Businessman’s hotel plan for Guiney’s in ruins and licence at risk after MOS exposed shebeen
A ONE-TIME associate of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has become embroiled in a series of run-ins with Dublin City Council after the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed he was apparently running a shebeen in the vacant premises of renowned department store Guiney’s.
Noel Tynan, 55, was part of the Drumcondra Mafia that met regularly with Mr Ahern in his local, Fagan’s. The businessman runs the inner city restaurant Le Bon Crubeen and the Celt Bar with a colleague through a firm called Triplett.
The pub and restaurant are next door to the closed down landmark Guiney’s premises at 79-80 Talbot Street.
But it has now emerged that Dublin City Council lodged an objection to the renewal of Triplett’s alcohol licence and the case is due in court tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the council has also refused to grant planning permission for a change of use for Guiney’s to be converted into a 44-bedroom hotel.
‘Staff behind bar after Dublin v Donegal’
The application was made by Mr Tynan’s wife Clare in August, but Dublin City Council refused permission on September 25.
Planning applicants have four weeks to appeal a decision but, according to the council’s website, an appeal was not lodged.
Mr Tynan declined to comment on the decision this weekend.
Speaking at the Celt Bar, Mr Tynan said: ‘No comment at the moment. We have a meeting with the council in a couple of weeks.’
The MoS revealed in September how a number of calls were made to gardaí about the licensing status of a function room in the Guiney’s premises.
Court records at the time revealed that a publican’s licence had not been issued for it. Yet pictures and video footage obtained by the MoS showed that the four-storey building’s 3,000 square foot ground floor had been fitted out as a public house with beer taps, tables, chairs and a giant TV screen.
These pictures also showed staff behind the bar in the function room on the Sunday of the semi-final football clash between Dublin and Donegal.
Customers were able to gain access to the function room through a single door at the back of Mr Tynan’s Celt Bar. The MoS established that the owners of the pub had been using the unlicensed function room since March. When visited this week, the room was not in use.
Triplett is now in receivership. KBC Bank has secured judgments for €17.4m of loans that Mr Tynan, a business partner and a business associate owe between them.
The Bank of Scotland secured a High Court judgment against Noel Tynan in August 2012 for 81, 82, 82A Talbot Street – the Celt Bar and Le Bon Crubeen. The judgment was secured over his home in Iona Park, Glasnevin, and two city apartments.