Pub in Tailors’ Hall closed and beer gardens dismantled – for now

At Tailors’ Hall on High Street, a new pub and beer garden – opened in late 2022 in the building that was An Taisce’s headquarters at the time – is now closed.

The building, originally a guild hall and more than 300 years old, is a protected structure and a former meeting place of the United Irishmen. 

It is council-owned but on a 99-year lease to An Taisce, the charity established to preserve heritage. 

In 2022, An Taisce sublet the basement and ground floor to Liberty Renaissance Ltd, and the company did them up and opened a pub and beer gardens.

The closure of the Tailors’ Hall Tavern comes after the council issued a planning enforcement notice, and local councillors called on the council to take back from An Taisce the lease on the building, which they say was converted from community space to a pub without their consent. 

In February 2024, Liberty Renaissance Ltd applied for planning permission to make the changes to the grounds that it had already made, but the council declared that application invalid. 

Paul Clinton, one of the owners of Liberty Renaissance, says he removed the outdoor furniture and applied for planning permission. “We’re trying to be 100 percent compliant,” he says. “We’re actually being ultra-compliant.”

His planning consultants advised him that the work on the grounds of the building was exempted development under an amendment to the planning law, which allows for disused pubs to be converted for housing. 

Clinton also says that Dublin City Council officials consented to his application for a full seven-day pub licence and the licence wouldn’t have been granted without the consent of the owner. “It’s a standard proof,” he says. “You have to bring it into court.”

A Dublin City Council spokesperson previously said it had not participated in any unauthorised development at Tailor’s Hall. 

Wedding bells and a pub licence

In February 2023, a spokesperson for An Taisce said it sublet part of Tailors’ Hall to Liberty Renaissance Ltd to run a cafe/restaurant with permission from Dublin City Council.

Council officials had presented that plan to councillors in 2019, when the council CEO Richard Shakespeare, then the head of planning, said it was working with An Taisce on a plan for a cafe/restaurant at Tailors’ Hall. 

One of councillors’ powers is to approve – or not – disposals, including leases and sales of council property. Like the one of Tailors’ Hall to An Taisce.

Independent Councillor Mannix Flynn says that Dublin City Council managers should not agree to a sublease of any council-owned building – like the one by An Taisce to Liberties Renaissance Ltd – without the consent of councillors. 

“We are in charge of disposals,” Flynn says. “They cannot do this.”

When Flynn made the same argument at a January meeting, Bruce Phillips, the council’s South Central Area Manager, said that “Consent of a sub-lease does not require the approval of the elected members”. 

In any case, the council managers agreed the sublease, and Clinton got to work at Tailors’ Hall.

Clinton says he had approached An Taisce with a plan to open a wedding venue at Tailors’ Hall after he realised there was demand for venues for humanist weddings. “We think this place has wonderful potential for humanist weddings,” he says. “It’s perfect.”

Before that the venue had a special restaurant licence, granted in 2011, which allows alcohol to be sold but only with food. Under that licence, the alcohol must be paid for together with the food and the premises are not permitted to have a bar.

That isn’t suitable for weddings, said Clinton, because there will be “afters” guests at weddings, so the venue needs a full licence to serve them drinks. 

In May 2022, Liberty Renaissance Ltd secured a restaurant licence and a full seven-day pub licence, for use at “basement and ground floor of Tailors Hall”.

Clinton says council officials consented to his application for a full seven-day pub licence and that that licence wouldn’t have been granted without the consent of the owner, Dublin City Council. 

Dublin City Council hasn’t yet responded to a query about this sent Tuesday afternoon. 

In September 2023, a council spokesperson batted back a question around whether it was in any way involved in the unauthorised development. 

“Dublin City Council strongly refutes and objects to any concern or implication made that we (Dublin City Council) have ‘participated in the conversion of the protected structure to a pub without planning permission’”, said a council spokesperson in September 2023. 

