Neighbours from Hill | 

Elderly residents living near famous Dublin pub ‘demented’ by clamour from boozer

‘I’m not one for complaining about things but this is driving me mental’

Yesterday at 15:45

Furious residents protested outside a well-known Dublin pub this week over noise which they say is so bad that a man who is hearing impaired had to move out of his bedroom because it kept him awake

The Hill 16 pub on Gardiner Street came under new management last year and became a party hotspot with music blasting out on the street which locals say is driving them demented.

The popular pub is in a densely populated area and is located directly across the road from Fr Scully House, which is home to many elderly and ill residents.

One of the residents Barry Murphy, who has a lung condition, said the problems started a few months after the pub was taken over by new management last year.

“For the first three months it was grand but then they started playing the bang-bang music. They had a speaker on the street to get people in. It used to be Friday, Saturday Sunday and now it’s from Wednesday. I have an unexplained weight loss and I put it down to stress from this.”

He said residents have no problem with a pub being across the street but the noise is excessive.

Mr Murphy then showed us a video he took from his apartment of a large crowd of people shouting and cheering outside the venue.

“We’re absolutely demented with it. It’s blasting and people [whose bedrooms face onto Gardiner Street] are now sleeping in their sitting rooms. We’re supposed to be finishing off our days in peace, but instead our lives are being made a living hell.”

He said the pub had also set up barrels on the street where people drank outside.

“They’re piling out on the street every night. They’re coming out dancing on the street.

“There are several fights. There was a fight last Friday. About 20 came out of the pub knocking over barrels and ran after someone down the street. I don’t know what it was about. Whoever it was, was lucky to get away. They came back as fast and turned up the barrels up again.”

The barrels were subsequently removed after complaints to Dublin City Council.

The pub was taken over last year by Brazilian man Victor Zoffoli who Mr Murphy complained to several times about the noise.

Mr Zoffoli, who owns multiple businesses around Dublin, including tattoo parlours, food establishments and beauty salons, said he had recently sold the pub to another Brazilian man and is no longer involved.

Mr Zoffoli told the Sunday World yesterday that felt the noise issues were from the street as well as the pub.

“We put a lot of effort to get the Hill 16 pub open and running again, we also care about the neighbours as 80pc of them are also clients.

“The noise from my point of view is from the whole street not only the pub, and yes there’s a new management, since then they are fully responsible for everything about the pub.

“When I was there, I was making sure everything was good and they was happy. If there’s still anything that they can do to help and stop it I’m sure they will, they just want everyone happy, clients and residents.”

He said he was happy to facilitate a meeting between the residents and new owner.

The Sunday World contacted the new owner yesterday but they had not responded at time of going to print.

Mr Murphy said the noise has increased in recent weeks since Mr Zoffoli soldithe pub and around 70 residents have now said they will object to the licence.

He said he and other residents will continue protesting outside the pub every Friday night until the licence is up for renewal at the end of the month.

“We’re going to do this until licensing comes up. We don’t want to take their licence but we’re after giving him every opportunity to turn it down. I’m living 70 yards from that pub. There’s no escape.”

He said if noise issues stop, residents have no problem with the pub continuing to operate.

Mr Murphy claimed he has also seen ambulances called after people were injured inside or outside the pub. He said one man came out of the pub and fell and hit his head on the ground and lay there for a long period before passing gardaí came to his aid.

Another resident of Fr Scully House invited us into his flat and told us how he was one of several residents forced to move out of his bedroom, which faces onto Gardiner Street, to sleep in his sitting room at the back of the building.

The man, who asked not to be named, said: “I have primary progressive multiple sclerosis so I go to bed around 9.30pm and for the last few months I’ve had to go in a sleep on the couch when the noise starts. I cant even go back to sleep with a sleeping tablet so I have to come in here.”

He said he can’t leave his window open anymore.

“It’s like a furnace because these flats are very well insulated.

“It’s the music and the noise and the crowd that come out.”

He said he has never complained about anything before but is fed up with the noise.

“I’m not one for complaining about things but this is driving me mental. We said we’d object to the licence.

“The noise has got worse in the last two or three weeks. One night last week another man had to move out of his bedroom sleep on his couch and he’s deaf. He’s really, really deaf. You have to roar at him. This is our home. There are a lot of people here in the late 80s and 90s and people who are quite ill.”

Another resident, Anthony Egan, said locals have been frustrated by the situation and nothing seems to be changing.

“As long as they’re making money they’re not going to care. They put the music in to make money. Unfortunately, it appears in terms of community agitation there is nobody who gives a damn.”

He said residents feel they are being passed from one organisation to another when complaining about the situation.

“They have different priorities. It’s such a complicated system to go through Dublin City Council and go to the EPA and make a noise pollution report. The scales are against the community in favour of people who don’t give a damn.”

Local Sinn Féin representative Declan Hallisey, who attended the protest on Friday, has visited the pub to ask them to keep the noise down.

“It’s been an ongoing issue there for a while. The residents are seriously discommoded from the noise when they’re trying to go to bed two or three nights a week.

“I was with Barry when we spoke to them and there were verbal promises but nothing has changed.

“The pattern is they respond in the instant but then normal service resumes.”

Another resident, who asked not to be named, said he had to get sleeping tablets to deal with the noise and also goes into his sitting room to sleep.

“It’s like they’re in here in the room. I’m walking up and down. I don’t mind them enjoying themselves but it’s over the top. It’s excessive. You phone the police but they don’t do much. We deserve to sleep like everyone else.”