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Irish Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Dave Fanning: ‘I felt very sorry for Ryan Tubridy, he was vilified'
Dave Fanning has a man bag. It's a battered brown leather satchel full of notebooks containing playlists and ideas for programmes, the notes written neatly in longhand. 'Old school,' he says. We're in The Mercantile Hotel on Dame Street sipping a latte and when I ask how he's doing he says 'Ah, sure, you know yourself, I'm working in RTÉ – have you heard about it lately?' He very much wants to keep working there – 'I love what I do' – so he's careful about what he says about the broadcaster. 'I mean sometimes you have to say something, I've done that a few times over the years and there's one or two things I wish I hadn't said, but such is life.' We'll come back to some foot-in-mouth moments later but for now we're interrupted by a middle-aged man at the next table. 'I recognised your voice,' he tells Fanning. 'It was a pleasure growing up with you.' This kind of thing happens to him a lot. Turning 70 next February, he has been playing music for audiences since the late-1970s. 'People say they grew up with me but they'd no f**king choice, it was 1980s Ireland; it's like when there was a really bad movie on a plane, you had to watch it,' he says. He makes the point that when he started playing records on RTÉ there wasn't much else going on. 'I mean we weren't bad, I'll say that, but we were only doing what Joe Bloggs would have done, playing records. Like, it wasn't science – we were just lucky to be the ones doing it.' READ MORE And he's still doing it, nearly 50 years later, which is something he doesn't take for granted. He finds it hilarious that for the next few weeks there's a Dave Fanning show on seven days a week on RTÉ radio. He breaks it down. There's his RTÉ Gold show from 6pm to 8pm Monday to Friday. On Saturday, he has a show that is his take on music through the decades. (He gives 16 hours to each decade so that one will go on for a while.) Then on Sundays, for the next several weeks, he has an hour in the evening where 24 Irish bands or artists will pick one favourite album and discuss it. 'So that's me, seven days a week for the next while,' he says with a laugh. The other programmes are more chatty but his Monday-to-Friday gig, Dave Fanning on RTÉ Gold, is just about the music. Across the two-hour programme you'll hear his voice, and he's timed it, for a mere five minutes. 'There's no news, there's no sport, there's no ads, there's no demo tapes, there's no weather,' he says. Here's his pitch to listeners, who he is well aware are a specific demographic. 'I'm saying to people, listen, you know that record collection you have at home, the one you are going to buy a new turntable for? You're never going to buy a new turntable, with all due respect, blokes, and anyway your wife has put your record collection in the attic. Or in the skip.' If this resonates, Fanning's message to you is: 'Worry not. I'll play your record collection for you. I'll play the music you like and I'll shut the f**k up.' At this point, another person approaches, a younger man this time. He wants Fanning's advice about whether he should go to see Paul Weller or Van Morrison play live this summer. Fanning gives him a five-minute answer but the short version is 'Paul Weller, because Van Morrison is hit and miss and 80 per cent of the time he's a miss'. [ From the archive: Dave Fanning moving on from 2FM after 44 years Opens in new window ] He describes himself as a music veteran from an early age thanks to the record collections and excellent taste of his older siblings. The youngest of six growing up in south Co Dublin – 'well, my mother would say youngest of seven; one brother, Brian, died at the age of nine months'. Fanning had an 'idyllic' childhood and went to Blackrock College. A fully paid-up member of the official Beatles fan club since he was eight, at 11 he went to his local record shop and put a '10 bob note down as a deposit on the Beatles' new album which wasn't due out for six months'. Fanning remembers the record shop assistant asking him what it was called. 'It's called Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,' 11-year-old Fanning declared. Dave Fanning: He still gets invited around to Bono's house for a listening party every time there's a new U2 album. Photograph: Tom Honan He'd read about the album in his brother's NME magazine. The publication was on order in the Fanning family's local shop for six decades. While he went on to train to be a teacher in UCD, his musical education continued in the college's Theatre L where he saw everyone from Paul Brady to Thin Lizzy. Then there was an ad on the back of The Irish Times, 'editor wanted for Scene Magazine'. His mother saw it and said 'give it a bash', while friends encouraged him. He got the job. While working there he was also with pirate station Big D Radio and DJing three nights a week in McGonagles. That's when his relationship with U2 began. He'd play them more than any other band 'because they were good but they also had more demos than anyone else'. In 1979, RTÉ decided they had better start a pop station to target younger listeners and RTÉ Radio 2, now 2FM, was born. Until then people were 'listening to Radio Luxembourg with the radio out the window but they didn't have to do that any more because we were playing the music'. I think about that 11-year-old putting down a deposit for the new Beatles album. Could he believe playing records was his actual job? 