The council can be a guarantor of such a space.” It’s because you’re outbid or the site is sold because there’s a more attractive offer. It’s because cultural spaces can’t compete with capitalism.

It’s not for lack of interest that this doesn’t happen. Dublin City Council cast itself as an enabler, a facilitator, a supporter of other people’s initiatives. “I felt the city development draft was very passive.

Meanwhile, we will have had really inadequate cultural infrastructure,” says White. “My fear is that even if the conclusion is, yes, Dublin needs a 500-seater venue, it will take many more years again to deliver. “An excellent venue, for hire at a reasonable rate”, he says, could be used by several artistic festivals, pantomimes, commercial producers and established production companies. A Dublin City Council feasibility study by Turley Consultants – City Theatre of Tomorrow and prompted by White’s motion at the council’s strategic policy committee in 2021 – identified a “clear supportive rationale” for such a venue, although the council’s current development plan, for 2022-28, doesn’t include provision for one. White, the director of Dublin Theatre Festival, argues that Dublin needs a new 500-seat municipal venue between the two canals. It’s because you’re outbid or the site is sold

It’s really difficult to get things started here and to do interesting stuff.”Ĭultural spaces can’t compete with capitalism. “It’s not just theatre and dance, but all the nightclubs that are gone, and the people who can’t put on club nights because licensing is prohibitively expensive or they can’t make spaces safe and fireproof.

“At the same time,” White says, “the city has grown, and the funding has grown, and there seems to be no concern as to what an adequate infrastructure is for culture generally in the city. Over the past 20 years, multiple venues in the capital have closed or been razed, including City Arts Centre, Andrews Lane Theatre, the Tivoli, the SFX and the Mint Henry Place. “Not only the lack of venues but the lack, as far as I can see, of a vision to address the crisis in venues in Dublin city centre.” “The bee I have in my bonnet, and have had for a long time, is venues,” Willie White says.

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