Waving goodbye to the Wax Museum?

Dublin's Wax Museum

One of Dublin's most familiar tourist attractions will soon be demolished, if Fianna Fáil TD Donie Cassidy gets his way. Cassidy, who owns numerous hotels in Dublin City, also owns the building on Granby Row, which is currently leased to the National Wax Museum. But now the property magnate wants to turn the children's wonderland into a 118-bedroom hotel and is trying to thrash out a deal with the leaseholders, Kelly and Dunning.

Workers only discovered the plans when one of them came across a planning application in a Dublin paper. Within days, notices had gone up on the building's walls.

Attempting to defend himself, Cassidy told a Sunday newspaper that he planned to house the museum on the ground floors and in the basement of the hotel.

However, no such plans appear in the planning application, which refers to a car park in the basement and a restaurant and bar on the ground floor. We have also discovered a layout of Cassidy's design for the hotel, and a wax museum is not mentioned.

One museum worker, who doesn't want to be named, told us that he and his colleagues had been given no information about their jobs.

"He hasn't put money into this building in four years, it's like he's trying to run it down," he said. "But we have been doing better than ever in the last few years. We've had a lot of international visitors coming in, as well as all the usual schools on day trips. The kids love the place. We have a Punch and Judy show, a cinema, a children's world and, of course, all the historical figures."

The worker told us that the museum is actually a protected building.

"What people see outside the museum is a façade," he said. "Underneath is a building which dates back to 1768 and has beautiful stained glass windows and arches. It used to be a workhouse connected to the Black Church across the road."

Sinn Féin Councillor Christy Burke said he would be strongly opposed to the demolition of the building.

"It's a well-known piece of Dublin and also part of our heritage," he said. "Cassidy can make as many applications as he likes, but I will be raising this under the city development plan and making sure that the building's safety is copperfastened."

An Phoblacht tried to contact Donie Cassidy for comment, but he did not return any of our calls.

Public objectors have just two-and-a-half weeks left from Thursday 2 September, to lodge a complaint about the plans in the offices of the Planning Authority, Civic Offices, Woodquay, Dublin 8.