Men gave publican merciless beating, court told

A publican who believed the storeroom of his premises was about to be robbed by three youths chased after them, but they turned on him and gave him what was described as a merciless beating.

Donal Sinclair, publican of The Hole in the Wall premises in Midleton, Co Cork, said he was in such disarray after the beating that he returned to the pub and “my keys were missing and my teeth were missing.

“I didn’t know I had a collapsed lung until the following night.”