Una Mullally: Small but sweet victories for Dublin cultural life welcome and overdue

“For now … we celebrate!” On Friday news broke that the developer Marron Estates had officially withdrawn its planning application for a hotel to sit atop the Cobblestone pub in Smithfield, Dublin, which would have destroyed the integrity of the music venue. The declaration of joy was issued by the group Dublin Is Dying, whose symbol is a fist grasping a tin whistle.

What fantastic news. Credit goes to the thousands of people who signed petitions, campaigned, marched and spread the word about the potential destruction of this important cultural entity. Credit also goes to Dublin City Council, which, in refusing planning permission, initially cited the venue’s cultural importance.

And it said the proposed development would be “contrary to development plan provisions in respect of culture in the city, due to the removal of a space which has been used for teaching, rehearsal and performance for traditional music ... and which is considered to make an important contribution to the cultural offering in this area”. This accurate declaration by the council was seismic – acknowledging the building’s significance for what it contained beyond architecture.

The need for diverse cultural and amenity space in the city is urgent

The level of engagement in the campaign to save the Cobblestone was also seismic. A remarkable number of objections – almost 700 – were lodged, 35,000 people signed a petition, and many, many marched and rallied on the streets.

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We are in an age of scrutiny about cultural preservation and urban planning, and indeed politics more broadly. And scrutiny begets engagement.

Nearby, and also last week, Dublin City Council councillors finally voted to pedestrianise most of Capel Street, a huge success during the pandemic, and for which thousands of people advocated.

Resisting regressive development and homogenous building may often feel like a struggle, but it is also a pleasure when things go right. For all the difficulties facing the city, the mobilisation of people, their engagement in the city and the successes of people power are wonderful.

Lost spaces

The need for diverse cultural and amenity space in the city is urgent. It’s not just about top-down things such as Dublin City Council tendering for a feasibility study for a new 500-seater venue in the city, at a cost of €16 million overall. I’m sure that will be very nice, but equally, a good few buildings could be bought with that money.

Spaces are still being lost. The many recent odd decisions made by An Bord Pleanála include one overturning Dublin City Council’s initial refusal of a project that includes in its plans the demolition of the City of Dublin Working Men’s Club on Little Strand Street off Capel Street, in order to build – you guessed it – another hotel.

What many people won’t know about that club is that it was also home to a vibrant series of queer cabaret nights, welcomed in for a fee much smaller than other city venues. No matter how bemused the faces of the barmen during performances, they were still open to interesting things happening in their venue.

There is something poetic about the fact that the Cobblestone news came the same weekend John Francis Flynn was set to headline Vicar Street

This is what I mean when I talk about a cultural ecosystem and a cultural habitat; it’s overlapping, surprising, unexpected, interconnected, and relies not just on specific silos but an integration and collision that allows for a sense of discovery. This is the opposite of homogeny.

As the great Jane Jacobs wrote: “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody,” and also, “By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by travelling; namely, the strange.”

Cultural grouting

This is why we need a culture-first and community-first approach to empty retail units around the city. They abound. There are many office buildings (plenty of them now half-empty at least half the time) with ground-floor units that could be used as bookshops, artist studios, galleries and micro-venues.

While purpose-built venues are fantastic, and desperately needed, we also need a new era of what could probably be quite unattractively described as cultural grouting – taking advantage of the space between, where curious things can fill the gaps. This is what gives a sense of vibrancy to a city; the sense of the unexpected, the odd, the artistic failures and triumphs, and creative magic.

While arts funding has been flowing during the pandemic (still at a trickle compared with many of our European neighbours), we need capital funding and grants to secure buildings and physical spaces, places that artists and collectives occupy and develop as they stand, as well as purpose-built venues. A great example of the former is Unit 44 in Dublin 7, run by a collective of musicians called Kirkos.

There is something poetic about the fact that the Cobblestone news came the same weekend John Francis Flynn was set to headline Vicar Street in the Liberties. Flynn didn’t arrive ready-made for Vicar Street, he grew brilliantly towards it, and was a central figure in the campaign to save the Cobblestone.

Without those small rooms and late-night sessions, the spontaneous gigs and scenes coalescing, we lose the beautiful process unfurling in the future, through which headliners of big venues can be made. Big is brilliant, and small is beautiful, too, gigs and victories alike.