Aimee pans Temple Bar experience
By Staff Reporter
 She's travelled the world and seen more cities in a year than most people do in a lifetime.
But when American singer Aimee Mann decided to take in Ireland’s famed Temple Bar cultural quarter she couldn’t believe her eyes.
For the multi-million selling artist was confronted with overflowing pubs, drunks, urine stains and pools of vomit.
She regaled an audience at Dublin’s Vicar Street with her less-than-impressed view of Dublin’s famous entertainment area.
The Grammy Award-winning entertainer said: “I’ve never seen so many pools of vomit in my life.
“Was it just a one-off? Is it just the heat?”
Mann’s comments came as the company that runs Temple Bar announced it was looking to revamp the image of the area to try to rid it of its increasingly poor reputation.
Both Temple Bar Properties Limited (TBPL) and traders’ association TASCQ have admitted the area needs to return to its cultural roots if it is to survive.
The action plan includes a new Play Nice campaign — which will target pubs, clubs and drinkers themselves.
Lisa Fitzsimons of TASCQ said: “We are launching the Play Nice campaign in October and feel it will make a big difference.
“Pubs and nightclubs will have to have fully trained, experienced and professional staff to do away with undesirable clientele.
“Every establishment will be linked up on the same radio frequency which means they can warn other doormen about a troublesome group that may be making their way around the area.”
Posters will also remind pub-goers to follow basic good manners such as not drinking or urinating on the streets and keeping the noise down out of respect for Temple Bar’s 3,000 residents.
TBPL chief executive Dermot McLaughlin said: “Aimee Mann was not the first person to see vomit on the streets here.
“I understand the perception and it is something we are working towards doing away with.
“But to those who criticise Temple Bar I say people vote with their feet and they are still coming here.” | 