It has become one of the city’s favourite celebrity haunts with a guest list that has included Kate Moss and Bill Clinton.
But with fewer than 50 bedrooms, its economic success has failed to match its star status.
The U2 frontmen believe their £100m plan will create one of the great hotels of the world that will be as synonymous with Dublin as Raffles is with Singapore.
“It’s going to be a vision of expression of confidence for the city,” said hotel manager Oliver Sevestre.
However, the design by London architect Lord Foster includes the demolition of several listed buildings.
The designers say the significant contribution the new hotel would make to the economic and social fabric of Dublin justifies the destruction of the protected buildings.
Michael Smith, of heritage organisation An Taisce, said he will take legal action if city planners give the go-ahead.
But U2 are no strangers to legal battles.
Five years ago they fought a compulsory purchase order on the band’s recording studio in Dublin’s docklands, which was to be demolished as part of a massive urban regeneration scheme in the area.
Legal representatives for the band arrived on the first day of public hearings into the development to argue that the studio’s cultural significance warranted its conservation.
The proposed ‘U2 Tower’
“That became a place of pilgrimage for U2 fans so obviously they’ve got a kind of stake in the area,” said Irish Times environment editor Frank McDonald. “It is the new Dublin in a sense, and U2 want to be a part of that.”
Within a matter of days, the band withdrew their objections after they struck a deal with the Dublin Docklands Development Authority to get involved with a project to build Ireland’s tallest building on a nearby site, which would house a new recording studio.
Construction of the U2 Tower is expected to begin next year, but other builders who lost out in the competition to develop the tower claim they were unfairly treated and are considering legal action.
Planners have yet to decide on the plans to redevelop the Clarence Hotel and it has been reported that Bono and The Edge will sell the hotel if permission is not granted.
For the band’s legacy in Dublin, it seems U2 may still have not found what they’re looking for.
