The future of Clonmel's Regal Theatre looks bleak following a breakdown in talks between the owner and a group campaigning to save the venue.
The theatre's proprietor, Mr Larry O'Keeffe, says he will not be having any further discussions with SORT (Save Our Regal Theatre), a committee which had hoped to buy the facility with funding from Clonmel Corporation and Tipperary (South Riding) County Council.
Mr O'Keeffe claimed SORT had campaigned for a compulsory acquisition of the building while he and the group were still in negotiations. SORT, however, says it only pursued the compulsory acquisition option after talks with Mr O'Keeffe had broken down.
SORT plans to make the theatre's future an issue in the Tipperary South by-election. The group met the Fine Gael candidate, Senator Tom Hayes, the party leader, Mr Michael Noonan, and its spokesman on culture, Mr Dinny McGinley, in Dublin last week.
A spokeswoman for the group, Ms Aisling Kilroy, said it would be a disaster if Clonmel was to lose the 850-seat theatre at a time when other towns of similar size were trying to establish and open such venues.
To date, however, the local authorities have ruled out a compulsory purchase of the building, although they have offered financial support towards a purchase of the venue.
The theatre, which has served the town as an entertainment venue for more than 70 years, has been closed since March. The lighting and sound systems have been removed, but Mr O'Keeffe said yesterday these were worth just £4,000 and could be easily replaced.
He had put "thousands of pounds" into the venue since purchasing it in 1995, when it was a cinema, and he had hoped to see it continue as a theatre. Having failed to achieve this, he would probably sell it for commercial development or develop it himself. He would first apply for planning permission for a change of use, he said.
