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CARBON NIGHTCLUB IN Galway is to bought by JD Wetherspoon next month, in the latest expansion into Ireland by the UK pub chain.
The company says it intends to invest €2.5 million into developing the Eglinton Street site into a 4,000 sq ft pub floor and 1,900 sq ft beer garden.
Planning permission will be required for the development but contracts for the purchase have already been exchanged and the deal is expected to be completed next month.
Carbon has been one of Galway’s most famous night-spots for almost a decade and yesterday announced “with a heavy heart” that it will be closing its doors on 21 August.
“We have thoroughly enjoyed nine prosperous years operating as one of Galway’s best-loved student nightclubs. For many of you, Carbon represents fond memories of your time spent in Galway and we would like to sincerely thank you for your patronage over the years, without you it just wouldn’t have been possible. It has been a pleasure to have been part of your journey and we have made some great friends along the way,” said a statement on Carbon’s Facebook page.
“Please drop in over the next 6 weeks to have a drink with us in our final farewell.We will be hosting a number of nostalgic events to celebrate the life of Carbon so keep an eye out!”
JD Wetherspoon already has seven pubs across the country, five in Dublin and one each in Cork and Carlow.
The discount pub chain’s development of a ‘super pub’ and hotel on Dublin’s Camden Street is already under way and the company is also planning to develop a premises in Waterford.
“We have enjoyed great success with our existing pubs in the Republic of Ireland and look forward to opening in Galway,” JD Wetherspoon’s general manager for Ireland, Alistair Broome said this afternoon.
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The onset of the franchised pub is not a good development.
Our unique pubs are a treasure, leave the mass produced, fruit machine versions to the UK.
@Ooby Dooby: those unique treasures could always try compete with the new players on price
@winston smith: economies of scale. Wetherspoons can afford to purchase in such volume across their 100′s of outlets so they can drive the prices down from their suppliers. That’s not the case for the rest of the industry where social, political and economic factors are making it more and more difficult to sustain business particularly in rural areas.
Agree 100% .. I’d rather spend an extra couple euro to support Irish businesses and support our unique Irish pub which is a key part of our tourism industry. Especially when these Irish businesses generally make an effort to buy Irish food and bevs where possible therefore supporting irish jobs. Wetherspoons is an ugly business model built on high volume selling only and doesn’t belong here.
@winston smith: Winston, your unqualified critique of Ireland continues unbounded I see.
Y’know if you like Britain so much……
@Ooby Dooby: The average price of a pint in the middle of Dublin is 5.95 almost everywhere now. 4 years ago it was barely a fiver, they creeped it up as the economy improved and did away with cheaper options on tap like tuborg and fosters. Pint of fosters in spoons abbey st was 3.50 or so last weekend, and it’s 2.95 in their suburban pubs, over the course of a long afternoon or evening into the early hours you’re talking about a 25 to 30 euro saving (Or drinking in Blanch vs town, a 3 euro per pint saving) Established pub owners have taken the proverbial for too long, hopefully spoons whips them into shape
@Glenn O’hAilpín: you act like Spoons are the only cartel in the game. There’s businesses running a dozen plus establishments in Dublin
@Ooby Dooby: Britain? Been a busy day in work so maybe there’s been a massive political upheaval that I missed, but is Galway not still in Ireland?!
@Glenn O’hAilpín: and they can pass those savings on to their consumers via cheaper prices. Those who prefer the traditional Irish pubs can pay a premium to go there. You seem concerned the market will choose the low prices, but if that’s what the market wants why should vested interests be allowed deny them?
@Glenn O’hAilpín: High volume selling in a pub doesn’t seem out of line with Irish traditions!
@Glenn O’hAilpín: Wetherspoons don’t go to poorer areas. I don’t understand the relevance.
@Ooby Dooby: id agree with you, but carbon was hardly some cute little shebeen
@winston smith: Wetherspoons treat their employees like crap, it helps the owners bank balance
@Glenn O’hAilpín: Alcohol like cigarettes is finished. In the next 30 to 50 years they will both be gone for good. It’s not as if we don’t know the bad health issues that surround them. So it’s something new for everyone.
@Ooby Dooby: drink is dangerous
@Barra O Brien: if that’s the case people should look for jobs other than in a weatherspoons. We’re said to be at full employment, labour has options when they’re in demand. All the arguments against this appear to be arguing against the free market.
@HONEY BADGER180: yep, and for the last few millennia humans have been labouring under the assumption that the drinks that lifted your spirits but left you feeling like you’d been hit by a train the following morning, along with the inhalation of the combustible product of plant matter both served as paths to good health and long lives. Sure let’s get together in 50 years and I’ll buy you a pint, sounds like you could do with one.
