Up to 30 members of Golf Society retired to resident’s bar after event, court told

A former barman told a court on Friday he served drinks to about 30 members of the Oireachtas Golf Society who retired to the resident’s bar of the Clifden Station House Hotel until 2.30am following a dinner held in the hotel earlier.

“They were all standing around, drinking, chatting and singing. They were having a good time,” Anthony Curran said while giving evidence on the second day to the ‘Golfgate’ hearing at Galway District Court.

Independent TD Noel Grealish and former Fianna Fáil senator Donie Cassidy, along with hoteliers John Sweeney and James Sweeney, each deny they organised an Oireachtas Golf Society event in breach of pandemic restrictions at the Station House Hotel in Clifden on August 19th, 2020.

Mr Curran, who is in his early twenties, said he had worked as a part-time barman and waiter at the hotel since 2016 but no longer worked since last year.

He recalled serving and clearing glasses from tables at the function and recalled using a section of a partition between two rooms which was opened to allow staff pass between both areas.

He recalled seeing people talking at tables. After the event ended most people left the hotel but a number stayed on, he said.

“Thirty people ended up in the residents’ hotel bar. They were standing around in groups, drinking, chatting and singing, after the event,” Mr Curran said in reply to Mr Eoghan Cole BL, prosecuting.

When asked by Mr Cole how long the guests stayed in the residents’ bar, Mr Curran replied: “Until about 2.30am when we were told to stop serving them.”

He confirmed the residents’ bar, where he worked with another barman, Jack Folan, was the only bar in the hotel at the time, while the Signal bar was the public bar, located in an adjacent building.

“In relation to this residents’ bar, what did you see happening there?” Mr Cole asked.

“We were serving drink. People were coming up to the counter to get drinks,” he said.

He confirmed to Mr Cole that there was no table service in the residents’ bar.

Colm Smyth SC, for Mr Cassidy, put it to him that the hotel was full to capacity with guests of all kinds, and not just those attending the Golf Society function.

Residents, he said, would be entitled to be catered for in the residents’ bar. “Not everybody in the bar may have been at the Golf ‘do’,” he suggested to witness.

“From what I could see, everyone in the residents’ bar knew each other,” Mr Curran replied.