How can the late night life be saved?
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What does the new Licensed Vintners research reveal about the decline of late‑night venues in Ireland?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. With Aviva Insurance.
Now new research from the licensed vintners associations show a continued decline of the amount of late night bars and nightclubs opening late in Ireland. It is down nearly 25% from 2018. So how can late night culture be saved? And do we even want to save it? Well, to discuss this, I'm now joined by Give Us The Night spokesperson, Sunil Sharpe, and journalist with the Irish independent, Saoirse Hanley. You're both very welcome to the show. I'm going to start with you first, Sunil, because I do think you need to look at the figures sort of over the last 25 years to really understand how that late night bar club culture in Ireland has been fairly decimated.
Hi Ciara, thanks for having me. Yeah, I mean, I think back in, if you were to look at roughly like the turn of the millennium, the amount of nights that venues were opening was about roughly triple what they're opening now in terms of nightclubs or dance venues. At that point, late bars kind of went neck and neck with nightclubs, so they sort of operate in the same space, operate under the exact same licensing conditions with special exemption orders and everything kind of got blended into the one. And since then, we kind of have less dedicated dance venues. Some late bars do the dancing thing well, but by and large, it's not the same experience as a nightclub. But I think probably the bigger issue here, or the thing to kind of focus on, I guess, is changing habits and what people want from a space.
And in the past, we relied a lot, the industry relied a lot on returning customers and this kind of loyalty of people coming back to the same spot week in week out but I think nowadays that is kind of sitting too still for a lot of people first of all there's obviously cost of living considerations people can't afford to go out as much as they used to and it's quite expensive to go out now but also people don't want to go to the same place every week. And now in order to get people in, you really need to kind of get their attention.
How have attendance patterns and customer habits changed for Irish nightclubs since the early 2000s?
And that's why some of the more mainstream places, some of the places with big headliners, it's kind of like the larger events, you know, and stuff that can also kind of compete on the level of festivals in terms of having big stages, big production. I mean, we saw there at the weekends, District X Festival, did about 40,000 people and I mean a lot of the crowd that are coming to their events are also going to their weekly club index so to say that people don't want to go to clubs anymore or to say that dance culture isn't perhaps more popular than it's ever been I think you know would not be true but I think it's the kind of spaces that people want to go to week in week out that's kind of changed and that puts kind of extra pressure on the smaller to mid mid-sized spaces so
But I would have spoken to you a number of years back, Sunil. I remember coming live from a nightclub in the city centre for a TV programme I was doing. And there was a sense of hope when we spoke that the whole industry was on the cusp of reform and we were going to see changes that would save all of these spaces and perhaps inject a bit of life into that night scene, whatever it may be. Why has that failed, do you think, to materialise?
Yeah, well, I mean, a lot of it was about running costs. And I think, you know, it was like when we came out of the pandemic, then I think for some people, it really was a sink or swim scenario. And luckily, you know, a lot more venues lasted, a lot more venues opened their doors than we kind of maybe fully anticipated. We have obviously lost venues since then. It has stabilised to some degree, but I think the small to mid-sized places are just really struggling under the kind of just the cost, the cost of doing business at the moment. And the governments are very aware of this. I mean, they did their own research on this. They did a number of public consultations across different departments. I mean, a lot of local authorities as well have been doing their own
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What does the new Licensed Vintners research reveal about the decline of late‑night venues in Ireland?
0:01–2:13
2
How have attendance patterns and customer habits changed for Irish nightclubs since the early 2000s?
2:13–4:34
3
Why are rising costs and the post‑pandemic environment hurting small‑to‑mid‑size venues the most?
4:34–6:11
4
What role do government pilots, nighttime advisors and licensing reforms play in rescuing the night‑time economy?
6:11–8:02
5
How is the lack of new venues affecting cultural life in smaller towns and rural areas?
8:02–10:06
6
Are younger people still interested in late‑night outings, or are they shifting spending to wellness and other activities?
10:06–12:04
7
What would encourage investors, community groups and entrepreneurs to reopen or create late‑night spaces?
12:04–13:34
8
Who should oversee licensing and cultural policy for nightlife – justice, culture or enterprise departments?
13:34–14:03
Speakers
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