Trinity’s Pavilion Bar will not re-open on June 29th, chairperson Cyril Smyth has confirmed, amid speculation over when the popular student venue will start trading again.
According to current government guidelines, pubs that serve food can re-open as restaurants from the end of this month.
But in an email statement to The University Times, Smyth wrote that opening the Pav is “low down in College’s priorities”.
Smyth told The University Times last month that the bar is “thinking through issues that will be involved such as the social distancing in the new ‘normal’ and how this can be managed”, as they seek to mitigate any further delay in a return to business.
Trinity has been shut since March 12th, and there is still no definitive date for the re-opening of its bar, according to Smyth.
This update comes as the Pav approaches its fourth month of closure and will come as a blow to Dublin University Central Athletic Club (DUCAC), the body in charge of Trinity’s sports clubs, which gets a large portion of its income from the profits of the Pav.
“Let there be no doubt that DUCAC and I wish the Pavilion Bar to reopen as soon as we get a green light”, Smyth said last month.
“It’s contingent on a lot of factors going well”, he added.
The loss of income from the Pav isn’t the only shortfall Trinity’s sports clubs will have to contend with next year.
Last week, this newspaper reported that sports clubs had been advised to plan for a future without funding from Bank of Ireland, with the conclusion of a long-standing sponsorship agreement between Trinity Sport and the bank.
In an email to captains and committee members, seen by The University Times, Matt Dossett, the deputy head of Trinity Sport, wrote that a “support partnership” with Bank of Ireland will conclude “as scheduled” at the end of this month, and that clubs should “commence contingency planning for the absence of key sponsorship for the forthcoming year”.
Three club captains confirmed to The University Times that Dossett’s email was the first time they were told about the end of the agreement, which grants them funding for sporting activities every year.
