DEVELOPER and music entrepreneur Harry Crosbie has been forced to withdraw plans to convert a former lighthouse ship into a bar in front of the O2 Theatre. Crosbie wanted to raise the Kittiwake Lighthouse Ship onto North Wall Quay, and use it as a cafe and bar.

Dublin City Council told Crosbie that consent for the use of the campshires for the bar had not been agreed to by the board of the Dublin Dockland Development Authority (DDDA), which owns the quays, “and that said permission will not be forthcoming”.

Crosbie had received a letter from the then chief executive officer of the DDDA Paul Maloney in December 2008 saying that the authority was willing to let the development go ahead, subject to consent from the authority’s executive board.

This permission will not how be forthcoming but the authority does feel that the ship should be used as a bar on the Liffey itself rather than on the campshires.

The Kittiwake was built in 1959 and was put up for sale by The Commissioners of Irish Lights in 2007.

Meanwhile, Cuisine de France founder Ronan McNamee has been granted permission for an expansion of Davy Byrne’s pub off Grafton Street, famous for its role in James Joyce’s Ulysses.

McNamee had asked Dublin City Council to allow a ground floor extension of the pub into the adjoining Creation Arcade which he owns. In turn, the Creation Arcade which he owns is to be expanded via extra space above the pub extension. The plan did not attract any objections.– NEIL CALLANAN