Latest news with #GreshamHotel
RTÉ News
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
New scheme to assist Dublin Fringe Festival performers with accommodation
The Dublin Fringe Festival (DFF) has launched a pilot scheme to help performers with accommodation, with many of those travelling from outside the capital finding it increasingly difficult to secure a place to stay. DFF is a multidisciplinary arts festival that takes place every September giving performers of all kinds - from musicians to playwrights - a platform to showcase their work. However, many of them travelling from outside of Dublin say they are finding it increasingly difficult to secure affordable accommodation while gigging there. This year the festival has launched a "Digs List" initiative in an attempt to alleviate accommodation costs for artists who are coming from outside the city. Festival Director Bee Sparks explained that the scheme is now a necessity for many of their performers. " We work with a lot of artists and part of our remit is to support artists, not just from Dublin but from across the country, and also sometimes international artists who come and take part," she said. She added: "We're aware that housing in Dublin is really difficult. It can be really cost prohibitive for people to kind of take part in Fringe. We know it can be up to €2000 for one person to stay for a week. "We looked at what's happening in other countries like the UK, they have formalised digs lists, so we decided to kind of pilot this scheme to trial. "What it would be if we could create somewhere where people with spare rooms could connect with artists to try and alleviate that kind of financial burden a little bit." Belfast theatre maker Seón Simpson is one of the many performers who will be taking part in this year's festival. "The way Dublin is, people would be spending €200-€300 a night for half a bedroom, it doesn't make any sense. So something like this is perfect" She made her Dublin debut at the Fringe back in 2019 and now frequently travels to the capital to perform. However, she says that each year has become increasingly difficult for herself and her team to participate in the city's arts scene due to rising costs. "Every year we have noticed a really big increase in both transport costs and housing costs. Our last time we were here, we were here for the first fortnight of the festival and I think the cost of somewhere for us to stay in an apartment for our team had tripled." "It used to be 'last minute dot com' that we would have been able to book a hotel room. There was one night we got the Gresham Hotel for €40 which we have never been able to get since," she said. At the festival launch last Wednesday, performers past and present welcomed the new initiative. Whilst paying a fee for a spare room is nothing new, it's the first time the organisers have officially promoted the practice of Digs, making it easier for performers to participate at this year's event. "We're not doing it to make money out of it. We're doing it to be an open door and an open room for people that need a room when they come to Dublin to make work and make art" Musicians Ahmed Kareem Tamu and Darragh Abdera who are both performing at the DFF this year believe that the scheme will be beneficial for everyone in the industry. "As an artist, when you're going down and you're being looked after for the duration of your performance at a place, it really does just take a thing off the list to be worrying about" Mr Abdera explained. "The way Dublin is, people would be spending €200-€300 a night for half a bedroom, it doesn't make any sense. So something like this is perfect. It's giving a host an option to make a bit of money and then also giving somebody an inexpensive place to stay," said Mr Tamu. Jean Hally from Inchicore is one of the several Dubliners opening up her home to DFF performers this year. Having worked in the theatre industry for 15 years, she says she knows how difficult it can be to find affordable accommodation, which is why she and her partner John felt compelled to sign up to this year's Digs List. "We charge €50 a night which works at about €350 a week, and I think you would get a hotel in Dublin at the moment between €120 and €200 a night. "We're not doing it to make money out of it. We're doing it to be an open door and an open room for people that need a room when they come to Dublin to make work and make art and I think that that's much more important than making money out of it". Dublin Fringe Festival 2025 will run for two weeks and takes place from 6-21 September.
