Sir, – Reading your recent article on the injunction sought against Yamamori Izakaya by the newly arrived multinational Hoxton Hotel left me with a familiar mix of anger and weary resignation (“Hoxton Hotel seeks injunction over noise from adjoining club”, News, February 13th).
We have watched this pattern across Dublin, late-night venues and creative spaces steadily pushed out, too often to make way for hotels that trade on the very cultural vibrancy they help to erode.
These establishments market themselves on proximity to “trendy” neighbourhoods, yet their presence frequently undermines the character that made those areas attractive in the first place. The loss of such spaces is not merely sentimental, it is one of many reasons, each deserving its own letter, that friends and peers increasingly choose other global cities over Dublin when deciding where to live and build their futures.
Yamamori, operating on both sides of the Liffey for decades, has contributed far more to the cultural and social fabric of this city than any newly arrived, interchangeable hotel brand. Dublin must do better to protect venues like it. Stronger planning policies are needed, ones that recognise and safeguard established nightlife and cultural spaces, and that prevent newcomers from settling in lively districts only to demand silence once the ink is dry on their opening brochures.
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If tranquillity was the priority, perhaps a leafy suburb would have been a wiser investment. In this case, there is certainly a nuisance but it is not Yamamori. – Yours, etc,
ALISON KEARNEY,
Dublin 9.
