Campaigners urge public to sign petition over Cobblestone protest

Campaigners have urged the public to submit formal objections to Dublin City Council over plans to build a hotel on the site of one of the city’s most famous pubs.

The deadline to put forward rejections to the council closes on Thursday.

It comes after hundreds of people held a protest in the city centre on Saturday against plans to build on the site of Cobblestone pub in Smithfield.

The Save the Cobblestone demonstration included protesters dressed in Halloween costumes holding placards with ‘Dublin is Dying’ messages, as well as musicians who played traditional songs.

The procession moved from Smithfield Square towards O’Connell Bridge where a ceili was held.

The Cobblestone, a pub celebrated world-wide for its traditional Irish music is proposed to be, in part, demolished in favour of erecting a multi-storey hotel.

People gather at Smithfield in Dublin to protest against Dublin City Council over plans to build a hotel on the site of Cobblestone pub, one of the city's most famous pubs. Picture date: Saturday, October 30th, 2021.

Campaigners say that though the front bar would be maintained as a listed building, 70 per cent of the current floorspace would be removed making it impossible for the pub to function as a business.

They said the venue at the back would be completely demolished, a place that hosts intergenerational singing sessions, traveller culture nights, affordable music and dance lessons and countless other events which no other single venue could hope to accommodate.

@DublinIsDying pic.twitter.com/2GutAKa6yA

— Kate O' Shea (@RumpusX) October 31, 2021

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It is the second demonstration over plans to build the hotel after almost a thousands people gathered in Smithfield Square earlier this month.

Among the crowd, musicians played ancient marches, hundreds walked together, carrying musical instruments, banners and placards.

People gather at Smithfield in Dublin to protest against Dublin City Council over plans to build a hotel on the site of Cobblestone pub, one of the city's most famous pubs. Picture date: Saturday, October 30th, 2021.

A spokesman for the Dublin Is Dying group said: “To follow through with this plan would spell the end for the Irish music community which has developed there over the past 30 years.

“The same unfettered greed and short-sighted planning that has created the housing crisis in Dublin has continually encroached on sites of culture but the people of Dublin have had enough.

“Now they are saying, no, something has to change.”