How much would it cost the council to revive the Rupert Guinness Theatre in the Liberties?

Partly, it’s nostalgia that makes Rob Murphy want to see the Rupert Guinness Theatre re-open.

But mostly, the city is in need of a venue like it, the associate artist in Tallaght’s Civic Theatre said on Tuesday morning. “Not only in Dublin 8, but Dublin in general. We’ve had so many theatres close and not re-open.”

He lists a few off over the phone. The SFX Hall on Upper Sherrard Street. Andrew’s Lane Theatre near Dame Street. The Tivoli Theatre on Francis Street.

Opened in 1951, and capable of seating 600 people, according to the National Built Heritage Service, the Rupert Guinness Theatre on Watling Street was last used as a venue for theatrical productions in the early 2000s.

In 2015, owners Diageo loaned it to the National College of Art and Design as a lecture hall. But, they stopped using it just prior to the pandemic.

It is hugely frustrating that this mid-sized venue has been sitting largely unused for years, Labour Party Councillor Darragh Moriarty said at Dublin City Council’s arts and culture committee meeting on Monday. 

“It hasn’t been public-facing in any meaningful way in about two decades,” he said.

Moriarty tabled a motion at the committee meeting, asking for the council to engage with and seek a contribution from Diageo to help fund a feasibility study to rejuvenate the theatre.

Everyone needs to approach any potential rejuvenation as realistically as possible by figuring out how this project could be funded, Moriarty says. “We need to get the costings for all of this, and that’s missing.”

Diageo has shown that they want to invest in the community, he says. “I think a show of good faith from them would be that they would contribute towards that feasibility study.”

A spokesperson for Diageo said they want to see the theatre restored as a cultural and community venue: “Engagement with relevant stakeholders continues as we work towards this goal.”

In some state for the state

Murphy, the artist, recalls performing in many of the Liberties’ now closed venues. 

He acted in the Tivoli’s annual Christmas pantomime for more than a decade, he says. “I was the Tivoli panto dame, so I still get a bit emotional when I drive down Francis Street and just see the Staycity apartment block.”

And as a child, he performed in the Rupert Guinness too, he says.

It was a competition known as Mini Tops, a kids’ version of the John Player Tops of the Town talent show, he says. “We entered a number of years from a school in Inchicore that I was in.”

Community groups flocked to it for their productions too, he says. “It was a gorgeous theatre. It was really comfortable as well.”

These days, the theatre is not in such good condition.

In May 2025, the council’s City Arts Office met with Diageo to view the theatre, City Arts Officer Ray Yeates reported to the South Central Area Committee that month.

The theatre was in disrepair and would need careful restoration and modernisation with funding and management, Yeates said at the time. “Diageo said they wished to consider the matter further and this was the last contact.”

There are a couple of big issues with the venue right now, Yeates said on Monday evening. “First of all, the size of the stage is quite small for the modern theatre.”

The whole stage would need to be rebuilt if it were to be a 500-seater venue that could accommodate an event as part of something like the Dublin Theatre Festival, he said. “And it’s a protected structure.”

On 14 April, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne, Fianna Fáil TD, said during a Dáil Éireann debate on architectural heritage, that the City Arts Office and Arts Council were engaging Diageo.

Responding to a query on the status of any planned conservation works for the theatre – put forward by Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman TD – Browne said he wasn’t aware of any.

But, Diageo had indicated that they were open to transferring its ownership to the state, Browne said. 

Dublin City Council’s “position in this regard is that a full study of the building, including a feasibility study on its future, would be required as a first step in any such process”, he said.

Feasibility

Moriarty’s motion, seeking funds for this feasibility study, was intended to get the ball properly rolling to figure how much its rejuvenation would cost, the Labour councillor said at Monday’s meeting. 

“Are there other uses we could find for that space? Is it just a theatre? Is there more scope to what we can deliver on a creative campus on the Rupert Guinness site?” he said.

People Before Profit Councillor Hazel De Nortúin said Diageo don’t want the building, and they are looking to give it back to the community but the issue is how much this will cost. “It’s going to need governmental intervention.”

Moriarty said it shouldn’t only be public money spent on restoration. “This is Diageo’s building, this is Diageo’s problem that it has gotten to the state it has, and Diageo seems keen to put the price of a pint up every other week.”

The committee shouldn’t be running to the council or any department to fund this rejuvenation, he said. “I don’t think Diageo should be able to gift it to the city, and walk away from their responsibility.”

###Aspirations and Goodwill

Yeates, the City Arts Officer, said Monday that right now there is an aspiration among the committee members to rejuvenate the theatre. “The next phase is policy. It’s not implementation.”

He pointed to a July 2023 feasibility study, undertaken on the council’s behalf by planning consultants Turley, and Arrow, a Danish architecture firm, with film producer Arthur Lappin, which assessed the demand for a new mid-sized – 500 seater venue – in the city.

The study said there was no theatre in the city that was regularly available for production companies and festivals that could seat between 180 and 1,100 people.

This conceptual feasibility study looked at policy development, but there isn’t yet a policy that says why the council believes there should be a 500-seater venue in the city, Yeates said. 

“And there isn’t one nationally either. There’s just an aspiration and a feasibility study to develop a policy,” he said.

It could take up to 10 years just to bring the theatre back into use, he said. “People simply don’t face up to this. They think that, ‘Oh it’s going to be open next week.’”

If people are serious about this, then it needs to be approached in a serious way, Yeates said. “We don’t even know if we’re serious until we study, say, the size of the stage, like is it suitable? We’re not sure. Will it actually be usable? We’re not sure.”

“So until the feasibility is done to add to the feasibility that is in policy development, we’re kind of just having a chat about an aspiration,” he said.

That’s what the motion tries to do, Moriarty said. “Because, I’m conscious of ministerial visits and walkabouts, and nothing actually happening after them.”

There is a lot of goodwill in the council chamber and on the Diageo side, he said. “They are embedded and rooted in the Dublin 8 community.”

Eileen Quinlivan, the council’s assistant chief executive for culture said, in a written response to Moriarty that if the motion is agreed, the council would engage with Diageo as requested.

Moriarty’s motion was agreed by the committee.

Rob Murphy, the associate artist in the Civic Theatre, says he hopes, as everyone weighs up the future of the building, that they realise it has a lot of potential to contribute to cultural groups beyond simply being a stage for performances.

It’s a large venue, he says. “I know a lot of people who write stuff, and can’t find a place to develop the work. There could be scope here for studio space to have that development work, as well as performance work. That would be ideal.”