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Irish Times
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Late-night drinking at Puck Fair survives court challenge with pubs to stay open until 3am
Puck Fair , one of Ireland's oldest festivals, will see its late-night drinking tradition survive for 2025 after an appeal by publicans in Killorglin succeeded at the Circuit Court in Killarney on Tuesday. The Co Kerry festival sees a goat crowned king for three days and three nights, with daytime activities and street entertainment alongside traditional late opening at pubs. Fourteen Killorglin publicans applied on July 10th to the District Court, sitting in Cahersiveen, for the annual special exemption to their licences over the three principal nights of the August event, known as Gathering (August 10th), Fair (August 11th) and Scattering (12th) However, gardaí objected on the grounds of straitened resources. District Court judge David Waters set closing time at 2am in line with the Garda submission, saying the fair was not all about drinking. READ MORE On Tuesday in the Circuit Court in Killarney, Judge Terence O'Sullivan said he saw no grounds to shorten Puck Fair's traditional drinking time. The fair dates to 1603, the last year of the reign of King James I of England, Judge O'Sullivan noted. Since the 1970s, the pub closing time at Puck has been 3am. 'Prior to that, there was a 24-hour opening of the pubs in Killorglin,' barrister Katie O'Connell, instructed by solicitor John O'Dwyer, had told the court. All-day and family activities took place and afterwards people would go for a drink, she said. Street entertainment ended at midnight and then the fair volunteers would like to go for a drink to relax and enjoy themselves. Puck Fair was 'bigger than Christmas' for people from the region, the barrister said. The statue of the Puck Goat sits at the entrance to the town and economically the festival is important to Killorglin. Only the gardaí, not the locals, had objected, Ms O'Connell added. Garda Supt John Ryan said Garda objections were twofold. The pubs received a 2am exemption the night before Puck Fair and gardaí felt four nights to 2am was sufficient; and having pubs open to 3am required additional police resources, making the reduction reasonable, he said. State solicitor Diane Reidy said the issue was one of resources, not public order, and Puck Fair was the only festival in Kerry seeking to open to 3am. In his decision, Judge O'Sullivan said the traditional opening had been to 3am, and there was no evidence of anyone in the locality objecting on noise or nuisance. He said he did not see any grounds to depart from the tradition.
Irish Times
26-05-2025
- Irish Times
Woman with conviction for falsely alleging sexual assault has personal injuries case thrown out of court
A woman who has already spent six months in jail for falsely accusing a man of sexual assault, has had a personal injuries claim rejected by the Circuit Civil Court after the judge said her evidence had again been found to be unreliable. Throwing out riding instructor Denise Cribbin's €60,000 claim for injuries she allegedly suffered in a rear-ending traffic accident, Judge Terence O'Sullivan told her she just could not be trusted to tell the truth. Defence barrister Shane English told Cribbin she had persistently lied under oath about a minimal impact accident on the M50 in 2018 and had failed to tell the judge about a previous accident in 2016 after which she had falsely accused a man, who had claimed damages against her, of causing the accident by sexually assaulting her. Cribbin served six months of a 12 month sentence in prison. READ MORE 'Her evidence has been absolutely filleted by Mr English in the course of his cross-examination and is not reliable,' Judge O'Sullivan said when dismissing her case and awarding costs against her in relation to the 2018 collision. Cribbin was described as the manager of a leisure horse riding business at The Paddocks, Ballyedmonduff Road, Woodside, Sandyford, Dublin 18 and of Stepaside, Co Wicklow. In March 2022 Cribbin, now aged 48, was jailed for a year by the Court of Appeal after the Director of Public Prosecutions had successfully claimed an earlier two-year wholly suspended sentence following her admission of having made a false sexual assault allegation against a passenger in her car was too light. Both Cribben and the injured party had been occupants of the car which belonged to her and which she had been driving. She had claimed in a statement to gardaí that the injured party, who successfully sued her for €35,000 damages, had caused the accident by sexually assaulting her in her car, an allegation gardaí later found to be false and to which Cribbin pleaded guilty when charged. In today's case Cribbin had sued motorist Sharon McConnell, of Old Connell Weir, Co Kildare, and her insurers Allianz for €60,000 damages arising out of what was described as a minimal impact between their cars in traffic on the M50. Cribbin claimed she had injured her left knee in the accident and had chipped two of her teeth when her face had struck the steering wheel. Mr English, who appeared with Patrick Brady of Newman Solicitors, told Cribbin she had lied to the court about the accident and failed to produce any evidence of treatments for her alleged injuries. Judge O'Sullivan said Ms Cribbin was not trustworthy and had not come before the court with a trustworthy reputation. 'I do not find it credible that the impact was such as to smash her face into the steering wheel and chip two of her teeth,' the judge said. He said there had been no evidence of damage to either car and he was very unhappy with the case.
