BY DAVID FORSYTHE
A BIRTHDAY party at a rural pub that went on to the early hours of the morning was cut short when gardaí paid a visit to the premises and found more than 20 people inside celebrating well past the legal licensing hours.
Macroom District Court heard that on Sunday April 9th 2023 gardaí were passing the Bell Inn, Ardnacrushy, Macroom, at 1.47am and noticed the lights were still on.
When they stopped to investigate, they found the front door was still open and inside were more than 20 people many with full drinks in front of them.
Defence solicitor Sean Cahill explained to the court that the licensee, Angela McCarthy (55) of Church Cross, Clondrohid, was not present at the time as she had finished work at around midnight, but the party – celebrating the birthday of local twins – had continued after she left.
Mr Cahill said that the Bell Inn was a rural pub near Clondrohid and Ms McCarthy had arranged for transport to get the party-goers home. He said that two cars were ferrying the revellers away but because of the time it was taking to get everyone home, a number of people were still waiting their turn when the gardaí arrived.
The court heard that Ms McCarthy had three previous convictions for similar offences – mainly from 2018.
Judge James McNulty said that the same laws applied everywhere.
He said that he did recognise her ‘well-meaning nature’ in organising transport for her patrons and also took into account the fact that she was not present when gardaí arrived, ‘while the cat’s away as they say.’
He convicted Ms McCarthy and fined her €500.
