New court venue passes the bar exam

IT WAS not your typical venue for administrating justice — under disco lights at a licensed premises.

But after ending a desperate search for a new court venue, Killaloe District Court took up residence at O’Donovan’s Bar and Restaurant in Ballina yesterday, where Judge Aeneas McCarthy began hearing cases.

The disco lights were switched off and a screen was pulled down over the bar 10 metres from the judge’s bench, with the taps for Guinness, Heineken and Carlsberg and bottles of vodka and gin visible to the court attendees in the function room.