Scroll.in
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scroll.in
Through a reader's eyes: Bloomsday celebrations in James Joyce's city, Dublin
I didn't grow up reading Ulysses, but what I did see growing up in Calcutta is the celebration of poets, writers, and the written word. The earliest memory of which would be to wake up early in the morning, wear a sari, put flowers in my hair, and head to school to celebrate Rabindranath Tagore on his birthday. Be it reciting one of his poems, singing Rabindrasangeet in a choir, or being a part of one of his operas, Rabindra Jayanti is a core memory in almost every Bengali's life. It is almost equal to, or sometimes even more important than Durga Puja; probably the only non-religious festival where a 'thakur' isn't sacrosanct. This Bloomsday, I experienced something very similar in Dublin. The day is celebrated every year on 16 June, the date on which the action – such as it is – in James Joyce's Ulysses unfolds. Joyce's is a I first heard uttered in reverent tones in classroom lectures at Presidency College during my time as a student. It's a name that I both admired and feared, for his oeuvre tends to have just that effect on young readers. But it also takes me back to an afternoon of solemn silence in the classroom when our professor finished reading 'The Dead' from Dubliners. In that moment, Joyce, to me, wasn't just a writer; he was a rite of passage. Fast forward to a few years, and it feels almost unreal to be walking the same streets as him or his characters in Dublin. Until now, I had only read about Bloomsday and how the city of Dublin comes together on 16 June 16 celebrate the author and his modernist epic Ulysses, but this year, I was lucky enough to have stepped into his world, not just as a reader, but as a witness to the carnivalesque occasion. A Joycean evening at Dalkey Castle The celebrations start much ahead of the actual day, with locals and tourists picking their favourite events to attend. For me, it began with an evening at the heritage town of Dalkey, a small town perched on the southern coast of Dublin, a seaside suburb with literary ghosts in its granite walls. Joyce drew upon his experience as a teacher in the Clifton School, the site and inspiration for the schoolroom scene of the Nestor episode from Ulysses, which still stands tall at Dalkey Avenue. His father, John Stanislaus Joyce, who lived here, is also fondly remembered by the locals. Inside the 14th-century stone castle, actors Martin Lindane and Declan Brennan acted out the Nestor episode as Stephen Daedalus and Mr Deasy, accompanied by the beautiful baritone of Simon Morgan, who performed The Croppy Boy and Rocky Road to Dublin, which were originally present in Joyce's works. This was followed by a dramatic re-enactment of the Christmas Dinner scene from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, originally set in Martello Terrace, which is just a few miles away. The highlight of the evening for me was the dramatisation of the scene between Gretta and Gabriel from 'The Dead', which was originally set in the Gresham Hotel in the heart of Dublin. As it poured outside the castle, Darina Gallagher sang The Lass of Aughri m, bringing Joyce's characters to life – not as abstract literary constructs, but as real people, with real desires, disappointments, and Dublin rain in their hair. 'The reason we celebrate the fact that James Joyce set the Nestor episode in Dalkey is that I delight in celebrating writers' work in the places that inspired them.', said Margaret Dunne, the manager at Dalkey Castle and Heritage Centre. At home with Joyce On the morning of Bloomsday, I made my way to the James Joyce Centre in north Dublin. Housed in a Georgian townhouse with creaking staircases and fireplaces, the centre felt like Joyce's spiritual home, even though he never actually lived there. I was greeted by a huge crowd of people, dressed in Edwardian attire, women wearing long skirts, elaborately designed hats, and ruffled blouses, men dressed in Bloom's funeral attire (a black suit), or as Joyce himself – straw hat, rounded spectacles, britches and braces, and a cane. I was clearly not dressed for the occasion! Inside, there were exhibitions tracing the evolution of Ulysses, from its fraught writing process to its scandalous reception. Mamalujo: Finnegans Wake as a Work in Progress, an exhibition that displayed the various installments in honour of the 101th anniversary of the former, an exhibit by French artist Rémi Rousseau, presenting more than 100 illustrations providing a visual depiction of