Frankie Whelehan's 250-bed Gibson hotel, located on the northside of the Dublin docklands, is riding the wave of resurgence that has swept over the Irish hospitality sector. The hotel's new general manager, Nicky Logue, says there are now "no barriers"to the industry cranking into a high-growth phase. A green shoot? There's a green jungle growing in the hotel industry, the experts say.
Whelehan recently told this newspaper that he hopes to expand the hotel's trendy concept to other cities, such as Berlin. Many of the denizens of the German capital are notoriously arty, so the Gibson would probably fit in well. Next Tuesday, Minister for Arts Jimmy Deenihan will launch the hotel's latest "artist in residence" programme.
The beneficiary for the next five weeks is an urban stencil artist from Cork called Fin Dac.
The Gibson also last month renewed its “sleeping partnership” with the Dubs GAA team. I’m not quite sure what a sleeping partnership entails, but good luck to them. It sounds like fun.
Logue, the current president of the Irish Hospitality Institute, took over the hotel in recent weeks from former general manager Aidan McLaughlin, who has departed for the Carton House hotel, also run by Whelehan's Choice group. Carton is around the corner from Intel, which yesterday announced that Ireland is once again as rich as Croesus. There'll be plenty of business for him there, so.