A 65-YEAR-OLD hotelier has told a judge that his business faces bankruptcy unless undertakings he gave about abating a noise nuisance are lifted or modified by the court.
Frank Conway (65), who with his wife Sheelagh owns the River House Hotel, including the Mezz Bar and Think Tank nightclub in Dublin’s Temple Bar, said he had seen a six-month turnover of more than €1 million drop to €180,000.
He told the Circuit Civil Court that his hotel business was unsaleable as a going concern. Losses had been so considerable he had to invest €350,000 of his own money.
Michael McDowell SC told Circuit Court president Mr Justice Matthew Deery that there had been a background of controversy to the licensing of the hotel and Mr Conway was seeking to have the undertakings removed from his licence.
Following objections by local residents Frank McDonald, environment editor of The Irish Times, and Michael Egan, who lives in Eustace Street, opposite the Mezz Bar, the court had last year granted a licence on foot of Mr Conway's undertakings.
These included significant reductions in the sound of music emanating from The Mezz bar and the nightclub; restrictions on occupancy levels of both; a ban on the playing of live music; independent monitoring of noise levels; the daily removal of all waste; and the removal of graffiti.
Mr McDowell, who appeared with Dorothy Collins for Mr Conway, said the undertakings had such an effect on his client’s business that he had effectively run into a financial black hole.
“He is now facing bankruptcy as a result of the curtailment of activities on the premises which are no longer economic,” he said.
Mr Conway had spent a considerable sum of money on sound-proofing the bar and nightclub to the extent that the playing of live music now would not add any noise whatsoever above the ambience noise of the locality.
Colm Mac Eochaidh SC, for McDonald and Mr Egan, said Mr Conway had made the lives of local residents “hell” for the past 10 years with the noise from the hotel and nightclub and he would do so again.
Mr Conway told the court it was impossible for him to trade within the terms of the undertakings he had given. He would lose everything he possessed if he was not allowed to trade like everyone else in the Temple Bar area.
He had spent €80,000 on soundproofing and now music going full blast in the hotel could not be heard on the street.
He told Mr MacEochaidh in cross-examination that he was not attempting to reopen and run two nightclubs, one in The Mezz bar and the other in the basement Think Tank function room.
The case continues.