“Dublin City Council has had no role in the carrying out any unauthorised development that may have taken place at this property,” said the council spokesperson. 

A spokesperson for the Revenue Commissioners says that in order to get a licence for a new pub the individual has to first obtain a certificate from the courts. 

“The Courts deal with such issues as the entitlement of the person to obtain a licence, the fitness of the person to hold a licence and the suitability of the premises,” says the Revenue Commissioners’ spokesperson . 

“A person wishing to obtain a licence must apply to the District Court on notice to An Garda Síochána and the Fire Authority for a certificate that they are entitled to the licence,” he says. 

The planning application

Almost anything that changes the appearance of a protected structure requires planning permission, said former council planner Kieran Rose, back in February 2023.

Converting the outdoor area front and back to beer gardens appears to be a material change of use, he says, because those pieces of land have been converted to a commercial use.

At first, a council spokesperson said that Liberty Renaissance had got planning permission for the works on Tailors’ Hall. 

“The necessary planning permission for change of use and associated works was sought and granted and all works were carried out in accordance with best conservation practice with input from DCC’s Conservation Section and City Architects Department,” said a council spokesperson in February 2023. 

However there was no planning permission application on the council’s planning website and a few months later, in June 2023, the council issued an enforcement notice for multiple planning breaches. 

In February 2024, Liberty Renaissance sought planning permission for those works. 

Namely, it sought permission to place tables, chairs and a horse box on the grounds and to put up signs, including a canvas. It asked permission to install floodlights, light bulbs, lamposts, speakers and cameras, to pave the garden and place a statue in it. 

Inside, it looked to install new internal electrical services including a wall mounted TV, security and emergency lighting and to install ventilation. 

But Dublin City Council declared the planning application invalid. 

Clinton says that council planners declared it invalid because he needs the owner’s consent to make a planning application. He is currently trying to work out who in Dublin City Council could grant that consent, he says. “We asked that question about six weeks ago,” he says. 

Clinton says that from the outset An Taisce told him that he couldn’t do any work that required planning permission, and this was stipulated in his lease. But, he says, he had received professional advice that the changes to the outdoor areas did not require planning permission. 

“We understood that pub furniture was exempted development under an amendment to the Planning and Development Act 2022,” says Clinton. “We had professional advice telling us that that is permitted under that act.”

That legislation allows vacant, disused pubs to be turned into homes and doesn’t appear to mention anything about opening new beer gardens or installing furniture on the grounds of pubs. 

Clinton says that planning consultants advised him that outdoor furniture of pubs was exempt under that amendment. “It was an unintended consequence of that legislation,” he says.

Clinton says that his advice differed to the interpretation of the law by the Dublin City Council planners. “It’s a simple misunderstanding,” says Clinton. “All we wanted to do was make sure that people could go to the afters of a wedding and have a drink.”

An Taisce hasn’t yet responded to queries sent Friday evening asking about the current and future use of the building. 

What next?

As well as weddings, multiple events took place at Tailors’ Hall in 2023, including community and cultural events, meetings of environmental and charitable groups as well as local christenings and birthday bashes, according to a letter applying for planning permission. 

In February 2024 An Taisce invited councillors to an event in Tailors’ Hall to meet with them and explain the community uses still in place in the building. 

Clinton says he would like to reopen the pub. “When we get consent to make a planning application and we get planning permission we will reopen,” he says. 

But if he doesn’t get planning permission he will keep the lease and continue running events and weddings there he says. “We think there is great potential in the building and it should be enjoyed by the citizens,” says Clinton. “We will just soldier on.”

Flynn, the independent councillor, says that Dublin City Council should take the building back from An Taisce. A pub use is not a community use, he says. 

Dublin City Council needs to clarify whether it consented to the pub licence, he says. The council should release all documents relating to this sublease, says Flynn.

CORRECTION: This article was updated at 1.31pm on 5 May 2024 to reflect that An Taisce invited councillors to Tailors’ Hall to explain the community uses in February 2024, not February 2023.