{"id":169510,"date":"2025-11-08T09:36:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T09:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/169510\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T09:36:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T09:36:17","slug":"this-is-the-capital-and-come-on-we-close-at-2am-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/169510\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This is the capital and come on \u2013 we close at 2am!\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dublin<\/a> city\u2019s \u201cnight-time economy<\/a>\u201d is a buzz-phrase that has dominated discourse around socialising in the centre of the capital for years, prompting a Government taskforce aimed at getting more people to go out and spend money between the hours of 6pm and 6am.<\/p>\n

Dublin City Council<\/a> (DCC) has earmarked three areas requiring long-term improvement, with the aim of improving the experience of residents and tourists alike: cultural activity, mobility and transport, and safety.<\/p>\n

On the streets of the city centre last Saturday night, the first impression was that the first weekend of November may have been a little more subdued than usual. <\/p>\n

However, the Dublin By Night Fest<\/a> taking place across three landmark locations \u2013 Dame Street, College Green and Capel Street \u2013 between 6pm and 10pm was attended by an estimated 80,000 people. Remnants of Halloween were evident in occasional flurries of costumes. <\/p>\n

But Ireland and New Zealand\u2019s rugby international, showing on terrestrial television with an 8.10pm kick-off, seemed to have convinced some to stay at home, or perhaps settle into particular venues for the evening. <\/p>\n

We began on Abbey Street on Dublin\u2019s north side, at The Flowing Tide. Fergus McCabe is one of three owners who took over and renovated the long-established pub three years ago, adding a couple of snugs but leaning into its traditional essence on the advice of customers. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many trendy bars that open up,\u201d McCabe said. \u201cMyself personally, I find that a lot of trendy bars can be kind of fickle. You look at stuff that\u2019s been here, tried and tested, for 100 years. In our case, nearly 200 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stained glass windows, designed by Tony Inglis in the style of Harry Clarke, adorn the walls of The Flowing Tide alongside paraphernalia from the Abbey Theatre, just across the road. Actors and playgoers are regular patrons, along with others who stop in en route to gigs at the 3Arena, and a general assortment of office workers and locals.<\/p>\n

\"FergusFergus McCabe, co-owner of The Flowing Tide: ‘If you listen to what people want, that works.’ Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very consistent and I\u2019d put that down to a couple of things,\u201d McCabe said. \u201cIf you look outside, we\u2019re on the main route to the two Luas lines. Your nearest cab rank is about 20 metres away, so you\u2019re never hanging around here. As a result of that, you get all sorts of different people.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCabe and his co-owners did a similar refurbishment of The King\u2019s Inn Pub on Henrietta Street, and focusing on customers has been key to their model, he said. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0One Night in Dublin … with the bouncers at Copper Face Jacks: Once you\u2019re gone, you\u2019re goneOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t dictate what goes on,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think it\u2019s logical and that\u2019s why we\u2019re busy. So, I would say Dublin is a great city to do business in. I would say it really is. Like most businesses, if you listen to what people want, that works.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitting at a table opposite the snugs, Lesley Fagan and Julie McGuire were the last of a group of four friends rounding off a catch-up. McGuire, visiting from Malaga, had requested gathering in a traditional Irish pub and another friend suggested they come here. It was not yet past eight o\u2019clock, but for Fagan, it was unusual to be still out in Dublin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t [come out much] because I am dubious about coming into town at night,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m of a certain age, and I just don\u2019t feel comfortable coming into Dublin at night-time. I meet friends in the afternoon and we go for lunch, and then leave. We don\u2019t normally hang around town at night-time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fagan planned to use public transport to get home \u2013 first a Luas and then a bus. As a rule, she doesn\u2019t take taxis by herself, which came as a surprise to her friend. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo be fair, I don\u2019t see this city any different than any other cities,\u201d McGuire said. \u201cMaybe because I\u2019d lived in London and I\u2019ve lived in Spain. I come here \u2013 I feel, not quite safe because I don\u2019t know the country, but happy to walk around. You know why? I can just get an Uber.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a survey<\/a> this week commissioned by the Dublin Inquirer newspaper, 70 per cent of respondents said they believed crime had increased in Dublin city centre in the past year, while 63 per cent said safety fears had made them decide not to visit the city centre. The latter figure rose to to 72 per cent for women and 77 per cent for 18- to 24-year-olds. However, the survey suggested a disparity between levels of fear and actual crime figures for the city centre.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0I dare you to walk through Dublin city centre of an evening. You won\u2019t believe what you seeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Across the Liffey on South William Street is another historical haunt for Dublin artists in Grogan\u2019s Castle Lounge. Here, Daniel Smith is a third-generation barman, grandson of the late Tommy Smith who took over Grogan\u2019s with his business partner Paddy Kennedy in the early 1970s. The young Smith described the \u201chiggledy-piggledy artwork\u201d on the inside walls as the pub\u2019s defining feature.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some brilliant stuff; there\u2019s some terrible stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s some stuff you wouldn\u2019t want to put on your worst enemy\u2019s wall but that\u2019s the kind of beauty of it and that\u2019s what attracts people. The art is about the only thing that does change. Everything else stays the same.\u201d <\/p>\n

