Life

Andrea Cleary: Dublin is a city for sale to the highest bidder

A cultural void has developed on Dublin’s increasingly hotel-strewn streets, to the point where the tourists who come here will soon have very little to see

Beyond a gold-plated sign reading ‘The Samuel’ at reception, there’s not a whole lot at the new Samuel Beckett-inspired hotel that indicates the celebration of one of our nation’s most beloved exports. Perhaps they’ll be kind enough to put a copy of Waiting For Godot on each bedside locker.

A post from Tourism Ireland emerges on Twitter: “The life and work of Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett is being celebrated with the opening of a new four-star hotel in Dublin’s Docklands,” it reads. The city heaves another sigh.

Accompanying the news are three photos: in one is a reception area, gleaming in grey and gold, where two members of staff are helpfully positioned behind a huge marble slab of a desk. In another, a smiling ...