Cheers! Popular Kilkenny gastropub gets green light for new outdoor dining plans
A well-known south Kilkenny pub has been given the go-ahead for its innovative plans to overhaul its premises to ensure customers can dine in comfort and in the open as we battle to cope with changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kilkenny County Council has approved Torca Developments plans to transform an outdoor area at Carroll’s Public House, which is a protected structure in the centre of Thomastown.
The long-established bar had been closed for several years until it was taken over by the owners of the popular Toast restaurant and renovated. It reopened last year to much acclaim.
The developers can now proceed with plans to create a new external dining area where the existing smoking section is located. A new covered link will be put up at the rear of the building and will connect the existing bar to the “associated ancillary facilities” located in the adjacent building on Logan Street.
Torca Developments, a company based in Ballsbridge and headed by Pheilim and Oisin O’Connor, have previously developed land and housing in Kilkenny at the old James Stephen’s GAA training pitch, where they built 25 homes.
More recently, Torca’s plans to build 120 new homes on the site of a formers Bishop’s Palace in Sion Hermitage in Kilkenny were shot down by An Bord Pleanála.
