A bar in Listowel, Co Kerry, has been ordered to close for two days after being convicted of discrimination when it refused to serve a member of the Traveller community in the town.
The temporary closure order is thought to be the first in Ireland under the Equal Status and Intoxicating Liquor Acts.
The Mighty Dollar bar in Market Street was found to have breached the Equal Status Act 2000 as amended by Section 19 of the Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003, after refusing to serve Leonard Evans (23), a local settled Traveller in February 2004. Sentence was handed down on Thursday at Listowel District Court.
Yesterday Mr Evans, of Liosarda, Listowel, a married father of two, claimed Travellers were regularly refused service in bars in the town. He said the situation had worsened since Travellers staged protests earlier this year. Now only two bars served Travellers and they did so in limited numbers.
Vintners spokesmen in Listowel have denied there is a ban on Travellers in the town's 38 public houses.
Mr Evans welcomed the temporary closure order. "I am delighted. They [pubs in Ireland] are getting off so lightly. I have been told this is the first time in Ireland such an order has been made."
He said a number of cases against bars in Co Kerry were pending, and he was bringing a case against a restaurant in the county which refused to serve him a meal at lunchtime.
Judge Aingeal Ní Chondúin ordered the pub to close for two days within the next 30 days.