Ulysses, Modality of the Visible: Ulysses VR, an immersive VR project taking the visitors on a journey through the Dublin of 1904 in a visual, interactive way where the audience could mount the gunrest of the Martello Tower, walk along Eccles Street, hang around the gentlemen at Barney Kiernan's, and explore other settings of Ulysses. At the back of the ground floor of the building stood the original door from No. 7 Eccles Street, Leopold and Molly Bloom's address in Ulysses. The building buzzed with people as they queued to get a copy of their favourite book or merchandise from the store downstairs. At noon, as hunger pangs hit, I found my way to Davy Byrnes pub on Duke Street. All Ulysses enthusiasts know that Leopold Bloom stopped here for a glass of burgundy and a gorgonzola sandwich. The pub was brimming with pilgrims like me – readers, scholars, and curious tourists, all dressed for the occasion, eager for a taste of Joyce. I shared a table with a group of elderly people from Cork who claimed to have been attending Bloomsday 'since before it was fashionable.' We raised our glasses in a toast to Bloom and enjoyed the street theatre in front of the pub. From there, I headed to Hodges Figgis, the iconic Dublin bookshop and also the oldest in Ireland. It is the very same bookstore that Joyce has Leopold Bloom stroll past it on Dawson Street, immortalising it in Ulysses when Stephen Dedalus recalls seeing 'a virgin at Hodges Figgis' window' glancing at the books in the window. A literary haunt even to this day, I found myself engrossed in the book reading session at the store, striking interesting conversations with fellow Joyce enthusiasts such as Robert Nicholson, the former curator of Martello Tower, that houses the James Joyce Museum. 'Hodges Figgis holds such significance not only for the people of Dublin, but everyone who loves literature. Every year we have several tourists making a stop here on Bloomsday and during the walking tours in the city. We look forward to these readings on Bloomsday throughout the year,' said Tony Hayes, manager of the bookstore. Later, I wandered into MoLI – the Museum of Literature Ireland – at the Newman House of University College Dublin, where Joyce once studied. Visiting MoLI and seeing the first copy of the novel which is the reason behind all the celebration, felt surreal. As I peeped through the glass at the blue cover of the first copy of Ulysses, it felt like life had come a full circle, it felt as if I were on the last stop of a pilgrimage. The museum lets you 'walk through' Ulysses and trace the events of the book through the map of Dublin in an illustrious exhibit. Just a short walk from there led me to my last stop for the day, Sweny's Pharmacy, a cultural hotspot in town. Preserved almost exactly as it was in Joyce's day, it is where Leopold Bloom goes into Sweny's dispensary to buy some skin lotion for Molly, and ends up buying a bar of lemon soap. Though Sweny's is not a pharmacy anymore, it is a mandatory stop for all Joyce lovers – to get a bar of soap for themselves or participate in a reading session. I sat in a group along with PJ Murphy, who now runs the place, dressed as a chemist, as people dressed in hats and gowns took pictures outside the store. The lemon soap, wrapped in wax paper, smelled like nostalgia, of both mine and someone else's. I bought one to take home to Kolkata, a sensory souvenir of this remarkable day. The city as text As I headed home, stepping on few of the bronze plaques which anyone who has visited Dublin would have spotted, a part of the Joyce Trail by artist Robin Buick set into the streets of Dublin, at locations relevant to scenes from Ulysses, I couldn't help but wonder how Joyce had taken a single day, June 16, 1904, and turned it into an epic. An ordinary 'Day in the Life' as we now know it in the age of social media influencing, turned into something that has stood the test of time, something that reminds us that no quotidian act is actually ordinary: every moment holds the possibility of becoming an epic. As someone who grew up far from Dublin – in a similar city of trams, books, and literary geniuses, I never imagined I'd end up walking these cobblestone lanes in the footsteps of Bloom. And yet here I was, on Bloomsday, celebrating the past in the present, being reminded of home, and how literature holds the power to transcend time, emotion, and geopolitical borders, acting as a unifying force, bringing people together for a cause that is pure and unconditional. Anisha Pal is a postgraduate student of Marketing at Trinity College, Dublin.
