Pubs in Galway closing at 1am

I genuinely find it hard to believe that the Judge Garavan ruling still stands today, how far out of touch are these people with modern social scene? Christ, I'm sure even 10/20 years ago his opinion would have been outdated. Honestly, the mind boggles when I read some of his quotes, priests wouldn't come out with that shít.. It reminds me of a story my old teacher used to tell me back in secondary school, about some bishop back in the 60's, how he would go out on the town and tell any young girl, whose clothes he deemed unacceptable, to go home and change, and of course the girls couldn't refuse because of the power and influence the Catholic Church had at the time. Only in Ireland, eh? You'd think we'd have moved on from this narrow-minded horseshít by now.. If a protest was organised about this, I'd have no problem joining it, and that's saying something, I'm about as lazy a fcuker as you'd come across :pac:

_Puma_ wrote: »

But back to the point above why on earth was a law like this ever be allowed put in place by some judge who is obviously out of touch with modern Galway and couldn't give a flying f*%£ about tourism or how a modern city runs. Have really lost all faith in the Judicial system in this country what with the spate of Suspended Sentences being handed out lately!

Back then nobody gave a crap about tourism in Galway as far as I could see. We became above it. We went from pandering to tourists, being all about
being friendly and having the craic. To being cosmopolitan. Or maybe that's just my interpretation. Places like Westport kept the Tourist friendly attitude.

gilberto_eire wrote: »

How in Gods name do we live in a ''Democracy'' when one little weasel can determine by his own reasoning how long pubs/clubs should be allowed to stay open.

isn't Ireland a Democratic Republic? We don't get a vote on everything. Like that arsehole Sherlock trying to get a ministerial order in place for internet laws. Not a true Democracy

Rob A. Bank wrote: »

Thank you very much for that great link to The Examiner archive lovefestguy.



Judge Garavan’s illogical rant sounds like something from Father Ted, a John B. Keane play or a newspaper court report from the 19th century. And it looks as if the ‘respectable young men’ who could not pull in nightclubs, but who could whisper in the judge’s ear, are ultimately responsible for the sorry state we are now in. :rolleyes:

That illogical rant combined with the saber rattling of an airhead new garda superintendent has put Galway on the same slippery slope that buried Salthill nightlife 20 years ago. At least the superintendent who was in the job before her had the ‘cop-on’ to realise that Galway depends on tourism for a substantial portion of it’s wealth.

Soooo…let's make the place poorer... let’s lose Galway’s hard won reputation as the best place to visit in Ireland for a great night out… let’s lose jobs in the hospitality trade right in the middle of a recession…let’s turn the city into a sleepy backwater where very few go out at night…
so that the new superintendent can massage her ‘drunk and disorderly’ statistics downwards.

You could not make it up !!!

:mad:

Massage the drunk and disorderly figures? As in reduce them? Is that a bad thing? Every drunk getting into trouble or going to A&E is costing a lot of money too. Something does have to be done. I don't think closing an hour early is the right thing though. Unfortunately in Ireland, educating people about the dangers of alcohol is pointless, it's too ingrained into the culture. Drink driving is way down because cops cracked down. If cops cracked down on drunk and disorderly and the courts handed down heavy fines and counselling we might curtail the problem a bit over time. But again that's at a huge cost to the tax payers

bazingaboom wrote: »

I live in Cork and it is certainly widely known about all over the country, thanks of course to facebook.

I know a LOT of students pick Galway because of the nightlife, a lot of degrees like commerce, general science or engineering could be done in any college in the country but Galway is reknown for having a fantastic social life and thats why many people choose it.

joebloggs1981 wrote: »

well what I can see is that publicity like this will do more harm to Galway then any pub closing. the points being made are awful. students wont come to Galway to study in our colleges because its not an anti social city?? amm maybe we don't want them type students anyway. ie rag week 2012. i m sure other students will take them courses and spend there money in better ways. Tourists will still come to Galway but now they can walk the streets Monday to Thursday without little country students left out without mammy for the first time. the weekend still wont be affected. anyways any pub can stay open till 2 Monday to Thursday one they have an exemption which is very easy to get. why arnt they getting them because the students that are so dear to them ant spending any money in them nightclubs

