Punters eager to save an iconic Dublin beer garden are to descend on the city centre later this week.
The Rock for Culture event will take place outside the Holiday Inn on O'Connell Street Upper this coming Thursday, August 11, at 6pm in an effort to show what will be lost if Fibber Magees is forced to shut its famous beer garden. If plans go ahead, the Living Room and Murrays Pub will also be affected.
The issues have arisen because the owners of the Holiday Inn Express plan to use the land to extend the hotel and were granted permission by Dublin City Council. Several publicans on O'Connell Street have lodged an appeal against plans to close the popular open-space beer garden.
Read more: Publicans lodge appeal over loss of popular beer garden on O'Connell Street
Dublin City Council have approved plans for a six-storey extension, which is designed to provide an additional 95 guest rooms. The extension will bring to 309 the number of rooms at the Holiday Inn Express hotel, which is located on the corner of O'Connell Street and Cathal Brugha Street.
Among those attending the event on Thursday will be speakers from the music industry, a live band, Ireland's top drag & burlesque performers as well as a resident DJ. The aim is to showcase what will be lost if the plans goes ahead.
Over 10k people have signed a petition against the plans. There has also been a video series launched on Instagram called "What does Fibbers mean to you?"
Labour Councillor Darragh Moriarty previously told Dublin Live that the closure of the beer garden is "incredibly disappointing".
He said: "This is one of the only beer garden spaces in the inner city and there are three distinct pubs in the area Fibber Magee's, The Living Room, and Murray's. It's just incredibly disappointing to see more hotels being catered for, I think people are sick of hotels.
"So many venues in the last five years have been closed because of new hotels, it's just hotel after hotel."
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