A row over a famous Dublin Pub has sparked a protest in Smithfield this Saturday lunchtime.
It's due to a planning application that has been submitted to build a hotel around The Cobblestone pub in Smithfield.
Fans of the historic music venue are taking to the streets after more than 25,000 people signed a petition over plans to build a hotel around it.
Musician turned campaigner, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin says the development would rip the heart out of the venue
"It would become a more or less like a hotel bar really, for tourists.
"While a lot of tourists comes to The Cobblestone to get the real thing, I think at that point the thing would be so much altered that it would be a shadow of its former self."
Today #Dublin begins the fight back, via @Ceannabhain;
Please come and show support for the Cobblestone and the Merchant's Arch. Bring instruments, voices & dancing feet!#DublinIsDying #SaveTheCobblestone #SaveMerchantsArch #TheCobblestone#cobblestonehttps://t.co/cSy9ElhQh6— Duncan Crowley 🐝🌎 🐌 (@fuspey) October 9, 2021
'The Last Old Artifact'
Tomás Mulligan, who's father Tom has run the pub and traditional music venue for over 30 years, says if The Cobblestone goes, nothing will be left of the old Smithfield:
"There's hotels in Smithfield, there's the Maldron right across the road, there's The Generator halfway down the square and those have been two solid characters for the last few years and for the better part of the last decade.
"There's other hotels popping up on the Luas line, we have no shortage of this stuff at all.
"It's kind of like the end of the roman empire. It's just seems like a scramble for scraps at this stage.
"I have no idea what will be left of Smithfield. This is the last thing, the last old artifact of the square that we have."
