NiallOK’s Blog

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I have to go to court this week… but no, I haven’t done anything wrong. I’ll explain,…

I had a brief ‘dabbling’ with the courts system a good few years ago when I was arrested by a rookie garda in Dublin city centre. At the time, I was in a group of people walking up a main street in the city. Without going into too much detail, a few guys in our group (whom I didn’t know) started causing hassle with some club bouncers, who then called the gardaí - a number of whom showed up and started - naturally - asking us to clear away from the area.

Having no wish to get in trouble, I started to leave - but stopped for a chat with another of the gardaí present, actually asking him to explain a section of a legal act that I was curious about - and that another garda had quoted me previously - and he was happy to oblige, explaining it in detail. I got the feeling from him that he realised that I was just a bystander, not involved in the incident at the club door, but while he was chatting with me, the first garda - a trainee - the one who had originally instructed me to move on - came over and formally arrested me for being drunk and disorderly and not moving on when asked. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes… well I mean “shot” in the photographic sense.

Today, a large number of local Gardaí were on hand for photo-shoots and interiviews and to give out a few hundred leaflets in the streets of Swords in Co. Dublin. The reason behind it is their ongoing investigation into the attack which took place in the early hours of last Sunday morning in Jacko Park in the town, during which a 17-year-old girl was sexually assaulted leaving her with serious head and facial injuries. Crimestoppers are offering a €10,000 reward to track down the culprit - who is aged between 18 and 25 years of age, is 5ft 5ins to 5ft 8ins in height, has dark hair and sallow skin, and was wearing a black baseball cap and a black zipped hoodie at the time. Plenty of media people were present, with newspaper photographers, TV3 reporters and an interviewer from FM104 (the girl in black with the red mic) all there when I was passing.

More info from the Irish times, here. Hopefully something good will come from this and Gardaí will get some solid leads and find the asshole in question. Swords Gardaí can be contacted at 01-666 4700 or via the free Garda Confidential Number 1-800-666-111.

New limits and restrictions have come in on the sale of alcohol, with off-licenses now being forced to close at 10pm.

I’m currently managing a bar in Co. Dublin and I’m still not 100% certain how it will affect us directly. We don’t run a separate off-license outlet but we do sell cans of beer and nagans/shoulders of spirits from the bar for take-away. I’m presuming the new law will apply there meaning we will no longer be able to do it after 10pm although I don’t see any specific mention of bars in what I’ve read about the new laws - only off-licenses.

I’m not sure if this new restriction is supposed to actually HELP pubs (encouraging people to go to the pub to drink instead of stocking up at the offie and drinking at home) but it certainly won’t help our business if we have to comply with it considering most of our ‘take-out’ trade takes place at the end of the night.

[UPDATE] Just got word back from the bar owner who consulted his “very epensive solicitor”. I was right, of course,- we can’t sell anything for take-out after 10pm. Darnit…

As reported on RTÉ News, it’s the end of the road for (unaccompanied) unlicensed drivers as it’s now illegal (as of midnight, Monday night) to drive on your own unless you’re fully licensed - and damn right too.

That’s not to say that Irish people won’t moan about this - sure where would we be if we didn’t have something to moan about?
(… Jersey?) One common excuse is bound to be the old “we didn’t get enough warning” chestnut which, I’m afraid, is bollocks. The longest driving test back-log that I’ve heard of was 6-8 weeks (it’s come down a LOT recently) and this new law was announced over 6 months ago, so the truth behind that excuse was being too forgetful or lazy to bother applying for the test not not having enough time !

As I said last October, I’m glad I have my full license myself. I felt sorry for learner drivers back then, but that was because it seemed as if the laws were going to be introduced very quickly and not in fact many months later. I don’t feel sorry for them now as they’ve had a more than adequate chance to sort themselves out with a test.

We’ve always had one of the most lax “ah sure it’s grand” style attitudes towards learner driver laws in the world. As I said in a recent TV interview, it’s always been a case of “just send away for the piece of paper, it arrives in the post and out you go on the road”. This law plugs a gap that has been open for far too long. I’m sure it’ll reduce the number of cars on the roads (better for the environment!) and will annoy a lot of people - well, unlicensed drivers (who have no excuse anyway…) but as long as it helps reduce the level of carnage, it’s worth it.

In related news, I’m closing ShiteDrivers.com. The domain name is due to expire on July 18th and unless someone takes it off my hands well before that, that’s the end of it.