This article is from page 26 of the 2011-12-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 26 JPG
A DISTRICT court judge has dismissed an objection to the renewal of a licence for a pub in Ballinruan, after hearing from a garda that the premises is well run and has never generated a complaint.
Bernard Hassett, of Burrenview, Ballinruan, Crusheen, objected to the renewal of the licence of Hassett’s bar in Ballinruan.
Garda Declan Keavey, who is based in Crusheen, told the court that he has never had any complaints relating to the premises, which he described as well run.
“It is a typical rural pub. It is the social network of the local community. . . It is the centre of the community,” he said.
He said that the pub is located in a tiny village. “If you blinked you would miss it. There’s a church, a pub and a community centre,” he explained.
The age profile of those who frequent the pub is over 40, he said.
“I have never had any incident. I have never been called to the pub,” said the garda.
“The publican has never been convicted of any incident. There has never been a drink driving incident or traffic accident as a result of people leaving the pub,” he said.
Gda Keavey said there is never any anti-social behaviour in the village.
The publican, Paddy Hassett told the court that he bought the premises in 2003 and he and his wife run it. He said that the customers are mainly an “older crowd” consisting of locals, as the younger people from the area go to Ennis and Gort at night-time.
He said he opens the pub at around 8.30pm or 9pm every night and closes at 1am and there is Irish music at weekends.
During the weekday nights, there are generally just up to eight people in the pub and this increases to between 30 and 40 at weekends.
It was put to him that according to Bernard Hassett, people left the pub at 3.50am one morning and that a car was damaged. The publican denied this. He told the court that when Bernard Hassett moved to the Ballinruan area, there were no difficulties with him.
“He has gone to court with two friends of mine. That’s why he is hitting at me,” said the publican.
Bernard Hassett told the court that people left the pub one morning at 3.50am “and created anti-social behaviour”.
He said that his objection was based on CCTV footage. However, Judge Aeneas McCarthy told him that the footage was 20 hours in length, “predominantly a camera pointing at an empty road”.
“I am not looking at 20 hours of CCTV camera pointing at an empty road. It’s your business to edit it,” said the judge.
He dismissed the case. “I’m granting the licence,” said the judge.