Occupiers of former Liberties pub have three days to leave, court rules

High Court Reporters

The High Court has ordered that two men, who are part of the occupation of a former pub in Dublin's Liberties, should leave within three days, along with any unknown persons involved.

The court also heard that despite a court order last week requiring Eoghan Lynch and Sean Doyle not to invite or allow other people into the Ardee House, Chamber Street, there had been numerous breaches of the order, with up to 40 more people on the premises on one occasion.

The order was made after the court was provided with an engineer's report stating the building was in a dangerous state, and it was also uninsured. There is a plan to replace the property with apartments.

The property, last used as a pub in 2011, is owned by Black Sheep Investments Ltd, which was assigned the premises in 2016 after the Teeling Whiskey group bought it.

Black Sheep sought injunctions that the two defendants and all other "persons unknown in occupation" vacate the premises and cease trespass.

The case came before Judge Brian Cregan last week, who varied an earlier injunction and imposed a requirement that no members of the public be allowed on the premises pending further order.

On Thursday, the judge was told by Lyndon MacCann SC, for Black Sheep, that there had been “numerous breaches” of the order with the property being used as a café and to hold social events, including poetry workshops and the showing of films.

The events were advertised on social media, he said.

Counsel also said the occupation followed a break-in of the property, and there may be criminal consequences not just for those who broke in but also for those who stay there under the Prohibition of Forcible Entry and Occupation Act 1971.

The court heard neither Doyle nor Lynch, who are members of the Revolutionary Housing League, had taken up the opportunity to file an affidavit in response to the trespass claim.

However, Doyle read out a prepared statement in which he made what the judge described as political rather than legal arguments.

Doyle said the court's order had been considered by "our committee" and that to comply with it would have been "tantamount to paralysis of our objectives, our aims and our sense of social justice".

He spoke of the failure of the system to deal with the homeless crisis, which included people dying on steps and children growing up without the sanctuary of a home.

He disputed the claim that his group had committed a criminal act of forcible entry and trespass on the building. What was done was not a break-in but the "acquisition" of a vacant property, he said.

He also said that, having listened to MacCann, it seemed the "State has completely lost any kind of morality whatsoever".

He further said the pub premises had been vacant for 15 to 16 years and the engineer's report on its condition was a "prerequisite to demolition and to build fancy units that the people of the Liberties could not afford". He suggested it be donated to the community.

Judge Cregan said there was a right to private property as voted for by the people in the 1937 Constitution.

He noted Doyle's motivation was driven by social justice and the plight of homeless people in the city.

But the issues he raised were political, and the court was engaged in the administration of justice under the law as it stands, he said.

Nothing in the statement read by Doyle contested Black Sheep's title to the property, he said.

He was satisfied to extend the injunction, pending hearing of the full action, restraining trespass, requiring the defendants to give up possession, that they not make any alterations, and not permit anyone else into the premises

He noted MacCann may now bring an application to enforce his order. "But I hope it will not come to that", he said.

They should vacate the property within three days, he said.

He refused MacCann's application for costs against the defendants.