Temple Bar market cancelled at short notice due to Saturday American football game

Traders at Temple Bar Food Market have complained that their market has been cancelled with less than a week’s notice due to an American football game taking place on Saturday.

Dublin City Council (DCC) informed traders on August 18th that the market in Meeting House Square would be cancelled on August 26th because of access restrictions in the area due to the Notre Dame vs Navy college football classic at the Aviva Stadium.

Declan Cassidy, the owner of Gourmet Grub Bakery, who has been trading at the market every Saturday since 2014, said the loss of income, at short notice, will “take a long time to catch up on”.

“With such a great event taking place, we should have been looking forward to some more footfall, and the potential for greater sales. I still have my overheads to pay such as staff wages, stock and high energy bills,” he said.

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One of Dublin’s oldest food markets, Temple Bar Food Market has been running since 1997, offering organic fruit and vegetables, artisan meats and cheeses, baked goods and more, from local and independent traders.

“Our great market took a big hit during Covid, we lost half our traders. We are trying to rebuild this city centre food destination again,” Mr Cassidy said.

In an email sent to traders last Friday and seen by The Irish Times, DCC said it was agreed the market should not go ahead as normal “given the traffic and access restrictions” on the day of the game.

Dame Street will be closed to vehicle traffic between 8pm on Friday 25th and 10pm on Saturday 26th of August. Essex St East will be closed from Eustace St Junction to Parliament St on Saturday 26th from 10am to 7pm, while access to the quays from Dame Street via Eustace Street will be maintained.

DCC said it “understands that this disruption may cause some difficulty to traders, but as a gesture of goodwill, Dublin City Council will offer traders a four-week licence free of charge”.

However, Mr Cassidy said four weeks of free rent at the market “wouldn’t even be a quarter of my turnover, and I still have staff to pay”.

Temple Bar Company have since offered traders the opportunity to trade elsewhere, such as on Moore Street for the day, however, it would “not be possible to facilitate all”, the email from DCC said.

Mr Cassidy told The Irish Times it would not be possible for him and some other traders to arrange to move to Moore Street at such short notice.

“Investment for our market is now long overdue,” Mr Cassidy said, adding that the market has faced other significant issues recently, such as the “under use” of the large umbrellas that are in place in Meeting House Square.

“I can count on one hand the amount of times they have been open for 2023, and as far as 2022, we are looking at a few weeks before the end of the year. It’s such a shame, and embarrassment that they are not being used to their full potential,” he said.

Having the umbrellas open for trading days makes “such a difference on footfall and sales”, Mr Cassidy added, as once it rains, “the market clears out, and we are left with lots of produce unsold”.

An email response from DCC to the traders said there was a “significant mechanical issue with the umbrellas which needs specialist attention, and we do not have a date for this repair yet”.