Embracing the ‘Cow’ at the NEWLY TRANSFORMED Red Cow Moran Hotel

The Red Cow Moran Hotel is probably one of THE best known and best located hotels in Dublin! Sitting at the gateway to the provinces at the intersection between the M50 North and South and easily accessible from all parts of Dublin City and County it has become a National landmark and is a popular choice for hotel accommodation, events, food, beverage and even entertainment.

Built from the ground up almost twenty years go by renowned hotelier and businessman Tom Moran, and in the family ever since, the Red Cow Moran Hotel has started a new chapter in its illustrious career with a significant investment and a sophisticated new look. A €15 million investment in the Hotel, overseen by one of Tom’s sons, Michael Moran, Project Development Director for the Moran Group, was fully completed at the end of 2016.

With a new 7-storey extension of 152 bedrooms, 14 new event spaces meeting rooms, fitness suite and a chic new coffee dock and wine bar, other areas of the Red Cow Moran Hotel have also been refreshed and added to, including the elegant lobby, and the cosy and appealing restaurant, Tom’s Table Restaurant.

Linked to the original hotel building (the East Wing) by a handsome link lounge, the new extension (the West Wing) has 7 floors with spacious and stylish bedrooms, 2 dedicated Executive Floors and a series of exceptionally comfortable meeting rooms with 2 innovative Think Tank rooms. The first of these, the Ayrshire Suite, has a marvelous ping pong table as a centerpiece surrounded by bespoke benches, and the second, the Jersey Suite, has a floor to ceiling whiteboard with tiered upholstered seating and casual floor cushions – both novel and ingenious settings in which to get the creative juices flowing.

All of the 14 new event spaces – each named after a different breed of cattle, such as Charlotte, Angus, Dexter and Friesian – have high speed dedicated broadband and Wi-Fi, screen sharing technology, large LCD screens of up to 98 inches, are fully air conditioned with natural daylight and have access to the hotel’s courtyard garden. Each meeting room has a single playful touch with just one cowhide chair.

The carpets, materials, wall treatments and finishes pay a subtle respect to the countryside origins of the hotel owner who hails from West Limerick. The abstract patterns of field geometry and stone walls are echoed in the organic shapes woven into the bespoke carpets, and the specially commissioned images by landscape photographer Eoghan Kavanagh bring a fresh breath of the countryside into every room and a tactile, physical reference to the same countryside on the large panels in the halls.

What may initially seem like antique panelling or leather upholstered walls in the corridors on further inspection are actually blown-up close ups of Irish cattle of all sorts. These almost abstract photographs printed on textured vinyl create a warm, earthy feeling in the hotel corridors of the West Wing. All the new bedrooms have floor to ceiling windows, are fully sound proofed and include black-out blinds, a safe, and a 43" LCD TV.

Warm browns, russets, rich cream, deep mahogany, vivid red and amber – the colours of the cattle who feature in the abstract corridor panels are also echoed in the surroundings of the elegant new link lounge with its Coffee Dock and Wine Bar. This bright and comfortable room, flooded with light from the floor to ceiling windows on either side, has a feature fireplace and cosy booths and club chairs in cognac leather for relaxing over a coffee during the day or choosing from the carefully selected menu of wines and drinks in the evening.

The Red Cow Moran Hotel’s new restaurant – Tom’s Table also carries through the references to the renowned hotelier and his background. Tom Moran himself grew up in a big family where, like in most families, the table formed the hub – the focal point and the reason for people to get together over a delicious meal and a few drinks.

A place for people to eat, drink and relax, Tom’s Table has a big table at the front of the restaurant for communal dining and large groups, and the focus will be on providing great food sourced as locally as possible with a particular emphasis, fittingly, on excellent steaks.

The table represents family, comfort, community and the pleasures of sharing points of view, friendship and business perspectives over good food and a glass of wine, and Tom’s Table is designed to underscore the hospitable, social and welcoming nature of the Red Cow Moran Hotel.

The Red Cow Moran Hotel is a family hotel, run by a polished and professional family of hoteliers who know what they’re doing and care about every last detail. This new phase of the Red Cow Moran Hotel is a sophisticated blend of style and comfort, reflecting the origins of this hotel family but also their decades of experience in hotels in the UK and around Ireland.

At the Red Cow Moran Hotel the sweet little red cow in the herd behind the reception desk faces in the opposite direction to the rest of the group. This is not a rebellion though, but more a symbol of a guardian. “With any group there is always a look-out,” says Tracey Moran, Tom’s daughter Communications Director at the Red Cow Moran Hotel, “someone who is nominated to keep an eye out and mind everyone else. We thought that felt right as a symbol for what dad has always stood for, and for what we would like this hotel to continue to represent”