'I can hardly believe it now,' he says. 'There are people who say 'never make your hobby your job'. F**k that.' U2 were the first unsigned band to record one of his Fanning Sessions where up-and-coming bands were paid to come and record songs. 'Public service broadcasting at its finest,' Fanning says. This was the start of the tradition where the band let Fanning be the first DJ in the world to play their new releases. He was considered a 'good luck charm' by the band's former manager Paul McGuinness. He still gets invited around to Bono's house for a listening party every time there's a new album. Why does he think Bono gets such a hard time from some? 'He wears his heart on his sleeve and some people don't like that.' The other obsession that he managed to turn into a profession is cinema. He has presented film shows for decades and for the past 40 years he has watched a minimum of a movie a night. His wife Ursula is about to go away with friends and this means he will probably watch two. Hitchcock's Psycho is a favourite. He saw a list of top 100 movie stars in Empire recently. 'I had interviewed 84 of them,' he marvels. He mentions Ursula, a solicitor, a lot. He says he wasn't keen to settle down but that getting married 'was the best decision that was ever made for me'. Pat Kenny, Joe Duffy, Dave Fanning, Gay Byrne and Ryan Tubridy in Dublin, 2013. Photograph: Arthur Carron/Collins Fanning makes a living from talking but sometimes his mouth gets him into trouble. When Aslan's Christy Dignam died, he made comments about the singer's earlier heroin use which understandably angered and upset his family. He made a heartfelt apology at the time. He's reluctant to get into it again, only saying: 'Christy was brilliant, I loved him'. He got into trouble when the RTÉ payments scandal broke, tweeting: 'I think we all need a distraction from that nonsensical Oireachtas Nuremberg trial … So listen to our Rory Gallagher special tonight.' He later apologised unreservedly, saying he did not mean to trivialise proceedings. He is friends with Ryan Tubridy , and they are both represented by Noel Kelly who was a central figure in the RTÉ scandal. He doesn't get into the detail of the controversy but says 'the way Ryan was treated was appalling. He was a scapegoat … he's paid enough of a price and was hounded out of this country in many ways. I felt very sorry for Ryan, he was vilified.' Conceived in the pandemic, his Fanning At Whelan's showcase for Irish music on Virgin Media is a sort of family cottage industry, with his wife, son and daughter involved in production. He's never been staff at RTÉ which has allowed him work for other organisations and, crucially, being a contractor meant he did not have to retire at 65. He's in good health? 'Yes. And I think I look OK, but then you are out for a pint and you go for a pee and look at yourself in the mirror and think, who the f**k is that?' [ Dave Fanning missed the point about Aslan. Fans loved the fact that they were underdogs Opens in new window ] He still plays his records at home – the record collection is not in the attic – but he streams music too. Best new Irish act? 'A. Smyth.' He hates how difficult it is for bands now, how financially impossible to hit the road and find an audience. 'It's terrible.' He gets wound up by injustice and follows US politics closely – he can rant for Ireland about the current state of affairs. He's not a rap fan but on the Kneecap furore he says: 'I can't understand it. What's wrong with saying you are against genocide?' Our lively Fanning session has lasted more than two hours. I could talk to him all day. If you are interested in music or film or whether Yoko Ono broke up the Beatles – 'she definitely did' – time spent with Fanning is pure entertainment. He interviewed David Bowie five times. Paul McCartney six times. His enthusiasm and energy are impressive. He really can't believe his luck, still getting to do what he does all day – seven days a week, in fact, for the next while. He throws his battered bag over his shoulder and heads off into the Dublin sunshine. 'I never want to stop,' he says. 'I mean, why would I?' Dave Fanning on RTÉ Gold runs Monday to Friday 6pm to 8pm
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
The real Temple Bar: Thriving cultural quarter or ‘a violent post-apocalyptic place'?