Since the Covid pandemic, Saturday appears to have overtaken Friday as the most hectic day of the week. With more people working from home, the Friday night office crowd has dwindled, meaning a steadier flow of punters the following day. Grogan\u2019s opens at 10.30am on Saturday mornings, catering to a wide range of customers. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople always would\u2019ve associated it with being an old man pub, but nowadays it couldn\u2019t be further from the truth,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a very eclectic mix of ages, races, genders. You could meet anyone in here on any given day and that\u2019s the beauty of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what a lot of people are looking for nowadays is authenticity. In a city that\u2019s more and more engrossed by groups and chains, they want independent businesses. They want things that are like stepping back in time; they want to go into places where there is a bit of history.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"SouthSouth Great George’s Street, Dublin. ‘Not enough measures have been put in place to facilitate young women travelling home on night-time transport,’ is the view of 21-year-old \u00c1ine Walsh. Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

At 27, Smith is living in his family home, as is the reality for many of his peers. To some extent, he thinks Dublin nightlife is now reflecting a generation abandoning its hopes of finding affordable housing. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe night-time economy probably thrives because of other negative societal factors,\u201d he said. \u201c[Young people] kind of know quite early on that their chances of buying a house are quite slim, so they put an emphasis on going out and enjoying themselves, having nice holidays and going out on a Saturday night and meeting their mates for a few pints. That\u2019s their way of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty-one-year-old \u00c1ine Walsh was sitting on a stool outside the Castle Market perimeter of Grogan\u2019s, alongside Tobias Unger (also 21) who was visiting from Vienna. Walsh loves the area, regularly attending Grogan\u2019s or Cis Madden\u2019s when she wants an evening pub. <\/p>\n

Though she feels safe in the spaces she knows and trusts in the city centre, Walsh said there were \u201cnot enough measures put in place to facilitate young women travelling home on night-time transport\u201d. Walsh lives in Clontarf, a 35-minute cycle away, which is how she gets home instead of spending \u20ac25 on a taxi. The journey on a bike is \u201cjust not safe at all\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

Around the corner is Drury Street, where a young crowd began gathering more regularly in a newly pedestrianised environ post-pandemic. Some local businesses took issue with the volume of people descending on the street\u2019s unchanged infrastructure, and ultimately revellers were moved on.<\/p>\n

\"AA busy Grogan’s pub on South William Street. Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was something really beautiful and organic happening on Drury Street, where people were just sitting out and drinking,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cIt\u2019s been really sad to see them get rid of that on a systematic level. I think that was a really nice example of a possibility of what Dublin could look like if there was more nightlife.\u201d <\/p>\n

She and Unger were not yet sure whether they would go in search of a dance floor as the night developed. Walsh loves a club setting and said good dance venues are available \u201cif you know where to go\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in NCAD [National College of Art and Design] and they do really good balls and events. But from an outsider perspective, if you were a tourist coming to Dublin going to a club, I don\u2019t think there are that many options. They just close so early.\u201d<\/p>\n

One place tourists tend to find easily is the sparkling Christmas tree of Dublin pubs, The Temple Bar. Between 40 and 50 staff were on duty for Saturday night, with up to 600 patrons inside and any number of selfie-takers capturing its facade. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll the pubs in the area have live music,\u201d said Michael Delahunty, a manager who has worked at The Temple Bar for two decades. \u201cThat\u2019s what tourists<\/a> want. They want to come over and enjoy the atmosphere and the bit of a buzz about the place. For the most part, every pub does that really well in the area.\u201d <\/p>\n

