Famous Dublin (and surrounding areas) nightclubs that are no more

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935039#Comment_120935039

Dame Court yeah. Currently being developed into a hotel but with RiRa's to return apparently in the basement I think.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935059#Comment_120935059

That’s the one- thanks for the update, I’d doubt I’m target market for that new version of it 😀

boardlady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935039#Comment_120935039

I was waiting for someone to mention RiRa! We also frequented Fibber McGee's ... can't remember if they had a late licence or not now ..

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935090#Comment_120935090

I think theyre going for a speakeasy cocktail bar type thing. Fancy hotel bar.

francois

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934988#Comment_120934988

Called Velour iirc

cullenswood

The Gaiety stayed open until 4am also.

The place used to start emptying out after about half two though

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935026#Comment_120935026

Gaeity was laid out like a maze, trying to find people in the little bars or maybe that was the drink...

I have hazy memory of seeing this movie running... Spider Man live action from the 70s connected to the TV series.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man_%281977_film%29

nachouser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934802#Comment_120934802

I was in the Blue Banana once. Lads were wearing gun holsters and someone f*cked a chair across the room at some lads sitting at another table. Interesting place:-)

mazdamiatamx5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934471#Comment_120934471

Sure you don't mean the Asylum? Maybe System was similar, not sure.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120931988#Comment_120931988

The legality of running a nightclub on a sports club licence is somewhere between exceptionally vague and outright illegal, that wouldn't have helped!

josip

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935106#Comment_120935106

Been to both although I preferred Fibbers (which did have a late license). If you went down during the mosh in Fibbers, a circle would form around you and you had about 3 seconds to get back up.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120936034#Comment_120936034

I remember seeing a trail of blood along O'Connell St as I was going to Fibbers... and I can confirm it led to Fibbers toilets.

Ha Long Bay

Back in the early 2000's there was late night venue in Westport called Wits. It was unable to get a nightclub license so it used to apply for a late license and have a live band on stage to get around the nightclub license issue.

At one stage on a Sunday night they launched the tenner club where you paid €10 entrance fee and all drink was free. I think it lasted about 3 weeks before the judge shut it down due to excess workload.

And in Dublin around the same time I remember the Palace on Camden street had a student night on a Wednesday or Thursday when it was free entrance before 11pm and €1 per drink.

Sir Galahad

Hoops in Dundrum in the very late 1970's. I had a mobile disco (yes, that was a thing 😂) and used to do Hoops. And the TV Club on Harcourt Street where Garda Harcourt Square was (now being re built as KPMG new HQ). The fights in the TV club were legendary, it would explod in one area and suddenly the floor would be a battle field 😁. The bouncers were like mountain men, they took no prisoners. DJ's were John Storey and another guy Gerry Shanley.

McGrath5

Redz by O’ Connell bridge closed around 2008/9 I think? Monday nights were €10 entry and €2 a drink, different times!

Hodors Appletart

The Blacker in Coolock not been mentioned yet - the upstairs part in the early 00s used to be called Hamunaptra (The Human Trap to the funny lads)

Few pints in The Sheaf after work, then down to the blacker to dance away upstairs. Always guaranteed a fight or two, but the bouncers were always on the ball fair play to them.

Used to LOVE the RedBox, always preferred it to The Pod, in the same building. Saw some great DJs there.

The Kitchen in Temple Bar with the bleedin river flowing around the dancefloor.

The Mezz, also in Temple Bar, with the low ceilings you'd be reaching up and pushing off as the yoke came up on you, great times, them ceilings used to be absolutely dripping with sweat.

What was the club called where the Academy is now? Different music on a few different levels, I loved the main level there with the DJ in a sort of window halfway up the wall.

And of course, The Temple Theatre, that kip used to regularly feature on some sort of "Best clubs in europe" thing on MTV, always blew my mind because one time my friend had his shoes robbed by some local ne'er-do-wells, imagine some hardcore German clubbers landing over to go to that place off the back of an MTV recommendation, only to be kicked out at 2.30/3 and having to deal with the local ferals

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975192#Comment_120975192

The nightclub before the Academy was called Spirit. Shortest wait in the world to get a pint

Hodors Appletart

yeah Spirit. I loved that place, the chillout place in the basement was a godsend some nights

Along the <sort of> same lines, was The Gaiety late night multi-level shenanigans, movie playing in the main theatre room, chart/dance on the top floor, god knows what in some of the other rooms, but I remember having a deadly time with about 6 others in a Northern Soul room one night

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975432#Comment_120975432

Oh yeah that Northern Soul room was the business. Usually had a good blues band on in one of the other rooms too.