Ask any Dubliner where to go for pricey pints, tourist tat, and the type of 'traditional Irish' establishment they would never themselves frequent, and they'll happily give directions to Temple Bar . Ask them to point towards Dublin's cultural quarter, however, and they are likely to be a bit nonplussed. Temple Bar has, since its inception, been promoted as the city's cultural quarter, but most would agree it has strayed considerably from that vision. The origins of the present-day Temple Bar lie in a plan devised 50 years ago by CIÉ to develop a new central bus station for the city. From the mid-1970s the company began to buy up buildings, and the many derelict sites, in the area between Dame Street and the south Liffey quays with a view to levelling them for the new transport hub. Government funding was slow to follow the transport company's scheme, so with admirable fiscal rectitude CIÉ rented out the properties (those not in use as surface car parks at least) at low rents to Dublin's 'bohemian' set – artists, musicians and independent retailers – and in doing so sowed the seeds of the demise of its bus garage plans. READ MORE Taoiseach Charles Haughey saw an urban development opportunity, far beyond what had grown organically, and threw CIÉ under the bus, so to speak. He envisioned a district of 'attractive small places' with 'recording studios, places for the music industry, art galleries, studios' and also 'pubs, restaurants, discos – anything that contributes to a lively inner city young people's place'. An urban renewal act and a tax incentive scheme came into force in 1991, a development company – Temple Bar Properties – was established, and Temple Bar was born. People enjoying the pub scene in Temple Bar. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill It didn't take long before property prices began to rise, as they did across the city in the 1990s, and for the more lucrative enterprises – pubs, night clubs, hotels and restaurants, to start pushing out the artists and smaller independent operators. By end of the decade it had become a byword for hedonism, even targeted in 2001 by a Channel 4 documentary series of the type that focused on the bad behaviour of 'Brits abroad', though generally in sunnier climes. [ The rise and fall of the Temple Bar dream: 'I feared that our home would become uninhabitable' Opens in new window ] In part to counteract this image, the Noughties saw a definite shift in emphasis in the development of Temple Bar from growth to management, with Temple Bar Properties becoming the Temple Bar Cultural Trust in 2005. However, within a few years that entity had run into difficulties, with several reports and audits identifying financial, governance and regulatory weaknesses. In 2013 a decision was made to dissolve the trust and transfer its functions to Dublin City Council . People walk through Merchant's Arch in Temple Bar, Dublin. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill In 2016 the council published a public realm plan to improve the area, which resulted in not very much for quite a long time, but eventually in 2023 led to a €5 million upgrade of Temple Bar Square, the focal point of the eastern end of Temple Bar. The year 2016 also saw a significant intervention in the fight against overtourism in the district, spearheaded not by the council but by Temple Bar residents who sought a ruling on whether or not planning permission was required to use an apartment for holiday rentals. The council planners determined it was required, a ruling upheld by An Bord Pleanála . This ultimately led to a city-wide and then State-wide crackdown on the unauthorised use of homes for short-term letting, and while that battle goes on, it would never have started without the intervention of those residents. People passing through Temple Bar in the afternoon. Photographs: Dara Mac Dónaill The council has in recent years upped its game in efforts to rein in the worst excesses of Temple Bar, using the planning process. The 2022-2028 city development plan includes a number of provisions to guard against the expansion of pubs and takeaways, and to avoid the concentration of the types of shops which would 'reinforce particular activities in the area to the detriment of the cultural, residential and social functions of the area'. A number of planning applications have been refused by the council since these provisions were introduced, though some of these decisions have been overturned on appeal to An Bord Pleanála. The council has, in the last two years, increased the number of artists' studios in Temple Bar and plans to refurbish the long-closed Eden restaurant in Meeting House Square to provide more. It is also in the process of taking ownership of the historic Smock Alley Theatre at the western end of Temple Bar to create a new Dublin municipal theatre. Visitors outside Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Perhaps the council's most significant physical intervention in Temple Bar is its most recent: the removal of traffic from Parliament Street since July 4th, which is likely to attract more activity, from the eastern end of the district. Some in the quieter west end may have misgivings over what may be drawn upon them. The image of Temple Bar has been severely tarnished by several violent assaults – on tourists, as well as on two off-duty gardaí . The stark depiction by Judge Pauline Codd, at an assault sentencing hearing last year, said Temple Bar was becoming a ' a violent post-apocalyptic place'. 