Dublin Corporation is warning that it may seek a court order to stop refurbishment work which has made a roofless wreck of the pub which dominates James Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
The interior of the Mullingar House in Chapelizod, which originated as a coaching inn over 300 years ago and is a grade two listed building, has been gutted by its new owners.
The pub features in Dubliners, and more centrally in Finnegans Wake, where the hero, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, is described as its owner. A plaque erected by Dublin Tourism on its front wall reads: "Home of all characters and elements in James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake."
A senior Corporation planning official yesterday instructed the architect to stop work on the building. He is due to meet the architect and the developer on the site today to make sure work has ceased.
Another senior official said that if this did not happen the "next step" would be to seek a court order against the developer. "Planning permission has not been lodged. The roof is off and as far as we know he could even go further," he said.
The Mullingar House was owned for many years by the Keenan family, who "were very conscious of the Joycean connection", said Mr Ken Monaghan, director of the James Joyce Centre and the writer's nephew. However, two months ago it was sold to a consortium of pub owners.
The owners could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
Senator David Norris recalled giving a lecture on Finnegans Wake in the pub some years ago. He said he had wanted to protect buildings like Mullingar House, which have important cultural associations rather than architectural or historical significance, by his unsuccessful amendment this week to the Architectural Heritage Inventory Bill.
Mr Monaghan said Joyce's father spent "most of the three years" he worked as secretary of a distilling company in Chapelizod in the Mullingar House.
The character of Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker, or HCE, was based on the then publican, Mr Broadbent.
Joyce wrote in Finnegans Wake that HCE "owns the bulgiest bung-barrel that ever was tip-tapped in the privace of the Mullingar Inn".