Hurrache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934988#Comment_120934988

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935026#Comment_120935026

It was always a great spot, different music in different rooms and they'd often have an excellent two tone/ska band play live in one of them which had the place heaving with everyone just having good fun.

You'd always have that one person in your group though that would disappear and later be found asleep in the movie room.

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120986581#Comment_120986581

I woke up one Sunday morning with the keys for the whole Gaiety on my bedside locker. Good 40 or 50 keys. Security was laid back in the place.

HerrKuehn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120975192#Comment_120975192

The Temple Theater looked the part and often had good DJs, but the clientele were fairly rough. I used to like Mono on Wexford street around 2001/2002, regularly had good DJs like Dave Clarke, had some great times in there. That was one end of the spectrum. On the other end we had the "traditional" nightclubs, where you would get food included as part of the entrance. Paparazzi's in Dun Laoghaire was an awful kip, they served spaghetti bolognese normally. Ziggy's was even worse, you normally got a burger there.

Sword attack on guards outside Paparazzi's

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/three-to-face-court-after-sword-attack-on-gardai/26071826.html

Hodors Appletart

Ah, those places where you'd get food - Good Time Charlie's in Howth, mirrors beside the dancefloor.

Had to walk halfway home from there one evening, some lad pulled in and took me and the girl I was with into the back of his work van, we were sitting on a spare tyre and a toolbox, he dropped us to Kilbarrack. You'd get curry chips there I think, or a three in one.

I was never in it, but The Castle out in Finglas/St Margarets had some mad reputation. I think you can still see the building.

degrassinoel

K2 and Good time Charlies in Howth

Some messy nights were had in both :P Glad some others mentioned Sides (Gravity) and the Asylum

left_hander

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934326#Comment_120934326

Beat me to it with that one

Become Death

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120986808#Comment_120986808

It was class. I used to work in Eastpoint so it was every Friday. They had that bowling game there too and Smirnoff Ice on tap!

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120986701#Comment_120986701

"I was never in it, but The Castle out in Finglas/St Margarets had some mad reputation. I think you can still see the building."

I was in it once with some friends...once was enough 😂 I just remember it being jammed, sweaty and crunching glass on the floor.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120986650#Comment_120986650

Was going to say Ziggy's myself. Was a mad shop, the place was quartered off with lads from the Farm, Ballybrack, Glasthule and the Noggin in each corner. Great times in that place. At a time when the pills were at their best.

I always wondered what people from outside the Borough taught of it when they got in.

The carry on in the restaurant part when they served the rubber chips and burgers was short of chaotic.

Subterranean at the top of O'Connell street was always a good option if you couldn't get in elsewhere.

HerrKuehn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120986930#Comment_120986930

Glad to hear someone else remembers it, I'm from the "catchment area" myself, so it would have been my natural habitat at one point. I remember the bouncer was a lovely gentleman called "Killer" I think it was.

AndyBoBandy

The Kitchen - Tuesday nights - Techno nights, only went here a few times

Switch - Tuesday night was techno and Friday night was Drum n Bass, went here quite a bit when it popped up.. some fairly epic nights were had here...

Temple Bar Music Centre - This is probably where I did most of my clubbing back in the day, mostly at Techno nights, but probably the greatest night I ever had clubbing was here and not a Techno night, but Drum n Bass - DJ Hype - I swear the place was absolutely fcuking bouncing... and it went on til 4am.....

Hurrache

Was the Temple Bar Music Centre previously the USI place original back at the start of the 90s?

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120987221#Comment_120987221

No, that was its own thing around the back of their HQ on Aston Quay. TBMC was a new build by the council - who owned it til a few years ago, though it was leased out.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120986701#Comment_120986701

Castle is gone about five years, but that means it was still there ~30 after closing down.