'It's shocking to see it, that people can't be safe down there. It makes it a no-go area for people.' The IFI in Temple Bar. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill People stroll through Cow's Lane in Temple Bar. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill Martin Harte, chief executive of business group the Temple Bar Company, says dystopian assessments are not fair characterisations of the area. 'I think a lot of the criticism and the view or positioning of Temple Bar comes from the late 1990s and early Noughties and that massive, mad drink culture. It was true then, there were queues outside every pub and hotel; it certainly isn't true now,' Harte says. He argues that there is an overconcentration of addiction and homeless services throughout the city centre. However, he believes the district is moving closer to the original vision of a cultural, entertainment area, but also a residential quarter. 'Certainly in last couple of years the vintage clothes shops are back, the tattoo parlours, the cafes, the cultural collectives, the private galleries – they've really come back. Of course some have been lost, but a huge amount have come, and Temple Bar has a thriving cultural scene. I think it's probably going to get closer to what people thought it might be in the first place. I think its best years are ahead of it,' Harte says.
BreakingNews.ie
22-06-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Anti-racism and anti-immigration demonstrations held in Dublin city
An anti-racism rally and an anti-immigration demonstration were held in Dublin City on Sunday. O'Connell Bridge was closed for a time on Sunday afternoon as the gardaí erected extensive barriers to separate the two crowds. Advertisement The United Against Racism rally began at the Central Plaza on Dame Street, marching through the city to O'Connell Bridge at around 2pm. An anti-racism rally was held to counter the anti-immigration demo. Photo: Grainne Ni Aodha/PA. Several protesters carried signs saying: 'Blame the Government, not migrants'; and: 'Dublin stands against racism'. They also chanted: 'Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here.' The anti-immigration protest marched down O'Connell Street and turned left at O'Connell bridge before continuing along the quays. Participants from both sides shouted and gestured towards each other from across the empty space between the barriers created by gardai. Advertisement Officers formed a barrier between the demonstrations. Photo: Grainne Ni Aodha/PA. At one point, the anti-racism rally chanted at the anti-immigration group: 'You say protect women, that's a lie' and referenced a photo being carried by one person of MMA fighter Conor McGregor, who lost a civil trial where a Dublin woman accused him of raping her in a Dublin hotel. The anti-immigration group, which was the larger of the two, was thick with large tricolour flags. It chanted 'ole ole' and: 'Whose streets? Our streets'. Several people were seen wearing 'Make Ireland Great Again' green caps and holding US or 'Trump' flags, and some signs critical of RTE. Advertisement The two rallies chanted and gestured towards each other. Photo: Grainne Ni Aodha/PA. At one point, the famous rebel song 'Oro 'Se do bheatha 'bhaile' was played by the anti-racism rally over a speaker, and prompted some participants in the anti-immigration group to sing along and applaud at the end. There was an extensive Garda presence at the location where the two protest groups were due to cross paths. The Garda Mounted Support Unit, the Public Order Unit, and Garda members from outside the Dublin Metropolitan Region were in attendance. One Garda member was heard telling a member of the public he could not give directions as he was brought in from a region outside Dublin to police the protest. Advertisement
Irish Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Dame Street investment at €1.3m offers buyer 6.93% net initial yield
