Cork publican fined after up to 30 customers found drinking in bar following closing time

Judge commends pub owner for driving customers home

The publican was fined €200 at Cork District Court.

A District Court judge said she was well aware of the importance of the pub in rural Ireland and she commended a publican for driving his customers home in a case where he was prosecuted for having patrons on the premises after-hours.

Publican and licensee of The Sportsman’s Arms in Aherla, Dermot Forde, could not be in two places at the one time and this was the nub of the problem on the night, his solicitor Donal Daly explained at Cork District Court.

Mr Forde pleaded guilty to having approximately 25-30 patrons on his premises shortly before 2am on a Saturday night/ Sunday morning, an hour after closing time. Licensing laws required him to stop serving at 12.30 and have the premises clear by 1am.

Sergeant Brian Harte testified that at 1.30am that morning he was on patrol in the Aherla area when he encountered Dermot Forde in the village. The publican was in the process of dropping customers home in his own vehicle.

Mr Forde told the sergeant he had stopped trading for the night and was in the process of dropping customers home.

The sergeant went to the premises and found 25 to 30 people still drinking there and there were signs of freshly poured drinks.

“I spoke to the person in charge in the absence of Mr Forde. I told her to clear the premises. At 1.55am, I returned with Mr Forde who was coming back after dropping customers home. There were still 20 people on the premises consuming alcohol.

“At that stage Mr Forde pro-actively cleared the premises. It was clear at 2am.

“There was no aggravation and no drama. To be fair to him he was dropping patrons home,” Sgt Harte said.

Judge Joanne Carroll said: “It is a very good thing to do — bringing customers home.” 

The judge said it was perfectly reasonable for the sergeant to request that the premises would be cleared and that the person Mr Forde left in charge at the time “made little or no effort to do so". 

Mr Daly, solicitor, said of the person left briefly in charge: “She would not have had the gravitas or capacity of Mr Forde. He does provide a crucial service in getting his customers home safely. A lot of publicans don’t provide that service. To be fair to Mr Forde, he does. It is not an excuse but it is an explanation.” 

The solicitor added that none of the customers was heckling the sergeant or anything like that. Sgt Harte agreed that there was no hassle of any kind.

Judge Carroll imposed a €200 fine and said: “I am aware of the importance of the pub in rural Ireland. This would be a far worse situation if he allowed a person to leave after consuming alcohol with the keys of his car and allowed him to drive home.”