Campaign to Save Our Bewleys

by R. Isible Thu Nov 25, 2004 04:59

What exactly is it necessary to save? Why? Where?

by R. Isible Thu Nov 25, 2004 05:10

Or are they in favour of designating Bewleys as a compulsorily purchased State Cafe? Don't get too attached to anything under capitalism lads, it'll be bought and sold when convenient.

by rory Thu Nov 25, 2004 12:20

Ok I am 45 years of age and have been in Bewleys about half a dozen times in my life. Nice place but i dont know what all the fuss is about. SF are jumping on a very middle class bandwagon. worrying about Bewleys i recon few who voted in the locals for SF ever darkened its door.

Are there not more important issues?

Drugs use
Domestic Violence
decommissioning
Crime
housing
etc,etc,etc.

by AB Thu Nov 25, 2004 18:35 abry2001 at hotmail dot com

Anyone who has spent any time in Bewleys
and bothered to look around would realise
that it is most certainly NOT a middle class
cafe. If anything it has been a haven for many
people who might have a lot of time on their
hands to linger over a cup of coffee ie the unemployed, or the disabled.

It is obvious to anybody that it has been popular with people who suffer from
mental illness, who benefit from the comforting atmosphere and the facility
to linger somewhere without being thrown
out.


It is also representative of a time when
style, atmosphere, architecture and elegance
mattered.

The money required for a tax break
for Bewley is not relatively speaking a large
sum of money.

But perhaps you prefer to see the only
coffee shops in the city being McDonalds
or Burgerking...the plastic cup and spoon
and the plastic seats nailed to the ground.

by Magali LATINIER Tue Nov 30, 2004 21:45 maglatinier at aol dot com Paris, France 0033610760293

Being French, I come from time to time to Dublin to visit my very dear Irich Friends; one of my stop has to be a hot chocolate + a scone from Bewley's, Grafton Street, as I did last November, when I was over, visiting Dublin with my Brother ( first time in Dublin).Some places in your Emerald Island are just "incontournable", What would be Paris without the Eiffel Tower ? What would be Rome without its Colisee ? What would be Grafton Street without its Bewley's. No, please don't ... The smoking ban is a great thing ( I'm a smoker, my brother isn't), a great thing Irish people can be proud of, but please, next time I come I want to be able to sit down, have a sip of a nice hot chocolate with its oversea famous marshmallow, reading The Irish News, listening to 98 fm, and stuffing myself with a scone... Please !

by toneore Tue Nov 30, 2004 21:51 toneore at eircom dot net

"What would be Paris without the Eiffel Tower ? What would be Rome without its Colisee ?"

What has this got to do with a coffee house in Dublin? Shut the place and open a Starbucks for God's sake, and stop this Eamon MacThomais Love-In, now.

There are more important things in life than a SHOP./

by Coffee addict Wed Dec 01, 2004 09:58

A new precedent has just been set. In the future our youth will be protesting against the closure of a McDonalds. Communities will be up in arms at the closure of their local chain store's. Please, won't somebody help stop the closure of private business. Private business is part of our cultural heritage.

by Bobby Ewing Wed Dec 01, 2004 14:17 Atlantis

There's something, "Emperor's New Clothes", about the media fuss being made over Bewley's Café closing in Grafton Street.

I mean, it failed because the food was crap, the coffee was nasty, the furnishings tatty and cheap and nobody bloody went there because they could always go somewhere nicer. It's been set to close for months and nobody cared.

Now, the media have made a fuss over it to fill in the human-interest sections of their news brief and every attention-seeking bleeding heart politico is seeking to capitalise on moaning of its demise and the gombs are outside being interviewed for Gerry Ryan or whatever.

