Irish community leaders said they would rally round to help restore the Dubliner to its former glory.

Detractors might claim the pub had become a touch shabby of late, but it was an integral part of the city's music heritage, both in its Dubliner incarnation and in its former guise as punk music venue, the Barrel Organ.

"The Dubliner is a typical Irish pub and very much part of Dig-beth," said Patrick O'Neill, chairman of the Birmingham Irish Community Forum. "We would very much hope it continues to be same pub.

"It is frequented by lots of Irish people and one of the 11 pubs in the area which are wholly Irish-owned."

Paddy Finn took over the running of the Dubliner in the early 90s, changing the name from the Organ Barrel. It became a mecca for Irish folk bands and Irish dancing. The son of boxer, Mr Finn was a champion heavy-weight boxer in Dublin, winning Ireland's Golden Gloves title.

In the early 1990s he sponsored a local Irish dancing academy, called the Scanlon School of Irish Dancing, which gave an exhibitions to young and old every Sunday.

Carol Scanlon, who set the school up, said she was deeply grateful to Mr Finn and said the Irish community would rally round.

"He came into that pub and he became everyone's person," she said. "He was very good to my dancing school. He gave us money to make sure all the girls could go to the World Championships and gave them jobs so they could have the money to go Ireland. He sponsored them right through until they won and then made replicas of the cup so they could keep one each.

"We are going to rally round and help him. I have a lot of respect for Paddy."

Before Mr Finn took over, the Barrel Organ was renowned as a live music venue for new bands, and a magnet for students, especially punks and Goths. Birmingham-based band Ocean Colour Scene were one of the bands to appear there.

"It was the venue where the new bands of Birmingham could appear who weren't big enough for the Institute," said Simon Delahunty-Forrest, former lead singer of a band called Cerebral Fix, which appeared there 10 times. "The music was mainly a cross-over between heavy metal and punk - Napalm Death, Paradise Lost and Heresy all played there.

"It was somewhere in the city where punks could get a pint without getting hassle."

He said if the Dubliner disappeared alongside nearby Reddington's Rare Records, it would be a loss to the City's music heritage.