From when the doors open in the morning until they close at around 2.30am, there is a flow of customers in and out of the bar. Talking about the night-time economy, Delahunty said he was encouraged by steps being taken to make the area safer. <\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last couple of months, we definitely have seen more of a presence of garda\u00ed around the area which is fantastic,\u201d he said. \u201cThe visible presence of them in the area makes everyone else feel a lot safer. For the most part, it\u2019s a really safe and good area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isaac Harper, Lewis Chamberlain and Tom Cotter were visiting Dublin from Leicester in England. Live music and a vibrant atmosphere were central to their itinerary. They were staying in a hotel in Christchurch, a 10-minute walk away from the Temple Bar, so late-night transport was of little concern. <\/p>\n

\"BrothersBrothers Tom and Lewis Cotter and their friend Isaac Harper, from Leicester in Temple Bar. Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s brilliant,\u201d Harper said of Dublin. \u201cThe nightlife\u2019s brilliant. People are so friendly. It\u2019s just really good. I feel safe and I think the Irish people are just nice people in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve come from Leicester, got one plane here and 20 minutes in a taxi straight to Dublin town centre,\u201d Chamberlain adds. \u201cIt\u2019s been easy. [We\u2019ll just be] barhopping, having a few drinks and seeing where the night takes us.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Last month, an English tourist who was allegedly assaulted following a confrontation in Dublin\u2019s Temple Bar area in the summer died. Anthony Herron, who was aged in his 40s, was hospitalised with serious head injuries following the incident. He was later repatriated to the UK where he died on Saturday, October 25th.)<\/p>\n

At the intersection of pubs around Dame Court, Juliana Almeida\u2019s review of the city was not a positive one. Originally from Brazil, she has been living in Ireland for four years.<\/p>\n

\"JulianaJuliana Almeida: ‘I have so many Irish friends that are moving to Australia or Canada. You just work. It\u2019s like a robot life.’ Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

\u201cI think night-time in Dublin is really bad,\u201d Almeida said. \u201cI really feel bad for young [people] because there\u2019s nothing to do in the city. There\u2019s no art, there\u2019s nothing. And it\u2019s so sad. This is the capital and come on \u2013 we close at 2am \u2026 There is so much potential here. I just think it\u2019s a waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almeida believes people working in the service industry are particularly unfortunate when it comes to nightlife, both in terms of logistics and being able to access social spaces outside of their working hours. <\/p>\n

\u201c[The city] should have better buses running until late,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat about people that are working in pubs? How do they come back home? They need to cycle home. What if they live in Lucan? It\u2019s a nightmare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so many Irish friends that are all moving to Australia or Canada, because there\u2019s nothing here to do. You just work. It\u2019s like a robot life.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the pillars of Dublin\u2019s late-night scene is Camden Street, which caters largely to students and punters in their 20s. Ryan\u2019s Pub is a staple of that community \u2013 a Tipperary hurling stronghold, it was hosting its fair share of rugby fans on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Hansi, who didn\u2019t want to give his surname, said he has been drinking in Ryan\u2019s for 45 years. He is local to the area, and though he knows it is marketed towards a younger demographic, he sees plenty of space on Camden Street for those of his vintage. <\/p>\n

\"Ryan'sRyan’s regular Hansi has a pint in the Camden Street bar. Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

\u201cI come down every evening around six until half past seven,\u201d Hansi said. \u201cAt that time, you have a number of locals and this would be a real local pub where you can talk. Real old Dublin. Then I do realise that a lot of the younger generation come in here, which is absolutely fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The influx of tourists is the biggest change Hansi has seen over the years. His map of potential destinations these days is limited to a handful of pubs he knows well, but he watches the city \u201cbuzz with nightlife\u201d from a distance. <\/p>\n

Daniel Breslin, a taxi driver, said Saturday is his best night for business. He often continues driving until 3 or 4am, but the night tends to happen in spurts of intensity as droves of people compete for lifts to or from town at the same intervals. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a rush period,\u201d Breslin said. \u201cThat\u2019s the way it works here. In London, you have it all spread out so that\u2019s just the nature of it. Half the time, we\u2019re all sitting around.\u201d<\/p>\n

A reform of licensing laws could be a way of altering that schedule, he said. This is the central topic of conversation among advocates for major change to the night-time economy, but progress has stalled on laws allowing for nightclubs to stay open later in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve a bit of an archaic set-up with that, don\u2019t we?\u201d Breslin said. \u201cI imagine at the start everybody would be out partying but in London, it\u2019s all relaxed. People are much more relaxed. That\u2019s my own feeling on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0One Night in Dublin … out with the city\u2019s street cleaners: Smashed bottles, vomit, urine and worseOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

