Famous restaurant issued with closure order due to ‘immediate threat to public health'
A GALWAY restaurant which raised more than €116,000 in online donations to launch a legal challenge against Covid certs, was issued with a closure order earlier this month due to food safety concerns.
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland issued an immediate closure order against Il Vicolo on Dominic Street Lower on June 6th after inspectors visited the premises.
The FSAI issue issued the closure order due to a 'grave and immediate danger to pubic health' under the Food Safety Authority Act of 1988.
Il Vicolo restaurant in Galway
Today's News in 90 Seconds - June 14 2025
The FSAI have yet to publish full details of the reasons for closing the premises but will release a full report on it next month.
The restaurant was allowed to reopen on June 8th after addressing the issued raised by inspectors.
The Sunday World contacted Il Vicolo for comment but they had not responded at time of publishing.
The award-winning restaurant located in the historic Bridge Mills building overlooking the River Corrib hit the headlines during Covid when the launched an online fundraising to take a legal challenge against covid restrictions.
The HSE ordered the restaurant to close for three days in 2021 after repeatedly breaching regulations for indoor dining.
They launched an online campaign to raise funds to mount a legal challenge over Covid regulations and raised €116,839 in donations from members of the public.
They wanted to challenge the implementation of the EU Digital Covid-19 Certificate on the grounds of discrimination and breach of privacy law.
They said due to their refusal to comply they were constantly inspected by HSE compliance officers and criticised the "divisive law" describing it as "legally, morally, and ethically wrong".
They later closed down the fundraising page after it had reached almost €120,000 and restrictions were lifted.
'With the recent lifting of the restriction, our legal challenge needs to be reconfigured and/or varied somewhat since the immediate threat of closure is no longer in issue,' restaurant owner Gerry McMahon and manager Breffni Archer said in an updated statement at the time.
'The legislative measures were brought in for one reason, and one reason only. The Vaccine Pass was never about "proof of immunity" for if it had been, the alternative of testing would have been included.'
'It has since been admitted by mainstreamers (or mainstreamists) that the Vaccine Pass legislation was designed to increase vaccine uptake. This is why the option of testing was removed.'
In 2022 the restaurant told Galway Beo that they used "most of the money to cover solicitors and court costs' and decided to donate the remaining money to Galway Fire Service.
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