‘GOOD TIME’ 

Golfgate trial – Barman says he served drinks to around 30 members of Oireachtas until early hours after dinner

• 21:38, 7 Jan 2022
• Updated: 21:38, 7 Jan 2022

A FORMER barman has told the Golfgate trial he served drinks until the early hours.

Anthony Curran said he poured beverages for around 30 members of the Oireachtas Golf Society in the residents’ bar of the Station House Hotel, in Clifden, Co Galway, after the dinner ended.

Mr Curran — who made drinks until 2.30am when he was told to stop serving — said guests were “standing around, drinking and chatting and singing”.

He told the court: “They were having a good time.”

He added: “We were serving drink. People were coming up to the counter to get drinks.”

He said he cleared glasses from the tables during the dinner and used an open section of the partition to pass between both rooms.

He told the court it appeared everyone in the bar knew each other.  

TD Noel Grealish, ­former senator Donie Cassidy and John Sweeney and his son James, 32, who own and run the hotel, are accused of illegally holding the event in August 2020. It was attended by 81 people, including ex-Attorney General Seamus Woulfe.

Prosecutor Eoghan Cole said it is the State’s case that Covid laws were breached as over 50 people attended.