A bit to the extreme there but I get your point. The way 1st year - 3rd year students behave in the city is crazy. Not all of them but a lot. I could get students going to the college bar for 2 or 3 once in a blue moon but the way students go out 2,3,4 times a week is nuts. It's a destructive behavior that in the long run will have a negative impact on the economy because these people will turn into drunks or get drink related illnesses or possibly even just end up with a lousy work ethic because they are being taught, you are in college, this is your birth right and entitlement to tear the arse out of the town. Drink all you want, don't worry that you won't be your sharpest for your lectures, you don't need to become an expert, you just need to be able to pass the exam and sure you can do that by cramming the last 3 weeks before the exams. Forget about the elderly people that live in or around the town or the people that live in the area that have to get up to go to work in the morning to pay the taxes that subsidize your fees and pay for some students grants.

I don't see why they couldn't tack some of the cost for the license onto entry into a nightclub or throw a 10 cent tax onto each drink sold. /rant

thesandeman wrote: »

Thread has gone totally off topic/misinformed/silly in the last couple of pages.
The licence is till 1 and always was. The old regime gave a bit of leeway. The new one doesn't. I don't agree with the new regime.
However people saying students won't come to Galway because they can't go out drinking later is just pure stupid! I'm sure the mammies and daddies are paying for their children to actually learn something instead of going on the piss 4 nights a week.
Strangely enough I can see where the new regime is coming from.

True so what will the reprecussions be for not upholding the law? If we're going by the letter of the law then the law was not only broken by the publicans but it was not enforced by the Galway Gardai.

There's talks of an agreement between publicans and the Gardai having been in place so they did not enforce the law. Is that acceptable that such a thing could happen without changing the law and going through the correct channels? If it's now in the interest of the people of Galway is that because with the hour difference there was anti-social behavior and danger to the people?

If so then does that mean by not enforcing the law for all those years the Gardai put the people of Galway at risk? That's a major failing. Time for widespread firings, fines etc. I want justice..to think if only the clubs closed an hour earlier that night, that car antenna those little sh!ts ripped off may still be with us

thesandeman wrote: »

If you have proof of 'an agreement between the publicans and the Gardai' then fair enough.
Otherwise the Gardai were just doing their job and dealing with priorities as they were directed.
It appears the new regime have different priorities so the lads on the ground have to follow orders.
Personality I would prefer if they dealt with public order as opposed to ruining things for the more mature among us but as I said I can see where the Super and Licensing Officer are coming from. They seem to have nipped things in the bud before the students arrive.
I always give credit where credit is due and the more I think about it the more I see what they are at.
Think Freshers Week will make up my mind.

They enforce laws based on priority? What law are they not enforcing now so that they can enforce this one?

I said somebody on this thread suggested it. I don't know if there was an agreement. I don't think it would matter. The publicans and the gardai both knew the law and didn't adhere to it

Wouldn't the Gardai be better tasked with stopping kids drinking on the street? I live down the docks, and I walk though the Spanish Arch on my way home. At night, totally full of aggressive under 20s looking for a fight. Why not tackle that? Instead of sending a squad of Gardai around shutting down clubs, tackle the actual trouble on the streets.

Also, on the topic of this trying to curb drinking. Rag and Race week have a lot of people drunk during the day, being taken to hospital and being unruly. Closing a club early on a night like that doesn't make a jot of difference.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

What is needed for everyone from 15-50 is an ASBO type system that sentences perpetrators or drunken ASB (along with their parents if aged under 18)

Why 15-50 as a matter of interest?

