The Rotterdam Bar, Belfast's premier live music venue has been saved from demolition

campaign On Monday May 7th 2007 the current leaseholders at The Rotterdam Bar in Belfast’s Pilot Street in the historic Sailortown area of the city were told to remove their personal belongings as the bar had been sold to a group of developers who planned to flatten it and the adjacent Pat's Bar to make way for a development consisting of 56 luxury apartments. The keys were confiscated, the doors locked and the windows shuttered and the leaseholders told it would be “a pile of rubble by the weekend”. Anyone who knows Belfast at all knows the Rotterdam Bar, it has been acknowledged as the premier live music bar in Belfast for almost thirty years but has served as a licensed premises for 180 years ( read more in the history section ). The destruction would have been par for the course as over recent years we have lost many historic bars to the developers including The Kitchen Bar where we were fobbed off with a soulless replacement in chrome and pine and Tom Kelly’s wonderful Liverpool Bar, one of the finest traditional music Bars in Ireland, vested by the Government to make way for office blocks. With a planning system that favours development over history and the rapacious nature of local developers exemplified by the recent corporate arson attack on the beautiful art deco splendour of North Street Arcade the outlook was bleak. A small but determined group of people formed a committee to do our utmost to retain this piece of our cultural heritage and to be honest we were met with, if not quite derision, a resounding Belfast “no chance, lads” by all. First task was to inform all statutory bodies of the situation this was done with efficiency and aplomb by Rena Maguire, local writer and music fan. The reaction was lukewarm to say the least with the only chink of light being the reaction of Rita Harkin from the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society who said "This pair of 19th Century bars, in the area known as Sailortown are tangible reminders of the city's maritime heritage and serve as a vital draw for visitors... ...the two pubs are the last of their kind and should be preserved for future generations" at least some progress was being made. As word spread we were contacted by others with experience in this area including Brendan Bell who offered invaluable advice. Meanwhile the website and online petition organized by www.nbmcmedia.com was receiving hundreds of hits and the myspace page had collected 600 friends including a large number of local musicians. The local media became interested and within days we had had articles printed in all the local papers the public was obviously behind us. The voice and public face of the campaign in the form of local musician Davy “Ludwig” O'Neill made radio appearances on all the local stations pleading with passion that something be done about this travesty. We went nationwide in Ireland with a feature in Hotpress, the irish equivalent of The NME or Rolling Stone Magazine, and then broke into the mainstream media with a supportive article in the UK National Sunday paper The Observer. Great support came from across the Atlantic with several mentions on campus radio stations and WBCN radio station in Washington DC. We also found our way onto several genealogy websites due to the Rotterdam’s previous incarnation as a holding center for those awaiting deportation to Australia and got many messages of support from that country. A turning point came on June 1st when Pauline Killen of the Department of The Environment told us that a decision not to put the proposed demolition out to public consultation had been overturned. This meant it would be illegal to demolish the building and was our first crumb of comfort from any official organization with muscle. We were told the public consultation would take over a year and possibly up to 18 months. It had been a long first round but we felt we had scraped it on points. Although we kept up our media profile there was now some hush-hush movement behind the scenes. The developers negotiated a year long lease with none other than Chris Roddy, the man who had turned The Rotterdam Bar into an international mecca for musicians in the 80s, and we could now see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was all hands on deck as the Roddy family, Mairhi, Rena, Davy, assorted musicians ( esp The White Art Hippies ) and others literally got on their hands and knees and scrubbed away years of grime. The walls were given a fresh coat of paint, the bar was stocked, the coal fire stoked and on Friday 6th of July the doors were opened. Many old patrons turned up for the unofficial opening night and what a night it was, the atmosphere electric, a smile on every face and much back slapping with the most over used phrase being “I cant believe it”. Who else could have took to the stage first other than our own Davy “Ludwig” O’Neill? An emotional Davy proffered thanks to all and wowed the crowd with an emotionally charged set, it was like a step back in time to the heyday of the Rott and wont be forgotten for a long time. Heres to the next 180 years. Wailing hippies my arse.