Madam, - Your report of the decision of Judge James O'Connor at Cahirciveen District Court to grant late-night exemptions for the forthcoming Puck Fair (The Irish Times, July 20th) makes extremely disappointing reading.
In rejecting Garda objections to the granting of the exemptions until 3 am, the judge is said to have remarked that during last year's fair he had "walked the streets of Cahirciveen at 2.30am and saw no thuggery". From that statement we can only infer that the decision to grant the exemptions was due to the fact that Justice O'Connor did not witness any drink-related public order offences on the occasion of his nocturnal research exercise.
However, there are some other factors that the good justice might have taken into account before he dismissed the objections of local gardaí to the exemptions. It would be interesting to know if he took due cognisance of the fact that alcohol misuse lies at the root of many of the most acute problems besetting Irish society at this time. It is a factor in a significant number of homicides, in 45 per cent of road traffic deaths, in 60 per cent of suicides and 60 per cent of rapes, as well as being a major cause of marital breakdown, of mental illness in children and young adults and in unwanted pregnancies.
If the judge had acknowledged the growing crisis in relation to alcohol abuse, he might have had some hesitation in granting the exemptions that will allow Killorglin's publicans to keep their premises open until 3am.
The judge also remarked that Puck Fair was "one of the most important fairs in the country" and that he would "not hear any further objections from the Garda authorities to the granting of exemptions". In doing so, he has sent out the message that nothing must interfere with our long-cherished tradition having a legally and widely available potent drug as an essential element of almost every social gathering in this country. That such a message should come from a person of standing in the community beggars belief.
Judge O'Connor's peremptory dismissal of the clearly legitimate concerns of the Killorglin gardaí was in my view an affront to the professionalism, hard work and dedication of the many men and women in the force who regularly see the often times tragic consequences of alcohol in the course of their working days. - Yours, etc,
Dr MICHAEL LOFTUS, Main Street, Crossmolina, Co Mayo.