The Irish Times

At a time of unprecedented growth in tourism, visitors to Irish hotels are presented with an image of bland international mediocrity. During the 1970s and 1980s very few hotels opened in Ireland. Mostly they closed, with a number of historical premises disappearing for good. Among the most shocking losses was the closure and demolition of Dublin's Hibernian Hotel in September 1984, a decade after the Russell Hotel on St Stephen's Green had suffered the same fate. At the time, the gracious world encapsulated by these national institutions seemed to have disappeared, and only the mass market sector of the hotel business showed evidence of growth.