The Moira Hotel, 15
Trinity Street & 1&2 Dame Lane
Today as you turn the
corner from Trinity Street onto Dame Lane opposite the Bankers Pub you will
find two great businesses, The Pichet Restaurant, a modern Irish restaurant
with a French twist opened for over a decade and one of the few remaining Dry
Cleaners in this modern city Excel Dry Cleaning. But they were not always there
and in days of old one of Dublin’s most famous hotels was located there, The
Moira. This is its story.
Sean O’Casey dined here
and James Joyce featured it in Chapter 6 of his renowned book Ulysess but its
history stretches way back into the 1700’s when a hotel opened first here as
the Ulster Hotel later to become known as the St. George Hotel. By the mid-19th century the hotel
was purchased by the Crosbie family who originally owned the name the Moira
Hotel when it was located on Sackville Street, now O’Connell Street dating back
to 1754.
In 1890 owner was Miss B
Kelly referring to it as the Grand Old Moira Hotel and OP Tavern. Miss Kelly
was charging 2s6d (half a crown) for bed and breakfast in one of the hotels 20 rooms.
By 1936 that price had increased under the Jury’s family to 7s6d for the same accommodation.
If you happened to be staying in the hotel as a gust you were spoiled for
choice for somewhere to drink and eat. Not only did you have an exclusive
restaurant and bar in the Hotel, directly next door was in 1890 Patrick Mackey’s
public house later to be sold to Thomas Cahill in 1901, while across the lane
was what is now The Bankers pub, previously known as Coolohan’s Gin and Whiskey
Palace, Tormey’s and The Trinity Bar.
The Moira Hotel was sold
again in 1894 to John O’Connor and his Family and yet again a new proprietor
was on hand to welcome patrons and guests at the turn of the century. In 1900
owner Mrs E Mulloy decided on a complete remodelling of the Moira under architect
George P. Sheridan with the construction carried out by J & P Good Limited.
It was an instant success but as Mulloy was by now a widow she decided to sell
and in 1903 it was sold to Peter Nugent who had been running the Dolphin Hotel
in Essex Street now the Family Courts in Temple Bar Unusually for the period according to the 1911 census the only bar staff he had working in the bar area were three women.
During the War of
Independence because of its proximity to Dublin Castle numerous British ranking
officers stayed at the hotel. One of them was Major Geoffrey Compton-Smith of
the 2nd Welsh Fusiliers. Less than 50 yards away was Michael Collins
intelligence headquarters and as soon as ‘Mick’s Men’ had gathered enough
intelligence on Compton-Smith he was followed one day as he left the hotel and
made his way down to the south of Ireland by train. On April 16th
1921, he was abducted near Blarney in County Cork and executed on the orders of
Collins.
In the 1930’s the
business was taken over by the now global chain the Jury’s Family who were
already running a hotel on nearby College Green. The first annual dinner dance
of the Irish branch of the Bartenders Guild, later to become the Bartenders
Association of Ireland, was held in the Moira Hotel on November 28th
1948. At the time the bar area was known as the Jardine Bar and the head
bartender was Terry Dunne who was a founder member of the Bartenders Guild. Jury’s
continued in business trying to develop both the bar and the food business
until the premises became no longer fit for purpose and closed in 1973.
The site was sold and
plans were made to redevelop it as an office block but plans changed which it
was rebuilt in 1990s as Moira House and included a 170 space carpark and ground
floor retail outlets including Pichet Restaurant and Excel Dry Cleaners on Dame
Lane
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