This article is from page 12 of the 2006-12-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A DISTRICT court decision to cut back opening hours at a Lahinch nightclub has been upheld in the Circuit Court.
Last month, Judge Joseph Mangan granted an exemption at The Coast nightclub, until 1.30am, in the District Court. This is 30 minutes earlier than the normal exemption.
He made the ruling, after dealing with several Lahinch public order cases, in court. On that occasion, he said, “If a marked improvement is apparent some time in the future, the court may consider extending them to 2am. If there is no marked improvement, the court may consider cutting them back further.”
This decision was appealed to the Circuit Court last week by The Coast and Judge Carroll Moran upheld the decision made almost three weeks earlier.
While a spokesperson for The Coast was unavailable for comment when contacted by The Clare People yesterday, garda sources said they were happy with the court ruling. They are hopeful that this will help in the fight against crime in Lahinch, on weekend nights. Serious public order issues have been a concern to locals over the past few years.
Chairman of Lahinch Community Council, Donogh O’Loghlin – who opposed the appeal by The Coast in court – said he was pleased that the decision was upheld.
“I am delighted. It is not going to solve anything, but at least it puts the ball back in their – nightclub and publicans – court, to do something about it. Some publicans make more money out of the discos as young people are in the pubs before the discos open,” he said. “It won’t solve the public order issue but it should help it a little bit,” he said.
Mr O’Loghlin has urged nightclub proprietors and publicans to meet up, to discuss the public order issue in Lahinch.
He said the Community Council is also pledging to lobby politicians, in an effort to prevent capacity numbers at nightclubs being increased – capacity increased substantially last year, much to the concern of locals.
Mr O’Loghlin said there are insufficient gardaí available to patrol the streets of Lahinch and numbers allowed in nightclubs should not be allowed to increase.
“There are four gardaí to deal with 1,000 kids on the street. You can do nothing. There is a health and safety issue outside the discos as much as inside,” he said.