Coffee shop owner tells listener to ‘drop dead’
Businessman Tom Mcnamara IRELAND’S angriest coffee shop owner told a radio caller to “drop dead” yesterday.
Tom Mcnamara reacted furiously after listener Judith said he was “a terrible representation of the service industry”.
He blasted on RTE Radio 1’s Joe Duffy show: “Oh, drop dead Judith.”
Mr Mcnamara, 63, also hit at a caller who was complaining about price rises at his cafe in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Anne, from the town, claimed her favourite stir-fry shot up from €9.99 to €11.99 overnight.
She told listeners when she complained to the owner he blamed the increase on the Government’s announcement VAT would be restored from 9% to 13.5%.
But Tom, who opened The Coffee Club in Tullamore in 2012, defended his cafe vigorously insisting the price hike happened in May and claimed never to have never had that conversation with Anne.
HEATED
And he insulted an elderly gentleman caller by demanding, “Why aren’t you at work?” and asking him if he was “on the dole”.
The 63-year-old admitted he regretted what unfolded on air saying things got “heated” .
He told the The Irish Mirror: “I was too hard on that gentleman who was a senior citizen. If I had’ve known, I certainly would have taken a different approach.
“But he came straight at me with his insults, I had to defend myself. I didn’t know if he was 21 or 71.
“I’m sick of these permanently outraged people who are always annoyed about something. This was about more than €2.”
But the backlash was quick to come with listeners bombarding The Coffee Club’s Facebook page.
One called Tom “the Basil Fawlty of Tullamore”, while another said: “You should be ashamed.”
But one poster defended him claiming small businesses are being hurt. They said: “Tom will have to improve his manner. However, basically I agree with him.”