This thread seems to be going a bit off topic.. Scummers drinking on the streets and abusing people is a totally different matter than pubs closing at 1am!

if anyone can remember the heineken groove weekenders that used to come to galway then you will remember the gardaí ability to all of a sudden, supposedly randomly, start enforcing archaic laws. back in the mid to late 90's,for a few years anyway, there were some pretty decent bands and dj's coming to galway for this yearly knees up festival. anyway, one year, just before the heineken weekender came to galway, judge garavan decided that niteclubs, who were obliged to give their patrons a 'substantial meal', were being negligent in their duties. he brought in a ruling that all clubs at i 11.30pm(or maybe 12) would have to shut their bars and turn off the music for 30 minutes so their customers could get their meal. i remember being at fat boy slim in the gpo the look of disbelief on people from dublin and cork and, well, everywhere, as the music was shut off and the bar closed, almost as soon as they had walked in the door. it was the most ludicrous of situations. the meal itself was some curry shlop! it was well policed by the gardaí, who im sure could have been doing something more useful with their time. anyway, im pretty sure that was the end of the heineken weekenders in galway. whatever person in authority had thought up of enforcing this ridiculous law certainly did a fine job of spoiling one of the better events that regularly came to galway.
my point being that, today, this isn't happening randomly. the gardaí are doing this for a very specific reason. maybe, as someone else pointed out, it has something to do with cuts in pay and staff and work condidtions. whatever the reason they have made their point. infact i would go as far as to say that if this is the reason then it is a gross waste of gardaí resorces, having gaurds going round to pubs checking that they close at 1am. i know alot of people here have been of the opinion that they are only enforcing the law. well how come now? were they being hugely negligent in not closing them on time before? and if there was a wink-wink agreement between them and the club and pub owners about the use of late licences, whereby they would let them flout the law and keep their establishments open late, is it right that the gaurds should be possession of that power to revert to the law, ie this ridiculous early closing time, anytime they saw fit? sure they way the whole system is set up is hugely open to abuse and corruption. in this case i wouldnt say the gaurds are enforing the law but rather dictating what laws they see fit to enforce

popepaisley1 wrote: »

if anyone can remember the heineken groove weekenders that used to come to galway then you will remember the gardaí ability to all of a sudden, supposedly randomly, start enforcing archaic laws. back in the mid to late 90's,for a few years anyway, there were some pretty decent bands and dj's coming to galway for this yearly knees up festival. anyway, one year, just before the heineken weekender came to galway, judge garavan decided that niteclubs, who were obliged to give their patrons a 'substantial meal', were being negligent in their duties. he brought in a ruling that all clubs at i 11.30pm(or maybe 12) would have to shut their bars and turn off the music for 30 minutes so their customers could get their meal. i remember being at fat boy slim in the gpo the look of disbelief on people from dublin and cork and, well, everywhere, as the music was shut off and the bar closed, almost as soon as they had walked in the door. it was the most ludicrous of situations. the meal itself was some curry shlop! it was well policed by the gardaí, who im sure could have been doing something more useful with their time. anyway, im pretty sure that was the end of the heineken weekenders in galway. whatever person in authority had thought up of enforcing this ridiculous law certainly did a fine job of spoiling one of the better events that regularly came to galway.
my point being that, today, this isn't happening randomly. the gardaí are doing this for a very specific reason. maybe, as someone else pointed out, it has something to do with cuts in pay and staff and work condidtions. whatever the reason they have made their point. infact i would go as far as to say that if this is the reason then it is a gross waste of gardaí resorces, having gaurds going round to pubs checking that they close at 1am. i know alot of people here have been of the opinion that they are only enforcing the law. well how come now? were they being hugely negligent in not closing them on time before? and if there was a wink-wink agreement between them and the club and pub owners about the use of late licences, whereby they would let them flout the law and keep their establishments open late, is it right that the gaurds should be possession of that power to revert to the law, ie this ridiculous early closing time, anytime they saw fit? sure they way the whole system is set up is hugely open to abuse and corruption. in this case i wouldnt say the gaurds are enforing the law but rather dictating what laws they see fit to enforce

Hahaha... That's funny. Guards acting as mammies, making sure everyone ate their 'meals'

".... and there'll be no more beer for you until you finish your curry "

dont think too much wrote: »

...4.40, there's very few pubs in the city that you'll pay less.. Unless you consider 3.00 for cheap pints is good value..

Ahh, I'd never return anywhere that charged me that in Galway. The max I pay in 4.00, and that's at a particular "destination" pub in Shop St.