After hours convictions

A KENMARE publican was convicted for two counts of allowing people to consume alcohol after-hours in his pub after gardaí raided his premises twice over the Christmas holidays in 2016.

The court heard that gardaí entered O’Connor’s bar on December 23, 2016 at 1am and found 90 people on the premises drinking and “no effort was being made to clear up” said Sgt Miriam Mulhall Nolan. Closing time on the night was 11.30pm with customers to be cleared from the premises at 12pm.

Just over a week later on New Year’s Day they entered the bar again and this time found 20 -30 people on the premises with freshly prepared drink. It was 3.35am in the morning and the closing time on the night was to be 12.30am with customers out by 1am.

The court heard that the bar has a previous conviction dating back to July 2016.

O’Connor’s bar is now trading as Tubrid Tavern Ltd in keeping with new revenue guidelines, explained solicitor, Padraig O’Connell. He said that Judge James O’Connor had previously indicated that a €2,000 payment to the court poorbox would be in order.

He said that the bar was not a ‘huge emporium’ but a small family business.

Judge David Waters said that he would not apply the court poorbox and would record a conviction for each incident and he convicted and fined the bar €100 for each incident.