@Ooby Dooby: Come on we hate the independent business owner, it’s been that way for decades now. Be rich enough to protect your self with a franchise or get a job for our pals in pharma, insurance, blah blah…
@thesaltyurchin: to own 1 square foot of bar counter in this country is worth more to you than a hundred acres of land. Let the prices fall. They make enough off people’s misery
@Trenchant Buffoon: cartel is a bit of a stretch there. Wetherspoons is ugly British crap and has no place particularly in cultural capitals like Galway.
@winston smith: for the same reason you cant build a skyscraper in Galway- nothing to do with demand, the demand is there but building authorities deny that ugliness to spoil the skyline. Besides I believe the Wetherspoons in Blanchardstown has turned into the hotspot for drug dealing in the area. Says a lot really. Want that clientele hanging out by your gaf?
@Gerry Quinn: price is only one component of value. I have no problem with a business making big profits if they provide a top offering with excellent aesthetics. These British chains are ugly and should have no place in this market.
@Ooby Dooby: you do realise that Galway already has a franchised pub, it was super busy for the first few weeks as was something new but now it’s just as busy or sometime less busy than any other bar in Galway. Don’t think this will be any different.
Used to be a big fan of wetherspoons when they first opened here, now having learned a bit more about the owner and how he treats his employees wont ever be stepping foot in one again
@Ian McNally: Spoons service is often a bit ropey, they hire a lot of kids, but it’s very much worth it, and pub service in general has declined dramatically in the last decade, it’s so laid back compared to what it was. Can’t remember the last time I saw a bar man serve 3 people at once, it used to be standard
@Ian McNally:
I used to go to the Wetherspoons in Blanchardstown but stopped going a long time ago.
The place is gone a kip.
Drug dealing in the toilets , food is pure rubbish , security more interested in chatting up customers and eating free food.
Never again.
@tommytukamomo: sounds like any pub around the Grafton St/South William St area.
@GrumpyAulFella: BS. Utter rubbish.
@Trenchant Buffoon: Most bar staff are badly paid and treated by the majority of publicans/hoteliers in this country and I’ve worked in the industry for many many years.
I cannot blame bar staff for taking their time because at the end of the day they’ll still get the same reward.Its sad but true.
@tommytukamomo: jaysus you a complete killjoy. If it’s a dive why go there ? So what if Dealing is going on. Just look the other way. It’s none of your business. Bouncers eating on the job ?? What’s it to you ? Plus who cares if it’s free or not you knob. You pay for it coz you don’t work there. Knob.
€8.50 for two pints of cider is about right. The current crazy prices for pints elsewhere is off putting. Although I don’t get out much these days, I still like reasonable prices, there is no new ingredients in beer or cider. Just new greediness from pubs and clubs.
If you feel like helping the anti Irish Brexit king then this is the place to go. A soulless pit selling low end slops and the lowest priced food they can source, all served up by the lowest paid staff they can find. Have some self respect and go to a decent pub.
@Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa: I can guarantee it will do brilliantly, especially with cash strapped students like myself. I couldn’t give a monkeys if it was a resurrected Ian Paisley draped in a Union Jack handing over the pints as long as he’s handing them over for 3 beans or 3.50 unlike between €5 and €6 in most Galway city pubs
@Alex Nevin: Sadly you may be right. If cheap booze is all that matters to you then there is little I can do. Hopefully not every resident of Galway thinks the way you do. Some of them may be aware of politics and history.
@Alex Nevin: Lol.
@Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa:
You choose pubs by reference to politics and history !?!
Clubs are dead in Ireland today. Its late bars/venues that focus more on a quality atmaosphere and good food rather than a dark room and banging tech house.
If you want to see big name djs these days in Ireland its at festivals.
@Doubtchya Boy!: District 8?
@Gav Brosnan: I’m getting on in fairness but I thought district 8 was poor enough compared to haunts of old.
@Trenchant Buffoon: 22nd November – Sasha and Digweed. District 8. For old times sake, like.
Happy days, cheap student nights out at long last. Won’t be heading anywhere else in the city once this opens
@Alex Nevin: you might still. Their policy on tv/sports channels and lack of any sort of background music makes it quite dull when your there for a while. Prices excellent doh. So good for a few pints.
@Seaniecp: Some of avoid pubs with TVs as is and like things to be quite.
@Seaniecp: they usually have free to air sports on
@Seaniecp: Their lack of music and Sky Sports is why the drink is so cheap. Pubs spending hundreds of thousands just to show Sky Sports is ridiculous anyhow.. No wonder half of them are going out of business..
