Pub group Wetherspoon expands with €4m investment

Wetherspoon is making an overall investment of €50m in Dublin city centre

Wetherspoon is due to open The South Strand in Hanover Quay, in Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock area, next Tuesday.

British pub group JD Wetherspoon will open its ninth bar in the Republic next week with the creation of 100 jobs in the process.

Wetherspoon is due to open The South Strand in Hanover Quay, in Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock area, next Tuesday.

The company spent €4m developing the site, with that money part of an overall €50m investment Wetherspoon is making in Dublin city centre. 

Earlier this year, it bought a site in Temple Bar for €9m and recently opened its €33m Keavan’s Port bar and hotel property on the city’s Camden Street.

Wetherspoon already operates eight pubs in the Republic — across Dublin city and county, Cork, and Carlow.

Further openings are planned in Galway, Limerick, and Waterford.

“We have enjoyed great success in the Republic of Ireland and are continually on the lookout for new sites,” Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin said earlier this year.

More Wetherspoon openings in Cork

Mr Martin has previously said there is scope for more Wetherspoon openings in Cork, where it owns the Linen Weaver bar on Paul St in the city centre.

He has also said Wetherspoon could, in the longer term, look at operating bar areas in Irish airport terminals; something it already does in the UK.

The company is committed to Ireland countrywide and has long-standing ambitions to have at least 30 pubs operating here in the coming years.

Wetherspoon’s area manager for the Republic Dan Foster said the group was “delighted” to be opening another pub in Dublin city centre.