An ambassador for this year’s Culture Night has called for an “overhaul” of licensing laws and “joined-up thinking” to address concerns over nightlife and cultural spaces in Ireland.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with David McCullagh, activist and podcaster Andrea Horan bemoaned the closure of many of Ireland’s artistic and nightlife spaces.
“We’re left with a limited number of spaces and it’s not looking good,” she said.
“Even this week the LVA (Licensed Vintners Association) came out saying how hard they’re finding it to open late.
“You need an SEO (Special Exemption Order) which are 250 quid and they’re asking even for that to be reduced,” she said.
“But obviously what we need is an overhaul of our licensing system, but we also need some joined up thinking.”
Ms Horan added: “There’s no enforcement on cultural spaces that are being built into plans. So, it’s all well and good saying there has to be a cultural space there or a club or whatever.
“Then when it doesn’t get fulfilled, the space is there, but it might not actually be built. It’s an empty room that hasn’t no facilities.”
Carla Rogers of the National Campaign for the Arts said the greatest threats to infrastructure for artists and nightlife are housing precarity and the affordability of workspaces.
“I think one thing that when we think of artist spaces, a lot of the time we’re thinking of big venues or galleries or purpose-built spaces.
“But a lot of our art spaces or the spaces where artwork is made are not purpose-built at all,” Ms Rogers said.
She added: “And even the ones that are, are the people, the organisations that occupy them are doing so on a short-term basis. They don’t have long-term lease. They don’t have security of tenancy.
“A lot of those spaces, even if they were purpose-built, maybe they were built 20, 30 years ago, are now in disrepair or in need of refurbishments, are leaking, are at great risk from climate change.”
Not willing to put systems in place
Ms Horan cited behavioural changes among young people who became adults during the Covid-19 pandemic as one of the reasons there has been an acceleration of closures.
“Loads of venues were closed down, people got used to staying in.
“Young people who were in their formative years weren’t going to college, weren’t on campus, weren’t availing of student deals,” Ms Horan said.
“So, the systems shut down. People got used to scrolling on their phone at home, they got used to ordering their Deliveroo.
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“They’re not having interactions as much with real life and we’ve seen the impact that that has on mental health and everything that goes along with that, even down to how people are getting radicalised online.
“There’s a lot of bad things that are happening, but I think when people are saying, ‘Young people don’t want to go out anymore’. What they’re saying is that they’re not willing to put the systems in place like late night transport.
“We don’t have a bus service that goes late at night in Dublin, our capital city, let alone around the rest of the country,” she added.