@David Garland: myself and my college friends avoid pubs playing sports for the most part anyway. It’s much better to have pints and chats in peace rather than have to yell over a telly to chat to someone on the other side of the group. Spoons seems like a win win so far
@Seaniecp: Wetherspoons prefer the noise of gambling machines to music
@Barra O Brien: You obviously haven’t been in many in Ireland so..
”It won’t be selling any products from the EU”’ shows how dull that will be…
@Benjamin Shéamuis De Brugha: the article is wrong no EU drinks in UK pubs but no change in Ireland.
Once it was ballrooms , then dance halls, with good live music. Then clubs surprised with clubs lasted so long I say if people weren’t getting tanked by cheep supermarket drink before hand they wouldn’t of lasted as long.
People are changing , good pubs with live music is growing now if we could bring back the slow sets that be nice.
And clubs with 90s dance/trance…..
@Life is short enjoy it: quite an eclectic taste in styles there pal,, 90s dance/trance, followed by a bit of Madonnas crazy for you or a bit of careless whisper in between to keep the crowd on there toes,, nice. :)
@Life is short enjoy it: Life is short enjoy it.
@Devilsavocado:
a mad night out with your mates at a 90s rave,
a slow set in the arms of a beautiful lady,
a few listing to some good music.
That Brexiteer wont be getting any of my European money
@deise: oh no they must be devastated !
Wetherspoons (JDW) has about 1,000 outlets, in about 35 years – the biggest pub company the UK, with dozens of hotels. About to open a massive unit in Camden Street, Dublin, also. JDW has a different philosophy – NO sitting at the bar, or tv, juke boxes, music, dart board, pool table, music, having a chat with the bar person or entertainment. Just good and well priced food and drink – from early in the morning to late. Soon, a JDW will be in every large Irish town – and trading before Paddy is even awake!
@Alonzo Margate: how’s the digital marketing internship going ‘Alonzo’??
@Alonzo Margate: the food is not good and I’m lead to believe it is all microwaved.
@Mushy Peas: having lived in the UK for years the food varied from pub to pub some good and some bad.
I’d rather have my head shaved with a cheese grater than set foot in this brexiteers establishment. Brexit will destroy many Irish businesses and the b011ix who owns Fethergoons is happy to take EU money. Phuck him.
Weatherspoons bought an enmpty bank in Waterford City center and have sat on it for years. I thought they were strapped for cash.
@Caroline Otoole: they plan for years ahead, obviously think Waterford is poor at the moment
Great News! A decent pub
Jesus I had some nights out in Carbon.
The one in carlow u would need a body guard after 8 o clock
Nasty tacky pubs and a nasty owner. No ta.
I see Wetherspoons’entry into the Irish market, much like Aldi’s and Lidl’s into the grocery trade. A much needed wake-up call to the Vintner’s cartel, compete or die.
Wetherspoons decision to shut all Facebook accounts belonging to individual pubs must be the strangest in history. Getting rid of a free platform to advertise drinks and foods promotions, events etc. The franchisees must be livid
@Trenchant Buffoon: I think any pub business, outside of the large anonymous venue types, should shut down their social media accounts. They don’t attract real business through social media, and they are only opening themselves up for trolls. Even for a small business, it can take a lot of time and resources to properly manage a social media presence.
Apparently Fatboyslim played thee regularly before he was famous.
@Skimothy: He actually played there at the height of his fame in 1998.
What was the name of the place that was there before Carbon? Memory lapse!
@John Mulligan: GPO
@Conor Gogarty: so what was the one next door to it called, on the cathedral side? There used to be a great bar there between the post office and what was then the five star supermarket.
@John Mulligan: The Drum Bar??
@Kelvin O’Connor: might have been before that? Back in the late 60s/early 70s there was a big place, entrance beside the supermarket on the post office side.
Racking my brains to remember it!
@John Mulligan: Lions Tower?
Roll on
F0 c k Wetherspoons
Roll on shit hole
I was not a fan of Weatherspoons to start with, but having being in the one is Swords I notice all the Bi-Lingual signage throughout the establishment – they earned my vote. Takes an outsider to bring good initiatives.
Go Riabh Míle Maith Agat Wetherspoons. Keep it up’
How about Free Pints for customers asking for their order in Irish on Paddy’s week or
Seachtain na Gaeilge (Irish Language Week).
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I remember going to Wetherspoons in the UK,they sold cheap food and drink, it was brilliant, that will never happen here with this country, ireland always wants to take from the average joe and the big cats just keep getting fatter….high prices etc
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