The number of nightclubs in Ireland has fallen to just 83, as of January 2025, an 84% decrease from 522 in 2000, representative group Give Us The Night has said.
Launching the report The Rhythm Of The Night: A Report on Ireland’s Nightclub Industry and Dance Culture, the first report on the health of Ireland’s nightclub industry since the late 2000s, Give Us The Night’s Sunil Sharpe said that the number of nightclub closures appears to have “stabilised”, although further fluctuations are likely.
In the report, Give Us The Night highlight that Ireland has the earliest closing times in the EU, with most clubs ending by 2.30am, far behind the EU average of 6.30am.
Other findings from the report include that nightclubs are increasingly a part-time business, with most clubs across Ireland operating for six to nine hours per week, across two nights.
Nightclubs account for just 0.6% of the 14,085 active liquor license in use across Ireland, while Irish club owners are paying on average €21,320 plus legal fees annually in Special Exemption Order (SEO) costs, to enable them to stay open late.
Give Us The Night also pointed to positive developments in recent years that have helped to place the ‘night-time economy’ more firmly on the political agenda – such as the appointment of night time advisors in cities across Ireland, the expansion of Culture Night activities later into the night, and the drafting of a new (but still unpublished) licensing bill that would accommodate later club opening hours.
Sharpe suggested that Dublin would be ready to adopt later opening hours “as soon as this weekend” if the will was there, adding that “approximately ten or 11” venues have expressed willingness to open later if legislation permitted it.
If later opening was adopted in the capital, it would “set a precedent for the rest of the country as well, because there is a fear outside of Dublin that they will get left behind,” he added.
“I think it’s a responsibility of politicians in particular to ensure that certain areas don’t get left behind, because there are still some good venues and nightclubs in these areas that would only need an extra hour – until 3.30am. They would be happy with just a little bit of overlap.”
At the same time, however, later opening hours would also raise questions for venue owners, Sharpe noted.
“Even amongst those venues, they still need to ask what kind of business will be there? Will it be a challenge getting staff to work late? Is there good enough public transport to get people to and from the venue?”
Sharpe also suggested that many of the “answers are in the past” – with reference to previous initiatives on the part of promoters and night-time advocates – when it came to licensing reform, with the report offering guidance for those that want to enter the nightclub industry or night-time economy in the future.
“This isn’t necessarily about reinventing the wheel,” he said. “Space is at a premium, so we need to make the most out of these spaces so that they can be sustainable venues moving forward.”
The Rhythm Of The Night: A Report on Ireland’s Nightclub Industry and Dance Culture can be downloaded here.
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