There is a lot of talk about the shortage of taxis available to those that stay in clubs and late bars until closing time, when much of Dublin\u2019s public transport has stopped running. Breslin said he can feel guilty if he\u2019s tired and has to head home, when someone might be desperate for a lift in the opposite direction. But there are safety risks for the drivers too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a bit younger and I don\u2019t know [how bad it can be],\u201d Breslin said. \u201cYou hear about lads getting proper hassled. I\u2019ve had it lucky enough. Had a couple of runners and things like that, but most people are sound. You get people getting sick in your car and all that kind of craic, and then your night can be over. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou charge them money for it, but sometimes it can go [badly]. Depends who you\u2019re dropping and where you\u2019re going. That\u2019s the risk you take. That\u2019s why you balance if someone\u2019s falling all around the place. At that hour, it\u2019s hard to [avoid very drunk people].\u201d <\/p>\n

Breslin was parked at a rank near Dawson Street, where another category of venue is commonplace: Caf\u00e9 en Seine, Flight Club and 37 Dawson Street all fit into a cocktail aesthetic that dominates here. Tucked away next to them, just off South Anne\u2019s Street, is late bar Zozimus. <\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron Stanley, new manager at Zozimus Bar, South Anne’s Street. Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the cocktail scene especially is moving forward nicely,\u201d said Aaron Stanley, who has been general manager at Zozimus for three weeks. \u201cThere\u2019s more international recognition for it. You look at the likes of Bar 1661 and 9 Below have been doing good things. We\u2019re looking to try and get into that conversation.\u201d <\/p>\n

Stanley has worked in hospitality and the drinks industry for about 20 years, spending time in Dubai and his native Cork before Dublin. He said he tries to encourage a range of multicultural events at Zozimus, reflecting the diversity of the team working there. <\/p>\n

Though they may benefit from licensing reform, Stanley was cautious about the subject. \u201cI think the whole ecosystem is going to be challenged by that,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about takeaway food, taxis, the DCC\u2019s cleaning services and things like that. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s going to be an extension of moving venues into very late opening hours, that\u2019s going to spill into mornings and there\u2019s a daytime economy too to be considered. I would suggest that it be done incrementally. Maybe extending hours by an hour or two at a time and giving venues the option to take that up.\u201d<\/p>\n

A long-time advocate for this sort of reform is David Grier, who runs house and techno club Pawn Shop on Dame Street. He is a supporter of the Give Us the Night campaign, which has long advocated for licensing reform and drawn attention to the reduction of nightclubs and cultural spaces in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\"DavidDavid Grier of Pawn Shop, Dame Street: ‘People drink slower when you don\u2019t put them on the clock.’ Photograph: Tom Honan <\/p>\n

Grier opened Pygmalion on South William Street with a group of friends, and has run clubs in London and Berlin over the years. Regulation, he said, is far kinder to new businesses in both cities than it is in Dublin, particularly for a more selective, artist-focused venue. It is one of the reasons he believes artists are \u201crunning out of spaces\u201d in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not as many places giving grassroots artists here the space to put their music forward,\u201d he said. \u201c[We have] an artsy crowd. Very gay-friendly, obviously, with our neighbours here [in LGBTQ nightclub The George]. Electronic music is born out of gay black clubs in the States really. We\u2019re very supportive of diversity and all that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grier said later opening hours would not make much difference to Pawn Shop financially, but it would allow them greater freedom to give artists the room to run interesting events. Safety-wise too, after a period of adaptation, he believes it would make drinkers less aggressive.<\/p>\n

Just before speaking with him, 20 yards away from Pawn Shop on George\u2019s Street, we witnessed a fight break out involving five men, two of whom tried and failed to regain entry to a different pub. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople drink slower when you don\u2019t put them on the clock. And also you\u2019d have staggered closing times instead of everyone on the street at three o\u2019clock. That\u2019s where you get the problems,\u201d Grier said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot as many people waiting in taxi ranks and chippers all fighting for the same thing. People go home in dribs and drabs when they\u2019re tired. Tired people don\u2019t cause fights. It\u2019s always the people you\u2019re kicking out that don\u2019t want to go that could cause problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin city\u2019s \u201cnight-time economy\u201d is a buzz-phrase that has dominated discourse around socialising in the centre of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,52,18,13,14,2215,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,97059,13421,7,8,5986,2212],"class_list":{"0":"post-169510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-for-you","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-night-time-economy","24":"tag-public-transport","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-tourism","28":"tag-weekendreview"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115513405279218552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}