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

gaiscioch

Nightowls (Niteowls?) in Ranelagh! In the 1990s it used to be heaving with UCD students. I'm not sure when it closed down, but I think FlyFit Ranelagh might today be where it used to be: https://tinyurl.com/4jd963bz

Tramco, Rathmines: Again, used to get a huge crowd, mostly students from the surrounding flatlands - in the late 1990s/early 00s. Here's a photo of it: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tramco-dublin

"Hollywood Nights", Parkes Hotel, Stillorgan: Radio Nova/Sunshine 101/Q102 and all the rest seemed to make a fortune from advertising them. Again in the 1990s and full of UCD students. It's now the Talbot Hotel, Stillorgan, and here's an old photo of it under its Parkes Hotel name: https://www.facebook.com/HistoricalStillorgan/photos/a.463407880395625/3646529322083449/

Club 92 in Leopardstown Racecourse - again, it pulled a huge crowd each week in the late 1990s.

Rumours Nightclub on Cathal Brugha Street - huge crowd, appeared to advertise on all radio stations.

The Palace nightclub on Camden Street: very popular with students, and across from the hugely popular (with students) Flannery's pub (which is still there)

The Pod nightclub in the old Harcourt Street train station: what happened it?

There were other supposedly VIP nightclubs around Grafton Street which those wafflers in the gossip columns wrote about far too often. There was also a big ravers' place named The Vault near the IFSC.

Surrounding areas:

Tramps/Vortex, etc, County Club, Dunshaughlin: busloads used to arrive there from west Dublin.

La Touche Hotel, Greystones: £1 per drink for all drinks on Thursday nights in the 1990s had busloads from Dublin.

Spiders/Hippodrome, The Diamond and a whole slew of nightclubs in Navan

Oasis in Carrickmacross, at the time the largest nightclub in Ireland, the night trip of all night trips to a night club beyond the Pale.

What nightclubs do you remember most, and why?

gaiscioch

Other memories about nightclubs:

Drink-fuelled fights and even stabbings marked too many nightclubs. The bouncers frequently acted like gods, and were looked upon as such by a certain cohort. It was very common to have a chicken curry included as part of the entrance fee to a disco. Common also for nightclubs to end the night with everybody standing to attention for Amhrán na bhFiann (the nearer one got to the border, the more common this became). Drink promotions were enormously common (particularly in places like the UCD Student Bar), and people drank way more than they could hold, which is linked to the first sentence. The music was way, way too loud so you could barely hear each other, so you drank more...

6541

Panama Jack's Castlebar. Raving mad it was ....

odyssey06

Was there one on Kildare Street \ Nassau Street, maybe later on Club Nassau? I'm trying to think of its previous name.

There's a list here

https://www.dublinlive.ie/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/dublins-lost-nightclubs-ultimate-guide-15422848

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120930818#Comment_120930818

Are you thinking of Peg Woffington's? That building is in an awful state now left to rot.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120931190#Comment_120931190

Yes, that's the one. I half remembered it was a bizarre name for a nightclub. I had a feeling it was Peigs or some such.

miamee

Yeah I think everyone just referred to it as Pegs alright.

Manc-Red_

Clubbing in Dublin at the turn of the millennium was brilliant because the majority of clubbers that were taking drugs were abundantly taking XTC which would have you loving your enemy with hugs and luv.

Cocaine mixed with alcohol has brought on serious violence in the recent years and Im glad I’m in my 40’s and no interest in going.

I was a Temple Theatre & Red Box regular in my late teens. Great clubs with superb DJ’s and clientele.

Times have changed but that’s the way of the world.

Fox Tail

Late bars have taken over from clubs as Dublin got a bit older.

largest population group in Dublin is 35 to 45. They prefer late bars/pubs to clubs.

Loads of places open late in Dublin still, but most arent clubs.

Also, clubs dont generally open later than bars anyway anymore.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120930558#Comment_120930558

Castlebar Celtic built a new clubhouse in 1990 and opened a night club in it that summer and called it Schallichi's.

For about a year or more it was the best place in town on a Friday night.

But then it just stopped.

And a week later Panama Jacks opened in the TF.

Rumor at the time was that the owners of the TF and the Welcome Inn (the more established vintners) used their influence in the town to have Schallichi's raided for serving underage and had them shut down.

Fr Tod Umptious

Club M

Used to go there around 1994/1995.

Was it in Temple Bar, or Dame St, I can't remember.

My favorite during the same era was Howl at the moon on Mount st.

