One of the best-known bars in Kenmare, Co Kerry, has been refused its annual licence renewal after a neighbour complained of noise, obstruction, cigarette butt litter and drinking on the street.
The Horseshoe Bar, Main Street, Kenmare, highly commended when the heritage town won the Tidy Town award in 2000, was refused the renewal at Kenmare District Court last Friday.
Ms Irma Weeland, the licensee, is to appeal the decision to the Circuit Court, the courts service confirmed yesterday.
The Garda had not objected to the renewal of the licence.
"It's the activities outside the door my client objects to. We do not want to stop the business inside," Mr Michael Daly's solicitor, Mr Niall Brosnan, said.
Mr Edward O'Driscoll, solicitor for Ms Weeland, said: "If my client is to give any undertaking of that nature, she will be the only licensed premises in the town to do so."
Judge Humphrey Kelleher said he was satisfied Ms Weeland had broken the law on five counts.
These included allowing drinking on a public street, obstructing the highway (the footpath was part of the highway, Judge Kelleher noted), causing a nuisance, in breach of planning (by having tables and chairs on the pavement without a licence from the council) and permitting breaches of the Litter Act.
Mr Daly told the court he lived next door to the Horseshoe Bar. During the summer, street drinking took place from early afternoon, with people sitting on the bonnets of cars and on the kerbside outside his door.
"They are very loud. My two young children go to bed at 8 p.m. and they are often disturbed and woken," he said.
Customers sat on his doorstep. "The front of the Horseshoe Bar resembles a beer garden," Mr Daly said. Up to 30 people could be found drinking on the pavement during the summer.
Ms Weeland said she lived with her husband and two children at 3 Main Street. Other premises had furniture on the street too, she said.
There had been cigarette butts on the street, but she now swept them up. People brought glasses from neighbouring premises and left them on the street, she said.