Plans for Ireland’s first gay hotel dropped.
Plans for a gay hotel in small town Ireland have been abandoned.
As PinkNews.co.uk reported last month, promoter Brian Berry had unveiled plans to convert a hotel in Carlow, saying:”In any establishment you can get complications and objections, but at the end of the day, no matter what objections I get, I’ll continue.”
Days before the Cosmo Brown’s hotel in downtown Carlow was due to change hands, it has emerged that it has been sold to a heterosexual couple, who intend to give the venue a Gaelic sports theme.
Hotel director of business Edward O’Donoghue told The Mirror: “”It seemed like a good idea originally, but there also seemed to be a lot of people in the area against it. We did have a change of heart.”
There was bemusement among the Irish gay community at plans to open Ireland’s first gay hotel in a rural backwater of 20,000 people, 50 miles south-west of Dublin.
Dublin is the only area of the Republic of Ireland with a sizable gay community.
The hotel has been sold to Paul Lucey, who intends to run a hotel more acceptable to the local conservative residents, many of whom had objected to the planned 19-room gay venue.
Mr Lucey told The Mirror: “I felt that there was a bad vibe and, while I have nothing against gay people we decided to go with a more family-orientated pub.”
Earlier this year Axel Hotel Barcelona, the first urban designer hotel aimed at the gay community, expanded into Europe and America.
