Locals in attempt to buy iconic Dingle cinema to make it a community hub

A group of Dingle locals have come together to figure out how to save the Phoenix Cinema. They want to purchase the cinema and give it back to the community, as a multifunctional arts space

Members of the Ionad Phoenix board, Aoife Granville, Jamie Flannery, Tor Cotton, and Liam Higgins launching the Ionad Phoenix fundraiser. Picture: Manuela Dei Grandi

The local community of Dingle is banding together to try and purchase the iconic Phoenix Cinema, which closed permanently last year and has been placed on the market this week, and keep it for use as a community arts centre.

The 150-seat single-screen cinema is one of the last of its kind in Ireland, having first opened its doors more than a century ago.

Only last June the cinema was ranked in the Top 50 cinemas in the UK in Ireland by entertainment magazine Time Out, hailed as “the most westerly cinema in the British Isles — and possibly its most friendly”.

The friendly faces of the Phoenix were the O’Sullivan family, who ran their business for over 40 years until forced to close during the pandemic.

In November of last year, they announced that they had to make the “difficult decision” not to reopen, because of rising costs and falling ticket sales.

When this announcement came, a group of Dingle locals came together to figure out how to save the Phoenix Cinema, and formed a company, ‘Ionad Phoenix CLG’, to try and purchase the cinema and give it back to the community, as a multifunctional arts space.

The board of directors, Tor Cotton, Michelle Flannery, Aoife Granville, Liam Óg Higgins, Jamie Flannery, Sheila O’Reilly, Orla Breslin, and John Benny Moriarty, have been meeting once a week to set up the funding campaign to save the Phoenix.

The group hopes to purchase the Phoenix, keep it open as a cinema, and also bring it back to its past glory as a dance hall, theatre and concert venue, and above all a community-owned home for the arts in Dingle.

However treasurer Liam Óg Higgins said the “fire has been lit under them”, as the cinema was put on the market on Thursday, and the community campaigners are now in competition with developers eyeing up the prime real estate property.

“We know what the owners are looking for, it’s a huge price, but it’s the market value of a property like that in Dingle at the moment unfortunately. So we're going to have to act quick now to stop some developer coming in,” he said.

The 150-seat single-screen Phoenix Cinema is one of the last of its kind in Ireland, having first opened its doors more than a century ago. File picture: Don MacMonagle

“I imagine there’ll be five or six offers put in,” he added.

Mr Óg Higgins said that the local community are all rallying behind the significant fundraising campaign ahead of them, as well as local politicians and celebrities such as Cillian Murphy who are getting on board to help the cause.

“The artistic community in Kerry is behind us, we've got received a lot of encouragement and a lot of people want to help. 

"Suddenly people are realising we're going to lose our cinema. We're an isolated area, the nearest cinema is 30 miles away, and nobody wants that to happen,” he said.

The penny has dropped now what it would mean to the community to lose it, it would be huge, and we’d be in danger of becoming a town that’s selling its soul.

Aoife Granville said that it was important to make sure that Dingle had cultural spaces for the whole community. 

"There's quite a lot of ground space there and ideally that that would be developed into an art centre or art space beside the cinema," Ms Granville said. "There's a two-pronged approach. The main thing is to secure the cinema, that would be the initial thing."

Ms Granville added that the Phoenix is not a listed building and could potentially end up being knocked.

One of the most important things alongside the fundraising is to raise awareness of the campaign to reopen the Phoenix as a cinema.

Ms Granville said that Dingle needs facilities like the Phoenix that are suitable for families and that it is a space that is important for different generations.

"There's a lot of couple in the town that met at dances there that are married now," she said. 

It was always a very safe space, even for us as youngsters growing up.

The O'Sullivan family who previously owned it gave "a great service" to the town and locals "are indebted to them" for keeping the cinema going for so long.

"We just don't want to lose it now."

The group met this weekend to iron out details of their fundraising campaign, which will soon be shared across social media @PhoenixDingle and using the hashtag #SaveThePhoenix.