NORTH KILDARE’S AMBASSADOR Hotel is no more.
Reduced several years ago to a pile of rubble, it’s now just a twinkle in the eye of the teens of 1990s Kill, Naas and beyond. Carlow even.
If you were one of them, you’ll remember…
1. Its actual name being Regines, but nobody calling it that
“Regines”. Get lost. It was The Ambo.
2. £3 in on a Friday, £5 in on a Saturday
Worth every penny.
3. Going to The Lamps first
“Lamps then Ambo, yeah?”
4. The ID fear
Back in the Ambo days ‘getting in somewhere’ was wholly dependent on the fine art of convincing the bouncer you were old enough to be there.
5. People’s mams dropping them off
The Ambassador Hotel was on the outskirts of Kill village, smack bang on the N7. You had to get there SOMEHOW.
6. Sometimes going four nights in a row
The Ambo was open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Dedicated fans did all four.
7. The cloakroom queue
A little microcosm all to itself. Manys the shift was born in the cloakroom queue.
8. Doing a lap
The dancefloor was handily placed smack bang in the middle of the club, so you could do talent-spotting circuits.
9. Dancing to this:
Or this:
10. The slow set
2 become 1 by The Spice Girls, More Than Words by Xtreme, I’ll Be Missing You by Puff Daddy and Faith Evans. Romance.
11. All-Ireland Final night 1998
Many of the local secondary schools had been given the Monday off, in case of a win. Kildare lost to Galway, but the Ambo still hopped that night.
12. Curry
One Ambo regular we spoke to remembered:
It was a law that if you were serving alcohol you had to have food available so every now and then you’d see some drunken eejit from Rathangan passing by with a curry! They had a little hatch to serve it from I think.
13. The sinister corner
A dark fire escape alcove near the curry station. Shifting central.
14. Sitting on the crash barrier in front of the hotel waiting for a taxi or the minibus
So close to the N7. So dangerous.
15. The Clancys bus ferrying people back into Naas
And the colossal queue to get on it.
16. Graduating to The Soundhouse or The Bauhaus
Eventually, everyone outgrew The Ambo :(
