick Street - 1984

Birchalls, 25 Patrick Street - 1984

Byrnes, 36 Patrick Street - 1984 (but shown as already closed on CPO order)

Lowes, 7 Dean Street - 1984

Larkin Bros, Clanbrassil Street - 1984

Bunch of Grapes, Clanbrassil Street - 1984, closed 1989 (I believe S2517 Peadar Browns is the notional replacement for this)

White House, 45 New Street South - 1984

Summerhill Inn, 121 Summerhill - 1985 - there had been a previous CPO in 1947 that was not acted on

The Hamlet, 137-138 Summerhill - 1985

Hogans, 39 Cork Street - 1985

New Inn, 68 New Street - 1993 

Gaffneys, 21 Cork Street - 1998 - previously CPOed 1985 but never vested

N1097 Conways, 70 Parnell Street was CPOed in 1979, but never vested. This pub is still licenced to this day, but has not traded for decades

Other Reasons

Norths, 16 Fitzwilliam Street, Ringsend - this area was CPOed in 1918 under an "improvement scheme", but was replaced by Ringsend Library and not housing

Marie Grealishs (8 North Wall Quay) and the Liverpool Bar (11 North Wall Quay) were CPOed in 1998 for the general redevelopment of the North docks; but both were long closed - the Liverpool is closed in 1990 press photos - and possibly even demolished by this stage.