I used to get free into Nightowls (Niteowls?) with my UCD staff ID.

miamee

Club M was (is?) in Blooms Hotel in Templebar

orangerhyme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058307696/famous-dublin-and-surrounding-areas-nightclubs-that-are-no-more

Clubbing has really gone out of fashion. It happened very quickly some time around 08 to 10.

The Hiland in Newmarket, Cork was a famous one. Busloads used go there.

It seems like a relic of a bygone era, busloads of young people going to a nightclub.

bartkingcole

The Pink Elephant And The Zoo Bar by Nassau street.

Scruples in Dun Laoghaire

Annabel’s in the Burlington

Grandeeod

I remember all the Dublin one's mentioned here and will add in the club under Sachs Hotel. Central park in Galway city and the Warrick in Salthill on my travels.

Grandeeod

The Grove in Clontarf.

Gavin "shels"

Break for the Border on Stephen St in town.... was always quiet the odd time I ventured in.

Karma on Fishamble St (although it wasn't a late night club it still was open till after 1am and cheap drink) - it's had a few names since Karma went but more bars. One being Oscars (same as Smithfield) and it was always empty. It's a weird location, but another Trad Irish bar would probably get the tourists flooding to it.

brokenbad

The Chicken Ranch - Milltown, Co. Kildare

mazdamiatamx5

Club 1992 and Hollywood Nights were around in the eighties, under different names.

TrueDub

Club 92 was originally Blinkers

Hollywood Nights was originally the Coconut Grove and then became Deep.

Allinall

Coconut Grove was the bar. Flamingos was the night club.

Bridget Clarke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120932938#Comment_120932938

And it’s opposite number Club 74. Hardly nightclubs, per se, being held in St Paul’s school gym, and each catering to a vastly different clientele. Good times.

gaiscioch

I had my debs in the Sands Hotel in Portmarnock and walked a good bit of the way back to Dublin after it until the Dublin Bus service started and we all jumped on the first bus. I think it was called Tamangos night club then (it had a few names).

Just found a radio advert for Tamangos from the 1980s: https://pirate.ie/archive/tamango-nightclub/ [According to that, the Sands Hotel was apparently also the home of Sunshine Radio, the pirate radio station]

I also went to a thing called a... roller disco. They were all the rage for kids and younger teenagers around the time of the Coca Cola Spinners, Soda Streams, Rubik's Cubes, and sandwich makers. They were such great, great fun watching guys showing off to girls and landing on their backsides. And roller discos with everybody wearing Halloween Costumes were in a league of their own. Also discos on iceskates in Phibsboro and Dolphin's Barn if I recall.

https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/0630/711643-roller-disco-syndrome/?fbclid=IwAR3sjCLr0Pud2LLUmJx6otMdF2Bq8lLTIiSYrar4xBOHHv-KI-KybnT7jQY

Become Death

Jets. Out behind the airport.

What a place!

mazdamiatamx5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120933718#Comment_120933718

The pub was called the Bull and Bear in my time (early 90s).

gaiscioch

In the early noughties, there was another well-known nightclub -Bondi?- on the site of Blake's restaurant in Stillorgan, where Cairn is currently building 377 apartments (https://www.irishtimes.com/business/construction/cairn-homes-plans-377-apartments-for-stillorgan-1.4857764).

HBC08

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120930558#Comment_120930558

Panama Jack's on its own was a good spot but fairly standard nightclub fare for the time.

It was around 2000 where they started opening Panama Jack's,the Blueroom,Brazilia and the Massive main ballroom when things went properly mental all at the same time.4 nights out in 1!

PJ'S normal nightclub,move into the Blueroom for a bit of live music then downstairs to Blueroom to wait to come up on a yolk then into the main ballroom for a rave til all hours.

Buses coming from as far south as Limerick and as far north as Donegal. E was very prominent so no big fights that happened the years before and after.2fm broadcasting live shows from the main room on sat night there a few times.

Overall the best nightclub experience I've had anywhere in the world.

Only lasted two summers as the Gards jumped on the drug side of it and it was reduced back to just Panama Jack's.

miamee

God we went to some dodgy places at times. We used to go to McGraths on O'Connell St (when we were underage, they'd let anyone in with their Dublin Bus ID), The Back Gate around the corner on Cathal Brugha Street cos my friend's boyfriend's friend worked there and we knew we'd always get in, The Big Tree was a favourite for a while too it was a great spot but we'd have to get the bus to town, meet our friend who didn't live on the same bus route and then get another bus to Dorset Street 😂

The Harp/Mungo Jerry's 😮

Zanzibar on the quays (later Bondi Beach or something like that?)

