Royal Cinema

Began life as the Athenaeum Hall in 1856 and was showing pictures in the 1910’s as the 450-seats Athenaeum Permanent Picturedrome. Western Electric(WE) sound was installed in 1930 and it returned to the Athenaeum name. The lease of the cinema was given up in 1941 resulting in only occasional screenings until 1946 when it closed.

It was reconstructed and reopened as the 900-seats Royal Cinema on 17th November 1947 by the Breen Group headed by Mrs Mamie Collins. The first film shown was Cary Grant in “Night and Day”. In the 1960’s it was acquired by the Green Group, director Paul Anderson, and closed as a cnema on 26th September 1985 when the last film to be screened was “Police Academy II”. Falling attendances was given as the reason.

It was reopened as a music venue by Seamus Flynn in 1989 but was gutted by fire on 6th March 1990. It reopened the following year when Mary Black and the Cranberries were among the guests gracing the stage. It eventually closed in 1998. Plans to create a new venue have surfaced periodically since 2010 but so far no signs of reopening.

In the summer of 2025 the vacant building became the setting for the Irish feature film “Once Upon a Time in a Cinema”. This required the production company to restore the building to look like it was a working cinema. Following competion of filming, the Royal Cinema was used as a ‘pop up’ for a stage presentation of the play “Connie” on October/November 2025. As well as being the location for filming the entire film, it also had its gala premiere in the Royal Cinema. The Royal Cinema held its first public screening in the building for 40-years on April 23, 2026 as the opening night of the Catalyst International Film Festival. The Irish film is set in the 1980’s and acts as a love letter to the cinema-going experience.

The Royal Cinema has now gone back to vacant and unused status.

Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.