This pub is a bit of a TARDIS, in that it somehow looks fairly small outside - but feels huge inside. One of the many pubs with Joycean connections, they do not really trade off that - and are too far outside the city centre to be on normal tours of Joycean pubs.
It also has not one, but two, Kinnegar taps - something that I always appreciate in a pub, particularly one that isn't specifically craft focused.
The pub had recently (at the time of my visit) changed hands - this sales article is worth looking at just to see how ornate the apartment above the pub is. The new owner - a long standing barman there prior - has stated that he doesn't intend to change much, and really there isn't anything I'd say needs changing currently anyway.
Dublin has many pub chains, from the big (Fitzgerald, Press Up) to the small - and this is in one of the small ones. But like happens within those chains, items can get moved and show up in another outlet
The second of my sort of royal visits of the weekend, The Queens was promoted heavily as the first victim of lockdown, with the then owners announcing in June 2020 that they would not be reopening.
But the pub changed hands, and is still open. Or else I'd be writing up drinking a can inside a closed down bar, something I have yet to have to reduce myself to. Yet.
Despite a tortuously long wait at a quiet bar, otherwise this pub quite impressed me. Its huge, so there was plenty of space inside - but there is also a very nice outdoor area; which is where I parked myself in the sun.
There is a venue space upstairs, with the minor political nerdery occurrence of two TD family musicians advertised as playing in the days after I visited - Mundy (brother of Olwyn Enright) and David Kitt (son of Tom Kitt).
So my trip to Dalkey coincided with the weekend that the man who wishes he was a sanitary product got appointed to his job for life. And aptly Dalkey has both a Kings and a Queens pub, which I visited the day after the big event
The Kings Inn is the most traditionally pub-like of the Dalkey pubs; and the only one - at that time - to have no craft taps. I'm fairly sure I've seen a brewery mentioning that they have a line in here now in the weeks since. It was also comparatively very quiet, continuing the up and down trend we've seen so far here.
I sat in here and finished my paper before heading off. This was the first pub of the day where I didn't have to scrabble for a place to sit, or rely on table service, and as such felt much more at home here than in the others.
Semi-recently renamed from The Magpie, The Coliemore was absolutely rammed and I had significant difficulty even finding a perch at a corner of the bar. Major differences in how busy pubs are becomes a bit of a thing on this trip.
The Magpie era of this pubs name survived in to the Substantial Meal era of pandemic reopenings, and there were plenty of substantial meals being eaten, just without any requirement to do so to get a pint. The premises had been for sale in 2019, and I'm assuming had actually changed hands at some point prior to its rebranding as The Coliemore in 2021.
I'm not (currently) a huge fan of sitting at the bar - give me another decade or two and I'll probably be propping them up - but the pub seems decent enough. And based on the comparatively busy-ness of the other Dalkey pubs, they are clearly doing something right with the food offering.
A previous post on a briefly operating (1999-2001), expensive, Dublin tourist attraction with a drink licence did fairly well, so why not do another?
The Hot Press Irish Music Hall of Fame shares a few similarities - it cost in the millions to open, it was open from 1999-2001, it flopped, and it is still licenced (as N2256 The Academy). The major difference to the Icon Centre is that you can actually still get a drink there today - and I have, in both of its replacement incarnations.
Hot Press, for the somehow unaware, is a long-running Irish music magazine, founded in 1977. Like Baileys, its name had some value to add to a tourist attraction - the magazine has circulated outside Ireland and is mentioned in the novel Fever Pitch, for instance - and Hot Press were directly involved in actually running this, rather than just renting their name to an operator.
Dublin's place as a global tourist attraction was growing throughout the 1990s, and more and more tourist attractions and time-killers were being opened every year. Both the Hall of Fame and the Icon Centre would have been part of this trend, to try capture the ever increasing tourist trade.
I missed visiting both of them, for different reasons. As an inquisitive teenager armed with Pat Liddy's walking tour books (I covered the pub crawl elements of these books some years ago), I've actually visited all sorts of semi-obscure museums and attractions that popped up in the years before their publication (1998 & 2001); but the Baileys centre would have been 18+; but the reason I didn't do the Hall of Fame I can't remember - I thought now it might have been expensive tickets or another age bar, but ads showed that it was £4 (€5) for under 16s.
