NUIG to get new 120 seat theatre and performance building

A new Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance has been approved for NUIGalway.
The City Council has granted planning permission for the new drama centre at the former IMI building at the Newcastle campus.
The former Irish Metal Industries building at NUIG is a protected structure which dates back to the 1850s.
It started out as a bleach and flax seed mill and over the course of its history was used as a bonded warehouse and a factory to make canon shells during World War 1.
NUIG took over the building at Earls Island in 1987 and it currently houses storage for the students’ union bar, the Bank of Ireland Theatre and the Marine Science department.
Planning permission has been granted to transform the building into a 120-seat auditorium with rehearsal space, a workshop, seminar room and a new stairway.
Planners have attached 9 conditions to the development.
All works must be monitored by a conservation architect and a photographic record of any industrial and scientific features must be supplied to the Council before they’re removed.
Also work on the new Centre for Drama at NUIG must cease if previously unrecorded archaeological material is discovered until a decision is made on how to deal with it.