Hotel licence granted for Mayo's second five star hotel

A HOTEL licence was granted for a newly refurbished hotel in Westport which hopes to become Mayo's second five star hotel.

The Grace Hotel which was formerly known as Hotel Westport underwent a major refurbishment project in the last 12 months and is expected to reopen to the public for the beginning of March.

An application for a hotel licence was brought before Judge Eoin Garavan at this morning's sitting of Castlebar Circuit Court where it was revealed that the hotel will be registered as a five star hotel.

Barry O'Connor, the CEO of Westport Estate which incorporates The Grace Hotel told Judge Garavan that the hotel underwent a major refurbishment.

Ashford Castle in Cong is the only five star hotel in Mayo and Mr O'Connor explained that they expect The Grace Hotel to to be registered as the county's second five star hotel when it reopens.

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The hotel, which is named in honour of Grace O’Malley, the 16th century pirate queen, is expected to have a staff of 140 people and Mr O'Connor said the majority will be from Mayo.

Ms Dorothy Collins, counsel for The Grace Hotel Unlimited Company explained in the application that the licence for the sale of intoxicating liquor from Hotel Westport never lapsed but the refurbishment meant that the licence had to be extended to cover new areas of the hotel.

Niall Taylor, the hotel's architect explained that the extension of the licence primarily covered the new function room on the west side of the hotel and a large external space associated with the bar on the north side. He added that extensive refurbishment works also overlap with the previously existing bar and function space.

Mr Taylor said that the new refurbishment complies with planning permission and that extensive works was carried out to the existing hotel building in order to receive a fire certificate.

There were no objections to the application and Judge Garavan granted the application and wished Mr O'Connor well with the hotel. He added that the hotel can only be a good thing for Westport but hoped the visitors to the hotel will 'hop over to Castlebar' and 'spend a few bob in the county town'.