Initiative under way to promote late night café culture

RTÉ News​

4 hours ago

Efforts are under way in nine towns and cities across the country to encourage a late night café culture.
The pilot initiative called 'Café Lates' aims to diversify nightlife by expanding evening options and offering "an enhanced experience" to locals.
Night-time economy advisors from the nine pilot locations of Dublin city, Cork city, Limerick city, Galway city, Kilkenny, Drogheda, Sligo, Buncrana and Longford town came up with the idea to develop and foster a late night café culture.
RTÉ's Midlands Correspondent Sinéad Hussey has been to Longford town to see how the initiative is going down in the local community.
It is Thursday evening and Athena Art Gallery and Café is buzzing. All the tables are packed and local singer Aisling O'Reilly is entertaining the crowd.
The café is usually closed at this time but under the new pilot initiative, it has been awarded a grant to run the event, in an attempt to boost Longford's after-hours offering.
"Since opening Athena in 2023 we've done a lot of different exhibitions, events and different things, and we decided to open up a wine and pizza bar in the evenings, and the locals have really taken to this," explained Anna Peters, who owns and runs the cafe.
"When Café Lates became available, we decided to apply for it, and it's been a great trial run in order for us to see if something like that would work for us," she added.
The first evening took place last month and saw live music and poetry reading in four cafés in the town and it was a huge success.
"It was really, really busy. We actually didn't have enough seating for everyone at the time, so this time we took table bookings this time for it and everything," said Anna Peters.
"People are not drinking quite as much and in evenings, especially, it's hard to find places to go, so by having this we're creating more events around the town and it's brilliant to be involved in," she added.
At another café nearby, Dessert Mania, Longford Writers' Group are entertaining a crowd with their poetry and stories. Among the group, Shelley Corcoran, photographer and author.
"We were asked, as the Longford Writers group, to be part of 'Café Lates' and it's just about getting people into the town and showing everybody what the town has to offer.
"It's great to have that kind of cultural element. We do poetry reading and then in the other cafés there's music, so it's just fantastic to bring people in, let them hear us as a group, it's something a little bit different on a Thursday," Ms Corcoran said.
The 'Café Lates' initiative directly addresses feedback received during public consultation for the development of a café culture as part of the Longford County Council Night-Time Economy Action Plan.
It is funded by Longford County Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.
"We have some fabulous cafés here in Longford, so there was really good engagement with the project," said Karen Reilly, the designated Night-Time Economy Advisor.
"The aim of this is to invite people into Longford after six o'clock to enjoy different events, whether it be music, spoken word, DJ sets, and to bring a bit of vibrancy into town, because it gets very quiet at six o'clock," she said.
"What we're offering is something away from a traditional pub setting, away from the usual Friday and Saturday evening, so you can bring your family, meet up with a friend, have a cup of coffee and listen to some nice music or whatever it is you fancy," Ms Reilly added.
While this initiative is a pilot, it is hoped that it will continue.
"The trial is with that aim of continuing this into the autumn as well and across more evenings. This is something that we can support locally so that it will be an ongoing project," said Ms Reilly.
Local woman Melanie Rhatigan, accompanied by her daughter Rachel, said the initiative has given people the opportunity to go somewhere else to meet up.
"It's really lovely to come in, in the evenings after work and we're able to bring young people too. It's not a pub, it's a nice caféand relaxed environment," she added.
Alongside them are Georgina Hourican and her daughter Grace, also from Longford town.
"I think it's a really nice evening, just to come in and listen to the live music played by someone who lives here and teaches here too," said Grace Hourican.
"The girl playing here tonight is a teacher in the local school, so the girls are so excited to come down and see their teacher and obviously it's a lovely atmosphere, the café is stunning," said her mother Georgina.
"It's just lovely initiative and we'd like to see more of this kind of thing in Longford," she added.