JDigweed

For the Kildare heads -

OZONE in Leixlip with the pre drinks in the LOFT across the road. (Now an Aldi supermarket)

Leinster Arms Maynooth (great spot for cheap drinks on student nights. Turned into Mantra nightclub after the leinster Arms closed, now its earmarked for apartments).

RAPTURE in johnstownbridge

TIME in Naas with Bondi Beach Club down the road for all of the folks who the bouncers wouldn't let in to Time.

CROOKED STEEPLE NIGHTCLUB in Setanta Hotel Celbridge - now used as a hotel for refugees.

TOUCH nightclub at the side of Dowlings in Prosperous. Mad place closed a good while but dowlings pub still going strong!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120986944#Comment_120986944

I'll never forget it, when it was at its peak I wasn't legally old enough to get in but my Da knew the bouncers, the one's before Killer that was, and I used to just drop his name at the door and they'd let me in. My older brothers and their mates would arrive later when the pubs shut. Great days.

Other bouncers names of note for that place, Bullet and another was Hammer.

FazyLucker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120986820#Comment_120986820

Barcode was full of loose women. A great spot!!!

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120987341#Comment_120987341

Leinster Arms/Mantra/Coach & Horsemen/Red Door is being converted to student accommodation rather than normal apartments; they have knocked all the extension sections leaving just the old shell but seemed to have stopped. It will likely retain a (vastly smaller) bar on the ground floor, they have planning and have the licence still active.

Setanta (latterly Celbridge Manor) is used to house Intel builders I'm fairly sure. Can't remember if the ceiling collapse was in the nightclub or elsewhere in the entertainment bit of the site!

Actually overheard someone discussing Naas having better late bars than Maynooth only today - Time used to run branded buses up here at its peak.

head82

Perhaps not a 'famous' nightclub but it hasn't been mentioned yet.. surprising as it was Dublin city centre.. 'Abraxas'. It was down one of the side streets between O'Connell St. and Marlborough St. Was only in it the once in the late '80s. Having spent the day at the Lepoardstown races.

Was a great day and a great night. I miss those times.

newmember2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120987513#Comment_120987513

Is Abraxas not what the Asylum became, no?

There was a club called the Afro in Adair Lane behind The Apartment in the early 80s that was playing all the music of the time that you'd never hear in a conventional 'nightclub'. Can't remember the name of the nightclub in Marlay's Hotel. Also Merlins, out the Malahide Rd.

head82

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120987737#Comment_120987737

You're probably right about Abraxas/Asylum. As for the Marlay's Hotel nightclub, I still have a flyer for that buried somewhere. It was in the style of a fake $100 bill. I really should dig it out.

nice bit of green

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120987017#Comment_120987017

I went to most of the big name dnb DJs in switch and tbmc from about 98-02, the excitement. One more tune, one more tune :-)

newmember2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120936100#Comment_120936100

Was Hoops not in Shamrock Rovers' old ground in Milltown, no?

Sir Galahad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120988039#Comment_120988039

Yes you are correct. Hoops was in a football grounds in Milltown. TV club was Harcourt Street.

josip

To compare with 14 years ago.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2055620695/describe-your-niteclubs-you-used-to-go-to

HerrKuehn

I am thinking of writing a cookbook covering the classic food available in 90's/00's nightclubs and wondering if there is much of a market for it?

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989492#Comment_120989492

Be just one page surely? Undercooked rice and a beef slop curry.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989499#Comment_120989499

Chicken slop curry with chips was also popular.

HerrKuehn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989499#Comment_120989499

Actually, there was a fair bit more variety than that, e.g. Paparazzi spaghetti bolognese, Ziggy's burger and chips. Dessert section would of course have an approximation of the Abra-Kebra Doner recipe. Could also do a drinks section, in Paparazzi when they had the £1 drink nights, we used to have 4 vodkas and a redbull in a pint glass, it was a "Ballybrack Martini". I would look for suggestions from people, as obviously I haven't been to all night clubs, I don't think they would have let me into the likes of Club 92.

TCP/IP

Not forgetting the uber-famous and sometimes infamous Lillies Bordello on Grafton Street.

Used to be a great place I even had a key to the library so could bring in friends for free.

Great times remember playing the piano in the library many a time.