Gardai and Limerick publicans meet over Good Friday opening for rugby fans
CITY publicans were meeting with senior gardai this Monday to investigate the possibility of opening bars on Good Friday for Munster and Leinster rugby fans.
Limerick Chamber has estimated that big rugby fixtures can contribute up to €10 million to the local economy and domestic games don't get any bigger than Munster-Leinster, who renew their Magners League rivalry on Friday, April 2.
The chairman of the Limerick City Vintners, Jerry O'Dea, said this Monday that his organisation had already had a "productive" preliminary meeting with the new Limerick Garda chief superintendent Dave Sheahan and a follow-up discussion was scheduled for later today.
"The Vintners Federation of Ireland, as a national body, has taken legal advice in Dublin and we believe there may be some scope in the (Intoxicating Liquor) Act to open for a special event if it is of significant local importance. If that is the case, we could apply to the court for a six-hour exemption," said Mr O'Dea, adding it was hoped this would apply between the hours of 6pm and midnight if publicans got the go-ahead from gardai and the District Court.
"What we would require first-of-all is the go-ahead from the chief superintendent in the locality and if there were no objections, we could then apply to the District Court."
This would be a general application for pubs in the city rather than a number of separate applications from individual licence-holders and Mr O'Dea believes this would be setting a precedent in law.
"The chief superintendent has obliged us with a preliminary meeting, which was productive, and he has obliged us with another meeting for later today," Mr O'Dea said.
There was "a huge appetite" for this fixture, which was the "biggest event of the year outside of the Heineken Cup" and fixing the match on Good Friday meant a lot of rugby fans would miss out. Some people just couldn't afford to bring young families to Thomond Park or pay a subscription to cable TV companies, Mr O'Dea added.
Ireland was "only a couple of years away" from seeing its liquor laws being reviewed in any case, the Mulgrave Street publican believes.
"We are living in a multicultural society now and the law as it relates to Good Friday might in due course be seen as unfairly affecting the population in general," Mr O'Dea said.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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