Gardai lashed over attempt to close clubs

When the story broke last week that Gardai planned to oppose all license exemptions and effectively shut down every club and pub in the country by 1.30am, it sent shock-waves throughout the Irish entertainment industry. One was forced to wonder: how many people would this affect? Nightclub owners, barstaff, DJs, taxi-drivers, bouncers and bus-drivers would potentially all lose their jobs or a significant slice of their income.

But more than this, Irish people with no financial interest whatsoever would lose the simple right to enjoy a drink in a public place, beyond 1.30am in the morning, a right which citizens of almost every other nation in the EU take for granted.
Although last Friday’s ruling by Dublin District Court has pushed the curfew back to 2.30am, the can of worms concerning Ireland’s licensing laws is now not so much open as oozing all over the floor. Now nightclub owners, politicians, and even a public lobby group have all expressed a desire for new legislation concerning nightclubs.
Ciarán Cuffe TD, who is the Green Party’s spokesperson for Justice, was one of the first politicians to publicly oppose the Garda plan.
“I think trying to limit the times is just a pure killjoy tactic. I think a lot of people want to go out late, a lot of people finish up work late, and want to go out for a few beers, or have a bop, and that should be allowed. Somebody who wants to go clubbing till all hours in the morning, or have a beer, should be allowed to do that.
“However I think proper planning is the way to tackle the issue, and that means public transport, taxis, public toilets, making the town work better.
“I think the drinking culture is more likely to be broken by staggered closing times. Some staggering of the closing hours, perhaps on a timetabled system. Nobody benefits from hundreds of people being thrown out onto the street at the same time.”
Cuffe’s is a view which is shared by many, not least Irish nightclub owners. Jay Bourke, owner of the popular Dublin nightclub RíRá, is quick to point out that this is not a new issue.
“We have been pushing for new legislation for the last two or three years. We’ve given a submission to the Oireachtas and to Michael McDowell and the Department of Justice. We think it’s absurd that everything in Dublin is closed down at the same time, but to suggest closing things down at 1.30am, that’s even worse. It’d put all nightclubs out of business.
“We’re lobbying for what we call sequential closing, which basically involves units closing at different times so that the infrastructure of the city would be able to cope with people leaving clubs and pubs. We’ve found in all cities where sequential closing was put in place, public order offences declined.”
The 20 page submission compiled by the Irish Nightclub Industry Association (INIA) is entitled The Case For A Nightclub Licence. It has been given to both the Oireachtas and the Minister for Justice.
The INIA argues that the most urgent step which the government must take is to legislate for the very existence of nightclubs in Ireland. Currently all Irish “nightclubs” are in fact public houses. As such they are required to apply and pay for special exemptions on a monthly basis, in order that they can open late. The INIA’s examination of international licensing laws found that sequential closing has reduced public disorder in cities across the world. It blames “fixed and artificially early closing times” for the current problems in Ireland.
Bob Tweedy, owner of Waterford clubs Rubies and Ten believes current licensing laws are “draconian”.
“Bad behaviour due to drunkenness is not acceptable anymore in Irish society, but it’s through education and through awareness that this problem will be addressed, and not by applying archaic measures and restrictions. What’s causing the problem is the fact that nightclubs all finish at a certain time, and everybody exits out onto the street. I think if there was a situation where bars close at 2.30 and it was at the discretion of the club what time they actually finish, then people would leave in a more orderly fashion.”
The new 2.30am curfew has been blasted by Spirit and their Dublin superclub counterparts at the Gaiety, who’d been operating under a theatre licence that allowed them to keep going until considerably later.
“The position at the moment is we cannot offer entertainment after 2.30am,” says Gaiety MD John Costigan. “Under our theatre license we can serve drink until 3.00am. We had applied to have both run until 3.30am. The fact that we can serve until 3am is academic. Over the first weekend of the new regime we found that people drifted out once the entertainment ended. All we can do for the moment is to trade on under the new arrangements and hope we can survive long enough until an appeal is heard – though we’ve been told it could take up to two months.”
The strength of feeling from within the nightclub industry is mirrored at public level, where dissatisfaction with the current licensing laws can be measured by the volume of support for a petition set up by a group called Give Us The Night(www.giveusthenight.com). Give Us The Night are a group who claim to have formed with the aim of “creating debate and logical discussion about licensing laws.”
Their petition to oppose the original Garda plan received 17,000 signatures in just three days. John Mahon, spokesperson for Give Us The Night explains how the organization was formed.
“GiveUsTheNight.com was set up by a concerned group of volunteers, some of whom are independent promoters from around Dublin city. The reason we set up Give Us The Night was because of concern about the proposed Garda measures to introduce blanket closing at half one across the country. However despite the fact that the Gardai have not gone ahead with their plans, we still want to press on with our campaign.
“The goal for us has changed from survival to actual change. We’ve been struck by the huge groundswell of popular opinion that says Irish licensing law needs to be reformed. We’re hoping to open a proper debate and discussion about the need for a progressive licensing system in Ireland.”
In their final report in 2003, the Commission for Liquor Licensing (set up by the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell) stated “it is expected that these reforms (including a system of 24 hour opening) will lead to reduced public disorder and anti-social behaviour”. However to date the Government and the Gardai have seemed more inclined to impose stricter controls on nightclub opening hours, as illustrated by last week’s proposed blanket 1.30am closing.
With new legislation expected soon, Ireland’s licensing laws will finally come under public scrutiny, and the debate about how to tackle the problem of public disorder will become even more prominent.

How is it done elsewhere?

Scotland: Pubs in Scotland close at 12pm, with clubs usually open until 3 or 4am, though they can get special licenses to run even later, and there are early houses similar to those in Dublin.
Japan: In Japan, bars and clubs can open and close as they please. There are numerous 24 hour bars and clubs.
Canada: In Canada, bars and clubs in general have to stop serving at 2am. However, in Vancouver, there are a number of juice bars or clubs which stay open all night, with DJs or live bands. This idea was attempted in Cork recently but Gardai shut the club down immediately.
New York: Last call in NYC is usually around 3.45am, with chucking-out time occurring between 4-4.30 depending on how crowded/rowdy the place is.
Clubs and pubs in Germany are allowed to remain open for 24 hours, facilitating the countries eternally booming electronic music scene.