Investors looking to secure a combination of stable income and ownership of a well-located property in Dublin city centre may be interested in the sale of 66 Dame Street. Located at the western edge of the city's Temple Bar area and just 40m from the Olympia Theatre, the subject property, which is fully let, is being offered to the market by agent Sherry FitzGerald Commercial at a guide price of €1.3 million. Number 66 briefly comprises a four-storey over-basement mid-terrace building extending to a net internal area of 289sq m (3,103sq ft). The property is laid out with a ground-floor restaurant with ancillary accommodation at basement level, along with three upper floors of office accommodation. The building is fully let and is producing a total passing rent of €99,000 a year. The ground and basement floors are occupied by Abrakebabra Ltd on a 20-year lease from October 2015 at a rent of €55,000 per annum. Abrakebabra carried out a full fit-out of the ground and basement floors including kitchen, food-preparation areas and customer seating. The office accommodation at first, second, and third-floor levels is let to Hamilton Turner Solicitors, who have been in occupation since 1998, on a 35-year lease producing €44,000 per annum. Dame Street is one of Dublin city's main thoroughfares. It links several of the city's most popular visitor attractions including Trinity College Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral and the Guinness Storehouse. The area is well connected by public transport. Numerous Dublin Bus routes, the Luas green and red lines and Tara Street Dart station all are all within walking distance of the subject property. READ MORE Should a sale of number 66 Dame Street proceed at the €1.3 million guide price, the new owner would be in line for a blended net initial yield of 6.93 per cent, assuming standard acquisition/purchaser's costs of 9.96 per cent. The property's tenants will not be affected by the sale. Elizabeth O'Hara of Sherry FitzGerald Commercial says: 'We expect strong interest levels from private investors particularly those seeking well-located city-centre opportunities suitable for pension or long-term holdings with asset-management potential.'
BreakingNews.ie
25-05-2025
- BreakingNews.ie
Female tourist violently assaulted just arrived in the country, court told
A female tourist, just arrived in Dublin, was left bruised and bleeding after a man punched her face without warning in a gender-targeted daylight attack on Friday and 'calmly' walked away, a court heard. Kevin Kletzander, 33, who allegedly 'showed no remorse', was charged with assault causing harm to the woman who fears she will be left scarred following the incident on Dame Street in the city centre south side at 11:30 am on May 23th. Advertisement The accused, who resides in a Dublin 8 hostel and has a history of mental illness, was refused bail by Judge Catherine Ghent at Dublin District Court on Saturday. Garda Niamh Dunne cited the seriousness of the case, telling the court, 'I have huge safety concerns for members of the public and any female he encounters'. Objecting to Mr Kletzander's bail application, she described the incident as 'totally unprovoked' and alleged the accused aggressively approached the woman and 'without warning punched her in the face'. The injured tourist was knocked to the ground, bleeding and in shock from the one-punch assault, and suffered a deep laceration on her temple area and swelling and bruising on her left eye. Advertisement The garda claimed several people were around, but that did not deter the man, who 'continued walking calmly to George's Street' after the incident. Furthermore, she alleged it was a gender-targeted attack on the woman who was unable to defend herself. Garda Dunne said the complainant had been left unable to take part in the tourist activities she planned and was deeply concerned at the psychological impact and that she may be left with scarring. The court heard Mr Kletzander later handed himself in at Pearse Street Garda station, 'was polite and pleasant,' and he made admissions when arrested. Advertisement During his interview, he showed no remorse but later replied, 'I'm sorry' when charged. Garda Dunne said there was CCTV evidence. The woman did not attend the bail hearing, and the accused only addressed the court to explain his understanding of the locations mentioned in the evidence. Defence solicitor Noel Boylan told the garda that while in the station, Mr Kletzander spoke but switched between English, Dutch and French, but Garda Dunne said she was not advised of that. She agreed that she was aware of his mental health difficulties. Mr Boylan said the accused attended medical appointments regularly, went to the gym, and maintained contact with his family. Denying bail, Judge Ghent noted the evidence of the seriousness of the incident and that the assault was allegedly gendered in nature. Legal aid was granted to the accused, who has yet to enter a plea and will appear again on May 29 next. Directions from the DPP need to be obtained.
