Madam, - Are we going to stand by and see Bewley's go down the tubes with just a whimper, just a puff of jaded nostalgia? As Dubliners, can we not at least muster an outcry or are we just too sated to give a damn? Is it inevitable that the cafés must close? Would anybody argue against saving them - not only as a benefit to tourism, but as social conservation for Dublin, a much needed inoculation against the wave of high-street commercialism that has overwhelmed this town in recent years.
The public, business and Government would need to combine in a plan which might have the following heads of agreement.
1. Provide grant aid for the rent for a specific period of, say, five to 10 years. Ask the owner/developer to freeze the rent for this period.
2. Tax-designate the site in order to get at the funds necessary to refurbish.
3. Put together a variable business plan to run the place profitably, with the implementation of this plan being a prerequisite to access the funds.
- Yours, etc.,
CATHY and PAUL QUILLIGAN, Bloomfield Avenue, Dublin 8.
Madam, - Sadly, with the closure of Bewley's café in Grafton Street, not only will we not have good coffee to heat our debates; neither will we have any of Harry Clarke's windows to colour our views. - Yours, etc.,
TOM FERRIS, Convenor, Bewley's Economists Group, c/o Anglesea Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin.