One of the most notorious derelict buildings in Dublin’s north inner city, which was occupied by an anarchists’ collective almost a decade ago, is finally to come into the ownership of Dublin City Council.
The council will on Friday take over the former Neary’s pub and hotel at 77-78 Parnell Street, which was placed on the Derelict Sites Register more than two years ago.
The prominent Victorian building close to the O’Connell Street end of Parnell Street has been vacant for at least 20 years and has become increasingly run down over the last decade.
The building was in 2015 taken over by squatters claiming to be anarchists and was given the moniker the Barricade Inn. The squatters stayed for almost a year before being evicted by order of the High Court in 2016 following an application by Vandelure Ltd, a company with a freehold interest in the property.
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The application was because the building was in an extremely dangerous condition and the floors on each level had rotted and partially fallen through.
[ Occupiers told to leave former Neary’s Hotel in two weeksOpens in new window ]
The building, a protected structure, mostly dates from the 1850s when it was developed as a hotel. However, substantial parts of the structure are at least 100 years older, with a mid-18th-century staircase in the centre of it.
The building was operated as a guest house by Ellen McGuill, who died in 2002, with the property understood to have been left to Scottish Catholic clergy. But the will was never executed due to McGuill having no known living relatives to enact it, with a series of legal issues following.
Vandelure had during the 2016 court proceedings said it intended to sell the building, but this did not happen and the company was dissolved in March 2021. The council placed the property on a derelict register in December of 2021 and subsequently moved to acquire it under the Derelict Sites Act. The “vesting orders”, which confer all rights and titles to the building to the council, will come into effect on Friday.
The council has not responded to queries about its plans for the future use of the building, but local Green Party Cllr Janet Horner said it is expected that the upper levels will be used for housing.
“My understanding is that the council would be looking to have retail or other commercial use on the ground floor and apartments above, and it is likely that it will go to the market on the basis of an agreement with the developer that the council would have first refusal on the apartments.”
This model can allow a faster turnaround time on the redevelopment of the building than if it was included in the standard local authority building programme, she said, but the site would only be disposed of on condition that the council had first refusal on buying the homes for social housing use.
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