BUSINESSES ON DRURY Street in Dublin’s city centre say the large numbers of people drinking in the sunshine on the street are causing huge problems for them. 

The street, which has been pedestrianised since 2021, has seen an influx of people flocking there to enjoy food, drinks and socialising – particularly when the weather is good. 

Bollard signs asking people to refrain from sitting on the kerb have appeared on the street in recent days – but they were pretty much being ignored when The Journal visited the street on Thursday.

Business owners have told The Journal that large numbers of people are congregating on the street consuming alcohol every day, leading to increased littering on the street and making it difficult for customers to access their premises. 

“People are going on the piss,” Ronan Rogerson, who owns the the Drury Buildings restaurant and bar on Drury Street, told The Journal.

Signs asking people not to side on the kerbside have appeared over bollards on Drury Street in recent days. Mairead Maguire / The Journal Mairead Maguire / The Journal / The Journal

“There’s a lovely buzz in the afternoon. There’s people having coffees, having pizza, it’s all really nice. Then as it gets into the evening, people start having drinks. A lot of it is takeaway that they’re bringing in.

People are going around to the off license, they’re bringing down bags of cans, and then they’re just sitting out on the street to a point where you can’t walk down the street.

Looking out at the street on Friday morning, Rogerson described it as “post-festival-like”, with broken glass, empty alcohol bottles and sticky surfaces. 

He said his staff are having to deal with “shocking” behaviour from some people who are gathering on the street. 

“The guys were really upset this week, because they are just finding it impossible at the weekends,” he said. “We’re really strict. We have a good business, we don’t serve takeaway, we don’t allow people take drinks off the terrace.

“One of my team asked a guy on Saturday, ‘look, really sorry, you can’t bring your drinks off the terrace’. And he turned around and he said to her, ‘Go fuck yourself. I paid for this fucking drink, I’ll drink it wherever the fuck I want’ and he walked off.”

No toilets

Rogerson also pointed out that there are no public toilets on the street, which leads to “hordes” of people trying to use the few toilets in his restaurant while they are drinking, alongside his customers. 

Empty alcohol bottles and food containers on Drury Street. Ronan Rogerson / The Journal Ronan Rogerson / The Journal / The Journal

“It’s not nice for our customers. I have customers saying to me they’re not coming down now because they’ve just seen the state of Drury Street and they don’t want to walk. They don’t feel comfortable.

“I was a huge supporter of pedestrianisation, but if I was given the option now, I’d ask for it to be opened up again. If they said, ‘can we open the street up to traffic?’, I’d say ‘please do’.”

Dublin City Council has said it is “mindful of the balance that is required between encouraging more people to come into our City Centre for positive social activities, provision of safe places to meet, the promotion of pedestrianised streets and of course the ability for all business types to trade without undue challenges”. 

“We are now working with other agencies and the mix of stakeholders on the street itself to see how we can keep a positive atmosphere for this street with some structure, balance and a shared sense of responsibility for all – both those that use the street and the traders in this part of town,” a spokesperson said. 

But Rogerson said that apart from contacting the council himself, he has yet to hear any plans for improving the situation. 

“This is really sad, because we shouldn’t really be having this conversation. Everything’s a reaction with the council, and with the guards. Everything’s reactive. It’s reacting to the situation,” he said.

“We have been voicing our concerns about this at business meetings with councillors, with the guards. I sent emails to the guards in Pearse Street last summer about what was going on on the street. 

“It’s simple: two guards walking up and down the street with someone from the council saying, ‘guys, sorry, you can’t drink on the street, pour that away’.”

Some of the rubbish left on Drury Street after people have left. Ronan Rogerson / The Journal Ronan Rogerson / The Journal / The Journal

Rogerson added that the way things are now “really can’t continue into the summer”. 

“To be honest, I am dreading the summer if it’s like this, because it doesn’t work. We are a bar and a restaurant, but this isn’t the kind of business that we want on the street.”

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Getting the balance right

Chris Keegan, who runs Kaph cafe on the street, told The Journal that Drury Street needs to keep a balance of all the different reasons that people use it. 

We have a lovely mix of independent shops, cafes, wine bars and one or two pubs, but we don’t want it going too far into alcohol only.

According to Keegan, by mid afternoon, the street is becoming “more of a picnic destination and an alcohol destination”, with people using it “as a drinking den” rather than a mix of different activities.

“What happens then is that maybe the folks who might like to come down the street and pick up something here or there are just staying away from the area because it’s so mobbed with youngsters.”

Since the street became car-free nearly four years ago, there has been no infrastructural changes – something Keegan said needs to happen. 

“Unfortunately, [the Council] have retained these rubber bollards and haven’t put in additional seating, or haven’t raised the road to the pavement level,” he said. “From a design point of view… the street is caught between a rock and a hard place.”

For Keegan, allowing the street’s cafes and shops to use the pavement in front of their businesses with pedestrians having the use of the central roadway would create “a much more natural flow”, though he says it’s not something the Council is looking at. 

While he does not know what the Council is planning for the street, he praised the “fantastic job” that they do in “cleaning up after the previous night’s festivities”.

“But they’re losing the battle, I think. It’s just so slapped and mobbed with the good weather that no matter how many street sweepers and little vacuum trucks they send down the street, it’s just getting slowly tattier and tattier,” he said.

“They’re in a reactive space to try and deal with this onslaught, but obviously, it needs somebody to sit down to think of a master plan for the street.”

A spokesperson for An Garda Síochána told The Journal that they have not experienced  any rise in anti-social behaviour or public order incidents on Drury Street this week.

They said that Gardaí working in the area throughout the week “have noted the positive atmosphere which has been prompted by the good weather and all those coming into socialise in this part of our capital city”.

However, they acknowledged the concerns shared by retailers and said they are conscious that Drury Street “is a public street and must remain accessible to everyone”, adding that Gardaí will continue to work with stakeholders across the city to make sure Dublin “feels safe and enjoyable for everyone”.