The organisation created by performers aims to revitalise Irish night-life
By Ciara McKenna
Organisers of a national campaign aimed at revitalising nightlife believe Limerick is perfectly primed to embrace a new night-time culture.
“Limerick has a can-do attitude that is lacking in most other parts of the country, I think if there’s anywhere that’s really ready to explore the possibilities of a new night-time culture and events beyond midnight, I think limerick is really well primed to accelerate into that area,”, explained Sunil Sharpe of the Give Us The Night campaign.
Give Us The Night is a campaign run by volunteer night-time industry professionals. They aim to positively impact nightlife, with a particular focus on venues and legislation, raising Ireland to meet international standards of night-time economy.
Sunil Sharpe and Robbie Kitt are both performers and key members of the campaign, they explained that the group formed as an emergency response to indicators that closing times would be further curtailed.
“At that point we had the earliest closing times in Europe and continue to, there was a proposal at the time to further restrict those times” Mr Shape said.
Give Us the Night’s first call to action was to set up an online petition which was successful in its purpose. From that point on they have endeavoured to modernise licensing laws and improve the nightlife environment.
Mr Sharpe explained “From our perspective coming from a creative industry and being involved in music we see it in a completely different way, this is also our work environment and without venues, without activity at night we don’t have anywhere to work.
“This movement was born on the dance floor, we come from the dancefloor, and we want there to be more dancefloors… nightlife is a shell of what it used to be, and we want to improve it and remodel it in the way that it should be,” he continued.
Robbie Kitt got involved for similar reasons. He noticed that there was a huge loss of venues and cultural spaces noting that in Ireland we have 6,600 active pubs compared to a mere 85 nightclubs.
“We’re losing tonnes of different and diverse types of businesses within night-time economy”, Mr Kitt added.
Senan Moore, a Limerick-based DJ spoke to Limerick Voice to explain his concerns for the future of Limericks nightlife, “Ireland has neglected its culture and its young people and we’re facing the consequences… we can build a more culturally diverse nightlife and a significant night-time economy. But we need the proper support, now.’’
Approximately 85% of late-night venues in Ireland have been lost in recent years but Give Us The Night is fighting against this loss. The future of nightlife in Limerick is in the balance but still bright as new legislation brings promise of the necessary changes becoming a reality and allowing the city to meet international standards.
Find out more about Give Us the Night.
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