Publicans in Killorglin, Co Kerry, have been granted permission to serve alcohol until 3am during the Puck Fair festival following an appeal.
On 10 July, at the District Court of Killorglin sitting in Cahersiveen, 14 publicans applied for a special exemption over the three principal nights of the festival on 10, 11 and 12 August.
However, gardaí objected on the grounds of straitened resources. District Court Judge David Waters set the closing at 2am, in line with the garda submission, saying the fair was not all about drinking.
Today in the Circuit Court in Killarney, Judge Terence O'Sullivan said he saw no grounds to shorten Puck Fair’s traditional drinking time of 3am.
'Bigger than Christmas'
The Puck Fair, which is one of Ireland’s oldest festivals, sees a goat crowned king for three days and three nights.
The festival dates back to 1603, the last year of the reign of King James I of England, Judge O’Sullivan noted.
Since the 1970s, the pub closing time during the festival was 3am.
"Prior to that, there was a 24-hour opening of the pubs in Killorglin," barrister Katie O’Connell, instructed by solicitor John O’Dwyer, had told the court.
Family activities took place during the day and afterwards people would go for a drink, the court heard. Street entertainment ended at midnight and then fair volunteers would like to go for a drink to relax and enjoy themselves, Ms O’Connell said.
The barrister said the Puck Fair was "bigger than Christmas" for people from the region.
She said the status of the festival was "chipping away".
Only the gardaí, not the locals, had objected, Ms O'Connell also said.
Gda Supt John Ryan of Killarney was called to give evidence by State solicitor Diane Reidy. Supt Ryan said the garda objections were two-fold.
Pubs were given an exemption to open to 2am the night preceding Puck Fair and the garda felt that four nights to 2am would be sufficient, given the street entertainment finished at midnight.
Having pubs open to 3am needed additional police resources, he said, and he felt it was reasonable to reduce it by the hour.
Cross-examined by Ms O’Connell, Supt Ryan agreed the fair was "the lifeblood of Killorglin".
Ms O’Connell also told Judge O’Sullivan that organisers of the festival did not want everyone spilling out from the pubs at 2am and the extra hour would mean there was safer dispersal and organisation of buses and taxis.
"It’s always been 3am, nothing warrants the reduction," she said.
While she appreciated that the extra garda resources were paid for through taxes, she added that the Killorglin community were also taxpayers.
The festival organisers contributed €3,000 to the resources of the gardaí, she said.
"Judge Waters thought the front line (policing) should trump anything else," Ms O'Connell said.
State solicitor Diane Reidy said the issue was one of resources, not public order and the Puck Fair was the only festival in Kerry seeking to open to 3am.
"It’s the proper allocation of resources and the additional strain on garda resources to police it," Ms Reidy said.
In his decision, delivered after a recess to look at the legislation, Judge O’Sullivan said the traditional opening had been to 3am, and there was no evidence of anyone in the locality objecting on noise or nuisance.
"In reality, the objection is about the pressure on police resources without any particular incident," the judge said.
Judge O’Sullivan said he appreciated the District Court Judge had "more connection" with the locality than himself, but he did not see any grounds to depart from the tradition, he said, granting the exemptions to 3am over three nights.