The story of the Hall of Fame itself starts earlier than the Icon Centre (I'm going to try stop the comparisons now), in 1995 with a planning application for Trinity Street, in the building which then housed the Hot Press offices. This received the green light in 1997; but progress didn't wait for that permission as there were articles in 1996 claiming that it would be open on that site in 1997. Prices given in those 1996 articles ranged from £1.5m to £2m (~€2-2.5m); and apparently just under £1m (~€1.3m) was raised via a Business Expansion Scheme model - a tax efficient investment structure of the era with modern equivalents.
But the Hall of Fame didn't open on Trinity Street, or anywhere, in 1997. A 1998 interview with Niall Stokes discusses the now £5.3m (€6.7m) proposal for Middle Abbey Street, which is what did actually happen. This site had been placed for sale in 1996 with planning for a theatre, and £5.3m is realistic for the costs of building a multi-room music venue. The site was previously Cowan's Furriers, closing in the late 1980s.
Recruitment ads start in January 1999, initially for chefs and managers for the "new innovative world cuisine" restaurant - an odd choice for a museum of Irish achievement, in my opinion - followed a few months later by ads for bar staff.
The Hall of Fame opened in April 1999 - with an "official" opening on July 30th 1999 - although some reports of both openings focused more on the music venue - branded as HQ - and the restaurant (Jam) and bars than the actual tourist element. However, the tourist element was the main daytime use of the premises.
The tourist bit sounds more interesting than some equivalent things I've seen or suffered around the globe, particularly by the standards of 1999. The tour was apparently 100 minutes in length, using a headset timed to various video features, memorabilia items and physical interactions including the option to "role play as a rock star stepping on to a brightly lit stage to thunderous applause" according to the Sligo Champion's June 1999 review. The music covered seems to have been a fair representation of Irish music, from that with primarily domestic impact (showbands) through to trad, pop and the internationally successful rock bands of the 70s-90s. The interactive elements were reportedly by Martello Media, who have been involved in work at a number of other noted attractions such as the GPO Witness History Centre.
The music venue gets plenty of listings coverage throughout 1999, with occasional awards ceremonies (including Hot Press's own Awards) interrupting a succession of Irish and international acts; and special events such as a Thin Lizzy gig for what would have Phil Lynott's 50th birthday.
But what is a Hall of Fame without inductees? It would be a grandiose name for a museum otherwise. This was answered in September 1999 with the first induction, of Van Morrison. There are no reports of a 2000 or 2001 inductee, though, so presumably Van is still all alone in the Hall.
The path to closure here isn't as obvious as it was for the Icon Centre (this should be the last set of comparisons, honest) - the Hall of Fame was in the city centre, it had a more obvious draw and had a very busy secondary life as a music venue compared to occasional conferences in the Icon. There were no reports of dire attendances either, as the Icon had. However, the Hall of Fame did still close.
The circumstances of the closure are unclear - it is reported as having been in October 2001, but there are, possibly poorly researched, pieces in some regional papers that imply it is still trading in March 2002. It was loss making, however, and it looks as if it may have just made more sense to use the premises for another use. Arguments over liability for losses between the various shareholders and investors eventually reached court in 2007.
After closure, the first re-use of the building was for Spirit, the first of a small chain (they had a branch in New York, in the former Twilo, and at least plans for more) of nightclubs - albeit the original Spirit was more of an entertainment venue than specifically a nightclub, with much more daytime use, as described in an interview with its owner. The latter years of Spirit would be the first time I actually entered this venue; and like many good nights I can't remember bugger all about them. A quick look at those who played there during the Spirit era shows what I'd probably think to be the biggest act to take the stage there during this time - Prince's aftershow in 2002.
Spirit closed in 2007, with The Academy opening the same year. I seem to remember that it hadn't actually changed particularly much since what little I do recall of the Spirit era, and I was at some gigs there early with significant issues with sound, toilets, working bar equipment and so on - potentially everything from 1999 was still in use at the time. It briefly closed in 2014 for a refurbishment, and trades to this as a four room music venue, covering quite a range of musical styles.
So what still exists now, other than there being a music venue on the site? Well, if you look up on your way in to a gig at The Academy, some of the artwork commissioned for the Hall of Fame is still extant. Also, some of the memorabilia is now with the 2015 opened Irish Rock n Roll Museum - although I doubt they have the Dana memorabilia mentioned in some of the 1999 promo material!
Hot Press are still going, a rarity globally now as a print music magazine.
Tiny update this month with only one thing of interest.
Readded:
N2760 - former Koh, Jervis Walkway - closed in 2021/2; has just been listed for rent
