Halloween ‘rave’ in the grave

Plans to hold a Halloween party at Cregg Castle tonight were scuppered at Galway District Court earlier this week.

Alan Murray, of Cregg Castle, Corrandulla, had applied to the court for a public dance licence and for a special exemption to sell alcohol at the venue, being a place to which no drinks licence is attached, for a special event, from 6p.m. to 2.30am this Saturday, October 31.

Gardai objected to the application.

In reply to Judge Mary Fahy, Mr Murray said he was the licensee of Cregg Castle.

Judge Fahy then asked to see a copy of the license.

Mr Murray’s solicitor, Ronan Murphy, explained his client was not the licensee.

He said the application was done using a web-based company which provides licences from other licensed premises and he understood such a licence had been handed into court by another firm of solicitors with the application.

Court clerk, Breda Byron confirmed no such licence was on the court file.

Judge Fahy said that if the applicant did not have a licence there was no point in making the application.

Mr Murray explained that he had had another licensee lined up to hand in the licence but he let him down badly at the last minute.

Mr Murphy said that was the reason for the late application.  He said he had understood from his principal instructing solicitor that a licence had been handed in, but it obviously wasn’t.

Judge Fahy said that if there was no licence, they could not apply to have a function requiring a licensed premises.

She asked why was the application so late?

Mr Murray said he had been running Cregg Castle for the past three years, trying to renovate it.

Judge Fahy said that was fine, but the Castle was not licensed.

He agreed.

She asked him how could he come into court and give sworn evidence that he wanted to hold a function requiring a licence when the place was not licensed.

Mr Murphy explained the licence would have been from another premises and he had understood it has been handed into court.

In reply to Judge Fahy, Mr Murray said he was hoping to hold a Halloween event there on Saturday night.

“Was it going to be a rave?, the judge asked.

Mr Murray said no, it would not be a rave.

He said he understood a rave to be a event which was not organised and there were no officials involved while this event was very organised and the site had been visited by the fire officer and he had walked the land.

Mr Murphy said a lot of background work had been done.  They had a licensee on board but that licensee “pulled” their licence very late.

Judge Fahy asked “out of curiosity”, what were the State objections to the application.

Inspector Kevin Gately said Gardai were objecting to the application on a number of grounds.

He said the first issue was Gardai didn’t know if there was any insurance in place, and secondly, a similar event was held there last year, which discommoded the local residents seriously because it went on throughout the whole night.

“It was a rave,” Insp Gately concluded.

Mr Murray said they had a sit-down meeting with neighbours and local councillor, James Charity in the past week to discuss the issue.

Judge Fahy interrupted him and said he was not in a position to go ahead with the application as he had no licence and she marked the application withdrawn.