{"id":652575,"date":"2026-08-23T17:47:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T17:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/652575\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T17:47:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T17:47:26","slug":"its-something-of-a-landmark-newrys-historic-former-cinema-building-to-be-restored-by-local-husband-and-wife-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/652575\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s something of a landmark\u2019 \u2013 Newry\u2019s historic former cinema building to be restored by local husband-and-wife \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 120-year-old former cinema building in Newry city centre<\/a> is set to be brought back to life by a local husband-and-wife.<\/p>\n

The site on Hill Street, commonly referred to as the \u2018Frontier Cinema\u2019 building, has been closed for the past number of years after most recently being used as a gym.<\/p>\n

The current building was opened in 1907 by the Irish National Foresters\u2019 Benefit Society and the hall, which housed the Frontier Cinema, was added in 1912.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/b>Man who changed the face of retail in Newry is retiring after 38 years<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>\"Fear<\/a><\/p>\n

Its use as an entertainment space \u2013 originally a cinema and later a bingo hall \u2013 is what the building is best known for in the city. <\/p>\n

\"ColinColin O’Callaghan, a local planning consultant who is hoping to bring Newry’s historic Frontier cinema building back to life PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n

Now, it is about to embark on the next stage of its life after being purchased by local planning consultants Colin and Caoimhe O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Irish News, Mr O\u2019Callaghan said that while future plans for the building have not been decided, he envisages the space once again filled with people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t necessarily think it\u2019s the lazy option just because there\u2019s a stage here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally can visualise a band, a comedian, or some sort of performer on that stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy own vision, I suppose, I can see a crowd in here, just having a good time and that\u2019s probably what I think is needed in Newry as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ColinThe interior of Newry\u2019s historic Frontier Cinema, which local planning consultant Colin O\u2019Callaghan hopes to bring back to life. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n

The couple\u2019s takeover of the former Frontier Cinema building comes as the wider area is due to benefit from redevelopment plans.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan said that they decided to purchase it after restoring their own office building, which is a listed site. <\/p>\n

While historic, the Frontier Cinema is not listed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt that this would be in some ways less challenging than the listed building we had done but equally, it\u2019s a much bigger building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst logistically it will be easier and so on, financially it\u2019s going to be a much bigger undertaking than anything that we\u2019ve done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan said that they hope to keep the main features of the building, which is structurally sound, intact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel it\u2019s something of a landmark, it\u2019s iconic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven the red brick, back at a time in that era, you have the old gasworks down there and that would have been a lot of red brick buildings and so on.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a lot of those red brick buildings, they\u2019ve all disappeared or things have been altered or are done away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the prominence of the bays and the original stonework and balustrades \u2013 architecturally, we think it has plenty of merit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair have heard \u201ca lot of stories\u201d from people in the area of their memories of the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey remember going to see certain movies in the cinema and things like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople do certainly have fond memories of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the feedback that we\u2019ve been receiving, it seems to be that there is a desire to keep a building that has some sort of an entertainment type use. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe also think it would be a shame to have a building like this and not have it open to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 120-year-old former cinema building in Newry city centre is set to be brought back to life by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[31651,18,117,5489,19,17,11605,589,179809],"class_list":["post-652575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-co-down","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-history","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-newry","tag-restoration","tag-south-down"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117146082570413435","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652575","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=652575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}