The company “is in its infancy”, newly filed accounts say, “and is currently incurring costs related to the development of an arts facility, to bring it into use”.
The couple have bought the Phoenix Cinema in Dingle, and are planning to re-develop it and add exhibition areas, a performance space, bar and restaurant, and residences for artists. In February, the plan was granted planning permission by Kerry County Council.
The cinema, which opened in 1919, closed during the Covid pandemic. Its owners, the O’Sullivan family, then put it up for sale, sparking a campaign by locals to keep the building in a cultural use.
In 2024, it was announced that Ms McGuinness, an artist, and her husband, the Oscar-winning actor, had bought the premises and some adjacent land.
Their renovation projection has since secured €933,000 in grant funding through the Government’s Rural Regeneration Fund (RRF).
The financial statements for Dingle Phoenix Projects cover the period from its incorporation in September 2024 to the end of last year.
The deficit in that time was €48,153, while net current liabilities were €273,178, and the amount owed to creditors falling due within one year was €285,458.
A sum of €281,153 is owed to Mám an Óraigh Cuideachta Neamhtheoranta, of which McGuinness and Murphy are directors. This is an unsecured and interest-free loan.
The accounts say that until the arts venue is operational, Dingle Phoenix Projects is reliant on financial support from members and connected parties, who have confirmed they will provide the required funding for the foreseeable future to ensure the company can discharge its liabilities as they fall due.
The company has no employees, except for the directors, who act on a voluntary basis. The other directors are Alice Casey, Orla Murphy, Peter Crowley and Billy Mag Fhloinn.
Dingle Phoenix Projects was set up as a company limited by shares, but the accounts say that, following a review, the directors decided to change it into one limited by guarantee. This status “better aligns with the not-for-profit goals” of the company.
The Phoenix cinema got its name from being rebuilt twice, once in the 1920s and again in the 1930s, after being destroyed by fire.
After he and his wife bought it two years ago, Cillian Murphy explained that he had visited the cinema as a child when he was on summer holidays in the Kerry Gaeltacht.
“My dad saw movies there when he was a young man before me, and we’ve watched many films at the Phoenix with our own kids. We recognise what the cinema means to Dingle.”
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