BreakingNews.ie
27-06-2025
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
Profits and revenues surge at Dublin's Gresham Hotel
Pre-tax profits at the four-star Gresham Hotel last year increased by 46 per cent to €6.69 million, as the business benefited from the buoyant hotel market in the capital. New accounts show that pre-tax profits at Gresham Hotel Company Ltd, which operates the Riu Plaza The Gresham Dublin on Dublin's Upper O'Connell Street, increased sharply as revenues surged by 20 per cent from €23 million to €27.57 million. Advertisement The hotel was purchased by Spain's RIU Group for €92 million in 2016, and the investment continued to pay off last year for the RIU Group as the Gresham hotel firm paid out dividends of €5.55 million, and this followed a dividend payout of €3.9 million in 2023. In their report, the directors state that 'the actual results for the year are consistent with performance expectations'. A breakdown of revenues shows that the main driver behind the revenue surge was income from room sales rising by 21.5 per cent from €18.9 million to €22.97 million. Revenues from bar and food sales at the hotel firm last year increased by 10pc from €3.73 million to €4.1 million. Advertisement The company's revenues were also made up of €407,671 in rental income and €86,257 in 'other income'. The hotel firm increased its pre-tax profits despite non-cash depreciation costs rising from €1.75 million to €2.43 million and €2.09 million in management services costs charged by fellow affiliates. At year's end, that hotel firm's shareholder funds totalled €55.1 million, which included accumulated profits of €45.7 million. Cash funds increased from €694,213 to €913,285. The directors state that they were satisfied 'with the level of retained reserves at year end'. Advertisement Numbers employed declined from 277 to 271 as staff costs rose by €1 million from €8.01 million to €9.05 million. The company recorded a post-tax profit of €5.84 million after incurring a corporation tax charge of €849,913. The company's tangible assets had a book value of €59.8 million at year-end. The jump in revenues and profits at the Gresham hotel contributed to overall revenues of €4 billion at the RIU Group in 2024, which was an increase of 13 per cent on 2023. The group welcomed 6.7 million guests into their hotels in 2024, recording an overall average occupancy rate of 89 per cent. At the end of 2024, RIU operated 98 hotels, which are located in 21 countries and staffed by a total of 38,055 employees. Coinciding with the boost provided to the Thailand tourist economy by the third series of White Lotus filmed there, the RIU Group is currently constructing its first hotel in Thailand, the hotel Riu Palace Phuket and it is due to open next year.
Irish Independent
27-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
Gresham Hotel profits surge to €6.7m
Newly-filed accounts for the business show that its revenue rose to €27.6m from €23m the previous year. The firm behind the hotel on Dublin's O'Connell Street also paid its parent firm a €5.5m dividend in 2024, up from €3.9m in 2023. Dividends totalling more than €22m have been paid since the Spanish group acquired the property. Riu Hotels and Resorts acquired the Gresham Hotel in 2016 for €92m, after it was put up for sale by Nama. The Gresham had been owned by Precinct Investments, which was controlled by builder Bryan Cullen. Precinct was used in 2004 to take the then stock market-listed Gresham Hotel group private in a €117m deal. Family-owned Riu saw off competition from US private equity giants Apollo and Cerberus to buy the Gresham, which is more than 200 years old. The net book value of the land and buildings owned by the hotel firm last year was €54.5m. The Spanish group has invested a significant amount of money in The Gresham since it bought it, including a renovation project completed last year. The latest accounts show that the hotel, which employs about 280 people, generated €23m of its revenue last year from room sales, up from €18.9m a year earlier. Bar and food sales accounted for €4.1m, compared to €3.7m in 2023. Riu Hotels and Resorts has a significant international footprint, with more than 100 properties worldwide. It's opening its sixth hotel in Cancun, Mexico, this year. It will bring its total number of hotels in Mexico to 23. It's also opening its first property in Thailand. ADVERTISEMENT It also has hotels in locations including the Caribbean, Panama, the Maldives, Spain and the United States. Ireland's biggest hotel operator, Dalata, is currently up for sale with interest in the group having come from bidders such as Norway's Pandox. A number of new hotels are planned for Dublin or under construction. They include the Sofitel Dublin Airport, a 412-room hotel being built beside Terminal 2. The UK's Whitbread group announced during the spring that it will redevelop a site on Dublin's Parkgate Street into a 155-bedroom Premier Inn. It's also starting construction soon on a 100-bedroom hotel on Usher's Quay in the city.
