Copper Face Jack’s - how the mighty have fallen...

Had the pleasure of visiting the notorious CFJ a few month’s back by default : couldn’t get in to Dicey’s, wandered around a bit and it seemed the easiest option on hand (Thursday night btw). It has been a good few years since I’ve stumbled into it and I was never a hater back in the day. Always appreciated how it was lively and open late - even mid-week - when other options were either non-existant or thin on the ground.

I suppose I should have been at least a bit wary that by the time I got there the queue outside Dicey’s was stretching down the street (with that bearded bouncer - another day’s thread - turning away even ticket holders)... while I swanned into a queueless CFJ no questions asked. Paid the entry, walk in and straightaway the smell and the feel of the place is wrong. There are about 20 floor staff that appear to be from some sort of refugee work scheme all in red t-shirts. A bunch of Eastern Europeans and Indians outnumbering the punters early on. Nice people but it’s almost as if they’re watching you they have so little to do. Later on in the night you figure out that on of their main jobs is to follow you around mopping up (one of those big dirty dreadlocks mops) whenever there is the slightest spillage. This they do with considerable zeal, even barging into the middle of the dance floor during Sheeran’s “Shivers” (which appears to have replace that Sopranos song as the local anthem).

At least it’s not as hard to get a pint at the bar as it used to be, but you’re left with the impression of an establishment that is living off its historical reputation and whose best days are in the distant past. Anyway, going to try the fake moustache at Dicey’s next time around...

chrissb8

This is the same CFJ that not so long ago had huge queues up until recently?

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/in-pictures-huge-queues-as-crowds-return-to-nightclubs-and-late-bars-40976635.html

I would imagine you were just there at a quiet period. Significant things like exams, January, Covid rules, footfall returning to the nightclub/pub industry.

I do not like Coppers but it's a cultural mecca and known all over Ireland. It's going nowhere.

riclad

Maybe young people are on tinder or other dating apps, so theres more options to meet women or hook up than going to a night club.Also many people wait till 10.30,or 11 pm before they go to a night club ,

Muahahaha

Didnt the owner try to sell it a while back. Dont think he got an offer anywhere near the asking price.

Bobblehats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119188002#Comment_119188002

Must have been a fair chunk too. Should have taken into account the place will be haunted; with the memory of a bazillion bad nites

Muahahaha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119188019#Comment_119188019

just looked it up, it was 40 million the asking price was which included both nightclub and hotel. He (Cathal Jackson) was in bad health at the time which was the reason given for the attempted sale. Then he recovered and took it back off the market in late 2019.

I havent been in it in years but going by the description in the OP it hasnt changed much. My abiding memory was the amount of little shards of glass that would get stuck in your shoes and also how sticky the floor was from the amount of Red Bull spilled on it. It was still good for late night drinking, the bar didnt close till something like almost 4 in the morning.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119131572#Comment_119131572

Get real Chris. There were queues that long outside Supermac’s jacks at the end of lockdown. Copper’s is no more a “cultural Mecca” than those bogs, and probably a lot less clean.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119188133#Comment_119188133

Maybe I used to go in too late and too well oiled previously. Was stone cold sober the night of the field report.

anewme

Anyone know where the name Copper Face Jacks came from 😂

Dempo1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119274518#Comment_119274518

Hard to believe but from this chap

John Scott, 1st Earl of Clonmell

From what I've read of the thread it should be renamed "Poxy Smelly Jax's 😁"

darragh o meara

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119274518#Comment_119274518

Funny enough, I listened to a Podcast on this very topic a few weeks ago. Anyone interested look up the Irish History Podcast, You will be surprised as to how the name came about..

Bobblehats

See that Weezers lad, gave Coppers a mention the other night like it was the new Lillies. Such is the mythos

mikethecop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058247839/copper-face-jack-s-how-the-mighty-have-fallen

you could always have just went home you know

TheIrishGrover

I just find it bizarre that it is (was) still so popular. When I was going out in Dublin years ago (I mean, I'm talking 25 years ago plus) you might end up there. It was Coppers or HATM for the boggers and Reynards and others for the Dubs (Possibly Club M. Can't remember). You'd pub/club from Parliment Street/Dame Street, up Hardcourt street through The Vatican etc to get to Coppers. Maybe move on from there to Lemon beside Odeon (I know it's been called MANY names since then but that's the earliest name I can remember it being called).

But even then Coppers was a hole. My niece (Early 20s) lived with me pre-pandemic and she said it was still massively popular then. I just found it strange that in a relatively large city such as Dublin with a relatively large younger population, that options are so limited.

I suppose it's probably old-man syndrome. In our day you would hit the pub about 7 or 8 and would move once or twice until you finish about 3AM or so. Now kids are much more canny with their money (How much did we burn through in those days? 7-9 hours of buying drinks in pubs?). Do their pre-drinking at home with friends and not really bother with pubs at all. Get a good buzz going and then head into the clubs. I mean, fair play to them. It's a LOT cheaper. But I don't think I'd fancy getting a buzz going, then hitting the bus, into town for a couple of hours then back home again.

It has been 20 years since I've been to coppers. And even then, at 30, it was a case of "Holy crap, let's see if it's changed" with some mates - We were AT LEAST 5 years too old for it then. my last abiding memory was the carnage and the risk of losing a shoe to the sticky floor.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119275189#Comment_119275189

Nothing like Lillies, the cast of Fade Street wouldn't reduce themselves by going to Coppers.

gameoverdude

Ri-Ra's on a Monday was where it was at.

Bobblehats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119276963#Comment_119276963

What happened there anyways, last time the premises made the news the clientele went seriously downmarket one extreme to the other or what. Lost Lane is so true

..

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119277500#Comment_119277500

Not sure, early 2000's it seemed to be the place for real famous people and then it sounded like it attracted the people who used to present corporate retreats along with Alan Partridge.

Bobblehats

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119278458#Comment_119278458

Regardless. Gone to the dogs!

-Reynardless as well, where are they going.

Drunken Oaf

The mystique around Coppers has always puzzled me. To read the likes of joe.ie you would think it was like something from the last days of Rome in terms of debauched promiscuity.

You'd have wilder nights at mass tbh. Must be quite a shock when Londoners and Mancunian tourists used to Ministry of Sound, Printworks and Warehouse Project ask the taxi driver to take them to a well known local nightclub and got dropped off at this rural youth disco. My clubbing days are a bit behind me now but it's desperately sad to see the dearth of proper house/ trance/ techno venues in Dublin. Strangely Ireland's clubs seemed to boom during the recession (Hangar, Wright Venue, Sin, Powerscourt Centre all opened during it) yet things seemed to start to peter out towards the recovery and then the lockdowns were a serious nail in the coffin. There must have been 20 odd suburban nightclubs in Dublin by the first decade of the century, today I think Club Diva might be the only one left!

Muahahaha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119282335#Comment_119282335

yeah its mystique baffles me too. Its like a never ending circle jerk, its legendary becasue people keep saying its legendary even though there is nothing actually special about it. Clickbait sites like Joe.ie obviously amplify this even further and the circleerk goes on ad nauseum.

Anyone coming here from London who is familiar with a venue like the Ministry of Sound and then goes to Coppers must be thinking what the actual fcuk, is this the best Dublin can do. Proper clubs in the UK are in a different league altogether.

gameoverdude

Guards and nurses.

Horniest feckers ever.