Ex-Lord Mayor found drinking in office above pub during lockdown avoids conviction

Sunday World

06-05-2025

Judge Gerard Jones said they were 'two decent men' and struck the charges out after they each made €1,500 charity donations.
A FORMER Dublin Lord Mayor and his business partner found drunk in an office above a pub during lockdown have been spared convictions for breaching Covid regulations.
Dublin City Councillor Nial Ring (65) and the pub owner Liam McGrattan (70) were among five men caught by gardai in the room at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
Judge Gerard Jones said they were 'two decent men' and struck the charges out after they each made €1,500 charity donations.
Ring, from St Laurence Road, Clontarf and McGrattan of Clontarf Road, pleaded guilty to contravening Regulation 4 of the Health Act, prohibiting people from leaving their residences without a reasonable excuse. The emergency provision was brought in at the time to prevent, limit, minimise or slow the spread of Covid-19.
Liam McGrattan
Summonses for allegedly holding or taking part in an event were previously withdrawn by the prosecution.
Dublin District Court heard the incident happened on April 17, 2020 while restrictions on movement were in place.
Garda sergeant Farrah Fox said officers on patrol in Ballybough at 11pm saw the shutters come up on the Ref pub and three men leave in separate directions. When they went over, the shutters had gone back down and they could see lights on and hear people inside the building.
They banged repeatedly on the shutters and put their patrol car's flashing blue lights on in an attempt to gain the attention of those inside. They could see people drinking from bottles upstairs but nobody responded to requests to come to the door. It took 45 minutes before someone came and opened the shutters and gardai entered the premises.
There were five men in a room upstairs who were consuming alcohol and appeared to be intoxicated. They all had 'different stories' as to why they were there, Sgt Fox said.
The licence holder at the time, McGrattan, said no drinks had come from the bar downstairs. On inspecting the premises, gardai found 37 glasses in the dishwasher and saw a note beside the CCTV that stated: 'put the plug back in the camera when leaving the pub.'
Ring and McGrattan were co-owners of the office where they carry out their business, defence barrister Peter Maguire said.
'This was not in a pub… nobody was found in a pub,' he stressed.
Ring, a city councillor and former Lord Mayor had had a 'very substantial input' into what was a marginalised inner city community.'
The office was in the heart of the constituency and at the time, the accused were involved in 'the distribution of a leaflet in relation to coronavirus and how it could be controlled.'
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Weeks earlier, the taoiseach had made an order that essential workers included local authority members, he continued.
Ring as a councillor was deemed to have been an essential worker and had a certificate from the chief executive Owen Keegan, Mr Maguire said.
'If there was a breach, it was a very technical breach,' Mr Maguire said of the offence.
Ring was embarrassed and remorseful and the adverse publicity the case had already received was a 'significant penalty' for him.
McGrattan had been on the phone to PPE providers abroad and had to make calls at that hour because of the time difference, Mr Maguire said.
Neither accused was denying alcohol was consumed.
The gardai had a key to the premises where they had previously been allowed to use the toilets and to make tea while on duty nearby at Croke Park, the barrister said.
He added that McGrattan's home was 1.8km from the premises. However, he said the accused were pleading guilty and throwing themselves on the mercy of the court.
Both Ring and McGrattan were excellent and 'outstanding members of society,' and had apologised, Mr Maguire said. Judge Jones said the accused were 'two decent men' with no past criminal record. He struck the charges out after they each made donations to the Pieta House charity.
Two other co-accused were previously left without convictions after making €500 charity donations each.
Ring, an independent councillor for the north inner city, previously served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from June 2018 to June 2019.
Last year, he and his co-accused lost a High Court challenge against the State's Covid-19 regulations.