The Irish Times

The search for a new home for the Abbey Theatre has returned to Dublin's docklands, four years after the area was ruled out following an intervention by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. The Department of Arts has confirmed that, as part of a continuing search for an alternative site, officials have held exploratory talks with the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. It has been stressed, however, that the talks are at a very early stage. The re-examination of the docklands as a potential venue follows the collapse last year of a plan to relocate the theatre to Coláiste Mhuire, Parnell Square, after an adjacent site needed for the redevelopment became too expensive. The former Carlton Cinema on O'Connell Street, seen by the city council and other interested parties as the ideal location, has also been ruled out for the time being because of long-running litigation involving a proposed compulsory purchase order on the site.