I don't see what all the fuss is about. The fact this closure made so much news is testament to just how insular Dubliners can be and how Dublin-centric the media in this country is. Where was the fuss when Bewley's closed in Cork, eh? [okay, fair enough, Cork could sink like Atlantis and the rest of the country wouldn't notice until the Jazz Festival was cancelled but you know what I mean].

by Liam McGurrin Wed Dec 01, 2004 15:27 liam at mcgurrin dot freeserve dot co dot uk

My first port of call when visiting Dublin has always been Bewleys. Right from the heady days when a cup of coffee, a cream bun and a cigar would allow me to eavesdrop on varied conversations from the state of the buses, the bins, the Dublin Corporation to more philosophical long-haired student railings at the state of the world!
It won't be the same to sit at a plastic table with a plastic cup of instant coffee (or worse!). being jostled to "hurry up - there's another customer waiting".
I shall miss the wit, the hunour and, above all, the Dublin accents!

by Opportunism Wed Dec 01, 2004 15:35

Daithai has to keep his name in the papers untill 2007 when the election is proably going to take place. Instead of engaging in real genuine campaigns he puts out press releases. This is opportunism. Doolan and SF are not really concerned about Bewley's or the workforce. They don't call for nationalisation!

Daithai get a grip of yourself. After the next election you will be happily sit back in Leinster House proping up Bertie and his new Tanaise Caoimhghín for 5 years.

by karl kautsky Wed Dec 01, 2004 15:41

Oh yeah, that would really make a success of the thing! One of the reasons Bewleys got into such trouble in the first place was that it was run as a some sort of co-op. And then think how successful the state run catering business was in Romania and Bulgaria and such places. You were lucky to find anywhere to eat in the first place and if you did it was generally crap, unless of course - like Cuba - you were in one of the properly run, clean and wholesome restaurants or hotels reserved for tourists by the socialist apartheid system. Get a life my friend. You are living in a dream world, except that it was a nightmare for those unfortunate enough to experience it in reality.

by Clever little boy Thu Dec 02, 2004 12:38

Very clever,

Attack Dathí Doolan when you can't even spell his name right. Sinn Féin get elected because they campaign in the communities, something a little computer warrior like yourself would never dare do.

by rooster Fri Dec 03, 2004 12:19

Sinn Féin Representative for Dublin South East, Councillor Daithí Doolan today called on the public to lend their support to Wednesdays public launch of "Save Our Bewleys".


Instead of campaigning for vast public demonstrations (Sin feinns answer to everything) why not just get people to actually visit the place. The extra business would help keep Bewleys economically viable.

by Clever boy Fri Dec 03, 2004 12:56

Yes rooster lets get everybody to visit bewleys. Especially now that the cafe is closed. And then we should get everybody to visit McDonald's and other troubled business. Any other clever suggestions Rooster?

by Ray Fri Dec 03, 2004 13:15

Stop following Rooster around the newswire.

by Me Fri Dec 03, 2004 13:17

But I've got to say I can empathise with ol' clever boy.

by rooster Sat Dec 04, 2004 13:10

For a start, did you come up with that name by yourself? Or did mummsy give it to you?

The point is if more people had used the cafe while it was open then it would not have closed, this is just sin fein jumping on another popular band wagon.

Maybe if sin feinn had organised people to visit the place during the past few months when everyone knew it was gonna close the decision would have been reversed.

It could have been like a mass coffee slurping contest :-)

by Clever boy Mon Dec 06, 2004 13:18

Yes rooster you are a master marketing strategiser. Sinn Fein should have got people to visit bewley's. Perhaps you should open a marketing company, with your genius you'll make an awfull lot of money

by rooster Mon Dec 06, 2004 13:38

Answer me this, are you glad to see Bewleys closed?
A simple question!

by Cever boy Tue Dec 07, 2004 11:47

It would require one to be a bitter and twisted person to be glad of the closure of a business, and especially of the redundancy of over 200 workers. So no i am not GLAD to see it closed.

by karl kautsky Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:16

Ah! Doesn't it just jump off the tongue... What would you call it? The Gulag Archipeligo perhaps? Or after the torture centre in Phonm Penh maybe? Something to give the customers a real flavour of what socialism was like. Then on the menu: Baby a la Ukraine 1927; Rat Koreane; Muscovite soup (vegetarian!!); Peking Duck (with pigeon instead of duck); or a Havana steak (you have to seel your 13 year old daughter to a tourist to earn enough for that one). Happy days comrades.