Club M as mentioned earlier

walshb

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120933859#Comment_120933859

Full a bogeys

miamee

Used to try to go to The End in the Phoenix Park racecourse back in the day, we were only 16/17 at the time so didn't always get in. When we didn't, instead of going home we'd get a taxi into town and go to McGraths on O'Connell St. I don't remember much about it except that it was always jammed and sweaty and they'd serve you a can rather than bottles. Got drunk on 2 cans of Ritz my first night in there (mid 90s) 😂

pat_sconce

2 that you'd see some dubs travel out to -

Nijinskys on the Curragh.

Clouseau's in Ashford

francois

There's a lot which have gone, just off the top of my head

Temple of Sound

Columbia Mills

Red Box

Chocolate Bar

Gardening Club/Rock Garden

Sides

Asylum

System

Ormonde Multi Media

Groucho's

Twisted Pepper

Funnel

The Nal

Club Sarah in Rathfarnham. Absolutely mental how is was allowed to operate for so long given its location. £1 a pint on Thursdays and served till 2.30am with an average age of about 18.

Club M just tended to be full of English stags and hens.

Annabels was impossible to get a pint in. 5 deep at the bar all night.

The Palace on Camden St was great for a few years in the late 90s/early 00s.

Pegs was the place to go on a Monday, after Club 92 on Sunday, after Annabels on Saturday, after a night off Friday after Thursday night in Club Sarah.

fits

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934236#Comment_120934236

You forgot The Metropolitan.

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934143#Comment_120934143

You can add The County Club in Dunshaughlin to that list, bus loads from Blanchardtown used to go out to it as there was very little in D15 - still isn't much tbh but we used to have The Buddha Bar and West which became Heaven and then Light and is now Wetherspoons.

Become Death

Barcode at clontarf westwood gym with their two for one drinks between 5 and 7pm on Fridays.

Gavin "shels"

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120933945#Comment_120933945

Zanzibar is now back as Zanzibar :D

cullenswood

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934236#Comment_120934236

Ah System, one of the loudest dance venues I remember, ears would be ringing well after you got home! Was great.

Do I remember it not having an actual bar licence and only serving water?

RoboRat

Tramco in Rathmines

Fireworks on Tara street

The Odeon

Club M

Tripod/ Crawdaddy

The Palace

Coyote Lounge

All great spots that I would have regularly frequented in the mid/late 90's and early 00's.

Also a shout for the Hitchin Post and Rockafellas in Leixlip, they were good spots - Hitcher was lethal for the fights!

furiousox

Luciano's in Drogheda, there was another club nearly across the road from it, 'Fantasy Gardens' I think?

miamee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934399#Comment_120934399

Does that make us cool or vintage? 😆

francois

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

I think it had a crappy wine license, or maybe I'm think that was when it was McGonagles

Praetorian22

ICE, within the same grounds complex of the Shanty pub in mulhuddart............also known as SLICE

McGrath5

Savannah in Rathmines was a decent spot where the Aldi is now. Think it closed around 2004/5.

The Mulk

Coco's (Belgard)

Level 4 (Abberley Court)

Plaza Nightclub

Diva(Red Cow)

Cloud 9 (Spawell) can't remember the name after that

Blue Banana (Clondalkin)

Ambassador nightclub, Kill

I worked in a restaurant in the Clondalkin in the late 90's and would always head to one of these after closing, depending on the day of the weekend

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120934548#Comment_120934548

Whats the Odeon now? I see they stuck a Pret where Crawdaddy used to be 😌

Edit, I see its a cocktail bar. Decent makeover. But looking at the pics, does anything scream "**** work night out" more than a fried platter?

techman1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120932845#Comment_120932845

It hasn't gone out of fashion, it's just an irish phenomenon, if you go to the UK or continent there is a huge clubbing culture. Its more got to do with over zealous irish regulations and compo culture that killed off nightclubs here.

If you talk to young tourists or people from other countries working here that's the thing they are mystified by the lack of late nightclubs here.

Fr Tod Umptious

I recall that the Gaiety Theater used to have some sort of a club or late bar in the mid 90s.

It was upstairs in the building if I remember.

Used to be something like a IR£2 cover charge.

Great spot.

The Nal

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

Yeah late 90s and early 00s. The whole place was open. Movie on in the main part and loads of little bars about. Turned into absolute chaos after midnight though.

Oscar_Madison

RiRa’s - a great little place, especially on a Sunday night- that I never remembered as usually langered going in as well as going out- early 90s somewhere between Dame st and Wicklow St I think 😀

Trampas

Itchy feet?

Tram co start of the end was when they did it up.

Them where the days you’d be out on a Sunday night to a nightclub and work the next day